Lendi Group's Thrive conference is back.
More than 900 brokers from all over Australia descended upon Sydney's International Convention Centre on Tuesday for the start of the Australian home loans group's two-day Thrive25 conference.
The buzz from the crowd, which included lenders and a few service providers too, was all about the firm's recent makeover. Executives from Lendi were on hand to discuss the updated look, which includes growing its network with more brokers, as well as buyers agents and conveyancers, to the Aussie Home Loans brand, in addition to some new features too.
"We have to think about how our customers' needs and wants are changing. And we need to give them the assurance and the peace of mind that they're dealing with the right brand, the right person and that should be you," Brad Cramb (pictured), chief distribution officer at Lendi Group, said on stage. "Now the good news is, we don't have to convince Australian consumers that using a mortgage broker is the best option. Seventy-six percent of them already use a broker. What we do have to do, however, is convince them that we are a better broker than our competitors."
Cramb went on to discuss Lendi Group's "unstoppable momentum," which includes a $37 billion annualized settlement run rate, almost double what it was before the 2021 merger of the Aussie and Lendi brands, and roughly 1300 brokers. Now the firm plans to grow its broker headcount by about 20% before the year is out, as it continues to scale the larger business.
"We're currently at a run rate of recruitment and our retention is the best it's ever been. If we stay at these rates, we will get to 1,600 brokers by the end of this calendar year," Cramb told Australian Broker. "So that's a big growth. And it's all happening because brokers are coming to us, because they can't get this support model in any of the other mortgage brokers and businesses.
"Probably the biggest, strategic part of our journey is to move into what we call 'Find, Buy and Own'. And that means helping people search for properties, buy their property, but then own their property," he said. "In our market today, this is quite a disjointed process, because many people have to go offline, not to their broker, [but to someone else] to get conveyancing or a buyer's agent. There's no one else that's all under one roof, like a one-stop shop.
"People already trust the [Aussie] brand for mortgage brokers services. So we're going to use that brand [name] and extend the brand out to search and ownership experiences," Cramb said. "So [now] we have Aussie buyers agents, which we think is going to be an expanding market; we have, obviously, Aussie brokers, and now Aussie conveyancing. So they can do everything end to end."
The firm went on to unveil several other new products and services on Tuesday in what looked like a full-on theater production, complete with strobe lighting effects, performance skits, product presentations and a DJ. The list included features such as Sell Ready, Aussie Local, a bridge loans partnership with Bridgit, Sandbox, Aussie for Agents, referral services, updated AI and more.
"The most important part of all of that is that the broker is at the center of everything we do," Sebastian Watkins, Lendi co-founder and chief operating officer, said during the conference's opening remarks.
David Hyman, Lendi co-founder and chief executive officer, who was also on stage during the opening remarks, gave a live demo using AI, describing it as a "game-changer."
"AI is no longer a novelty," he said. "It's here today. But let's be really clear: AI is not here to replace brokers, or any of the people in our business."
Watkins added: "It's the big question we always get: Is [AI] going to replace us, the brokers? Absolutely not. It's going to empower brokers. It's going to mean we're always available for our customers. It's going to mean that we don't have to do the heavy lifting on those administrative $20-an-hour tasks. We're ahead of the curve guys. Let's make sure we're not reacting to the space. Let's make sure we're driving it."
The two-day Thrive25 conference also includes workshops on topics such as, innovating home loans, diversifying broker portfolios, local marketing, navigating market trends, retaining customers and more.
