Mortgage brokers are in an advantageous position to be the major beneficiaries of the shifting lending landscape. A new survey has revealed that refinancers are the most likely to engage the services of a broker, while investors are the least likely.
Three quarters (75%) of consumers looking to refinance will consider using a mortgage broker, according to Digital Finance Analytics’ (DFA) latest
Property Imperative report. Meanwhile, just over one third (36%) of investors would consider going to a broker to organise their home loan.
This is good news for brokers who will now benefit from the influx of refinancers as lenders drop rates to compete harder for owner-occupier market share in the wake of APRA’s tightening of residential investment lending. According to
The Property Imperative report, there are around 673,000 households considering refinancing an existing loan, of which 79% relate to an owner occupied property - and that is likely to grow.
“The growth in refinancing can be expected to continue as the focus turns from investment lending to owner occupied new and refinance loans. There are a number of discounted offers for refinancing currently available. We note that a smaller proportion are refinancing to a fixed rate,” the report noted.
While only 36% of investors overall indicated they would consider using a mortgage broker, more than half (53%) of portfolio investors – those who maintain a basket of investment properties – would use a broker, compared to 39% of solo investors.
Interestingly, mortgage brokers are the adviser of choice when it comes to investing in residential property via
SMSFs. Just over one in five (21%) of
SMSF trustees went to a mortgage broker, while 14% sought advice from an accountant, 11% from a real estate agent and 7% from a financial planner. However, the majority of
SMSF trustees (23%) sourced advice to invest in property from online information.
Just over half (55%) of first time buyers will consider using a mortgage broker, according to the report.
