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Mortgage brokers have slased through the $100 billion barrier of home loans written during the 2012 calendar year, according to research of the top 16 aggregators in the industry by research group comparator.
The research also shows mortgage brokers originated more than 40% of all new residential lending during 2012.
Brokers experienced a surge in lending volumes during the December quarter of 2012, with 5.5% growth from $25.6bn to $27.2bn.
MFAA CEO, Phil Naylor, says he believes an unpredictable economic environment has seen many borrowers turn to brokers for guidance
“I think brokers thrive when there’re periods of uncertainty and that’s certainly the case at the moment. Brokers are able to give [clients] good credit advice in changing economic circumstances.”
That said, he believes the figures will only go up in 2013, regardless of whether or not the state of the economy improves.
“The annual figures show that the broker channel is now a vital avenue for banks and other lenders to generate home loan business and market share growth…All the signs in the current environment show the broker environment is thriving – we absolutely expect those figures to increase.”
The research also shows that the average value of home loans originated by brokers totals $337,000, roughly the average size for a home loan in Australia.
Naylor says this demonstrates that it’s not necessarily crucial for brokers to target specific borrower groups.
“If you go to individual brokers, they may target, but I think overall pretty well everyone is a broker customer.”
