In a move to raise its market share in the Sydney residential investment property market, Bendigo Bank and
Adelaide Bank are seconding 34 mortgage managers and thousands of brokers in the city.
Confidential correspondence revealed that mortgage managers such as Mortgage House and Bluebay Home Loans (Perth), both of whom provide self-branded mortgages financed by Adelaide Bank, have been instructed to increase the loan-to-value ratio on Sydney metropolitan borrowers from 80 per cent to 90 per cent.
The bid to make an impact in the city markets is instigated by consumer divisions at Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank, with an expansion into Melbourne also anticipated later in the year.
Adelaide Bank distribution broker Fons Caminiti confirmed the move, saying, "We are fully committed to our brokers and – in turn – their clients. We are keen to ensure we prudently and responsibly engage where appropriate such as [the] Sydney investor market. We will continue to provide competitive fully-featured products through our broker distribution."
Bruce Brammall of Melbourne-based Bruce Brammall Lending offered
Australian Broker a broker’s point of view on the announcement, hinting that Adelaide Bank and Bendigo Bank would need an additional point of difference to attract business.
“You’ve got to remember that most brokers already have a large panel of lenders to select from,” said Brammall, “although they will have a handful of lenders that they predominately use most of the time because they are very comfortable with their products and policy, it’s just the way it is. So anything new to the market has to be pretty different, great for their client, and easy to understand and work with.
“One of the things [Adelaide and Bendigo] are doing right is thinking about how they will manage the surge in increased loan applications and the systems that they have in place. So many times banks don’t have these systems in place and all that happens is loan turn around times get massively pushed out, which creates pressure and frustration for both the client and broker. All round it looks like bad service when that happens.”
