What Does It Take to Be Named Australia's Commercial Broker of the Year?

QUICK ANSWER

Paul Frazis of George Capital Finance Solutions was named Commercial Broker of the Year at The Adviser's Australian Broking Awards 2026. The category is judged nationally across the whole broking industry and recognises commercial finance specifically - acquisitions, development funding, working capital, commercial property and equipment. It assesses the complexity of transactions structured, the outcomes delivered for business clients, and the depth of expertise applied, rather than volume alone.

Paul Frazis has been named Commercial Broker of the Year at the Australian Broking Awards 2026, run by The Adviser. It is the national award for commercial broking, judged across the entire industry.

What is the Commercial Broker of the Year award?

The Australian Broking Awards are among the longest-running awards in Australian mortgage and finance broking. The Commercial Broker of the Year category recognises brokers working specifically in commercial finance rather than residential lending.

That distinction matters. Residential broking and commercial broking are different disciplines. A residential application is largely a question of whether a borrower can service a loan against a property. A commercial transaction can involve multiple entities, trading history, asset security, cash flow cycles, development timelines and lender appetite that shifts by sector and by month.

The category is judged nationally, which means the field includes brokers from every state and from businesses of every size.

What does a commercial finance broker actually do?

Commercial broking covers the finance behind business activity rather than home ownership. In practice that means:

Acquisitions

Funding the purchase of a business, a commercial property or a major asset - structured so the purchase is affordable in the way the business actually generates income.

Development funding

Finance for property development, where funding is drawn in stages against progress and the structure has to match the build timeline.

Working capital

Facilities that cover the gap between money going out and money coming in - the most common pressure point for businesses that are growing rather than struggling.

Refinancing and restructuring

Reorganising existing borrowing so it reflects what a business is doing now rather than what it was doing when the facilities were first put in place.

Equipment and asset finance

Funding vehicles, plant, machinery and fit-outs, where the choice of facility affects cash flow as much as the purchase price does.

Why is commercial finance harder to arrange than a home loan?

Because a business is harder to read than a salary.

A residential lender is assessing a relatively standard picture - income, expenses, existing debts, a property. A commercial lender is assessing an operating business, and businesses are rarely tidy. Ownership may sit across several entities. Property may be held in one name and trading conducted in another. Family members may appear on the books. Income may be seasonal or project-based.

None of that makes a business risky. It makes it complicated. But lending policy is built to assess categories, and a business that does not fit a category can be treated as a risk it is not.

The work of a commercial broker is largely the work of translating a business into terms a lender can assess accurately - and knowing which lender will read it properly in the first place.

What does experience inside a bank change?

Paul Frazis came to broking after years working inside the banking system. That background changes the starting point of a transaction.

Knowing how a file is actually assessed - what a credit team looks for, where hesitation comes from, which parts of a submission carry weight - means a transaction can be structured for that assessment from the beginning rather than corrected once it has already been questioned.

It also informs lender selection. Working across more than 30 lenders is only useful if you know which of them will look at a particular business and see what is genuinely there.

What does this award mean for clients?

Practically, it means the commercial desk at George Capital Finance Solutions has been assessed against the national field and found to be the strongest in its category.

More usefully, it reflects the kind of work the category rewards: transactions where the structure was the reason the deal worked, and where a business ended up with finance suited to what it was actually trying to do.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Who won Commercial Broker of the Year at the Australian Broking Awards 2026?

Paul Frazis of George Capital Finance Solutions was named Commercial Broker of the Year at the Australian Broking Awards 2026, run by The Adviser.

What are the Australian Broking Awards?

The Australian Broking Awards are national awards for the Australian mortgage and finance broking industry, run by industry publication The Adviser. Categories cover residential and commercial broking, brokerages, and industry professionals.

What is the difference between a commercial broker and a mortgage broker?

A mortgage broker generally arranges residential home loans. A commercial finance broker arranges funding for business activity - acquisitions, development, working capital, commercial property and equipment. The assessment process, the lender panel and the structuring involved all differ.

What types of finance does a commercial broker arrange?

Commercial property finance, business acquisition funding, property development finance, working capital facilities, equipment and asset finance, and the refinancing or restructuring of existing business borrowing.

Why do commercial finance applications get declined when the numbers look fine?

Commercial lending policy assesses categories as well as capacity. A business with multiple entities, non-standard ownership structures or irregular income can fall outside a lender's standard policy despite trading strongly. Different lenders take different positions, so a decline from one is not a conclusion about the business.

ABOUT

George Capital Finance Solutions is a Sydney-based mortgage broking, debt advisory and commercial finance business, founded by George Frazis. The business works with clients across Australia and holds four Gold and one Silver Stevie Award from the 2026 International Business Awards.

Level 3, 219 Castlereagh Street, Sydney NSW 2000. Telephone (02) 9072 9288.

General information only. Not financial advice. This article does not take your objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Individual outcomes depend on individual circumstances. Lending policy varies between lenders and is subject to change.