Finance brokers originated at least $50.19bn in new home loans (including home loan refinancing) during the last three months of 2016, data from research group has Comparator shown. This marks the first time that broker originated lending has exceed $50bn in a quarter.
The figure helped drive 2016’s total home loan lending figure to a record $188.5bn – the highest value since data has been collected.
The Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (
MFAA) said that figures from 19 brokers groups and aggregators show that more than half (51.9%) of new residential loans during the last quarter of 2016 were originated by mortgage brokers, and although this is slightly lower than the 53.6% settled during the preceding quarter, it matches the 51.8% in the last four months of 2015.
“The market share result for the end quarter of 2016 is just slightly ahead of the comparative figure for 2015, showing that consumers still support the broker position with the majority of residential lending,” said MFAA CEO
Mike Felton.
“The softening in market share is a seasonal trend experienced since 2014 and does not reflect any change in brokers’ customer satisfaction. The past three December quarters have shown an adjustment in share followed by a rise in subsequent quarters,” he added.
Felton said that brokers have an established role on the investor side of the market, and this segment of borrowers has been affected by recent changes in lending restrictions.
“The ABS [Australian Bureau of Statistics] data also shows a flattening of the housing market with an overall 0.5% decrease in the number of settlements and a 1.1% increase in value of settlements for the 6 months ended September 2016. The December quarter result, however still reflects solid consumer support for brokers in Australia in the residential lending sector.”
