Major franchise
Aussie Home Loans had a record-breaking 2015 after posting a record number of mortgage settlements.
Aussie’s 1,350 brokers settled over $21 billion in loan over the calendar year, almost $3 billion higher than 2014. Growth was achieved across the board with Aussie-owned aggregator
nMB and Aussie’s retail and mobile broker channels all breaking their previous records.
However, Aussie’s retail channel was the main driver of the group’s record year with an 18% growth in total loan settlements. The retail channel is now settling around $1 billion per month and the chief executive of Aussie, James Symond, says it is showing no signs of slowing.
“Just over a decade ago we didn’t even have a single [retail] store – and now it’s absolutely thriving and showing no signs of slowing down as we head toward our 200th purpose built store within the next six months,” he said.
Customer enquiries for the year were also the highest in the mortgage broker’s 24-year history, up 9% on the previous year.
According to Symond, the growth in customer enquiries can be attributed to its major marketing push in 2015. In January 2015, Aussie launched its
Smart to Ask campaign targeting the almost 50% of Australians who don’t use a mortgage broker, urging them to get a “free” and “expert” second opinion from a broker on their home loan.
“We’re receiving record numbers of customers knocking on our door thanks to the success of our national and local marketing efforts, the matchless strength of the Aussie brand and the investment dollars we’re pouring into our products, technology, training, recruitment, support teams and projects.”
Symond says this is proof that the mortgage broker market share will only continue to head north, eventually cracking 60% of total mortgage flows.
“For some time our view has been that the industry will continue to grow its share to beyond 60 and 70% of the residential mortgage flows and these results are a further example of this trend,” he said.
