Mortgage Ezy has taken home the Best Non-Bank Award in the 2016 Australian Lending Awards after the non-bank saw a significant increase in broker numbers and business volumes.
Mortgage Ezy increased its number of brokers by 60% over 2015, leading to an increase of 111% in business volumes over the year.
Speaking to Australian Broker, Mortgage Ezy CEO Peter James says the lender’s impressive growth wasn’t just off the back of APRA’s investment lending restrictions, which affected the banks. He said the non-bank has invested heavily in improving its technology systems to cut turnaround times in half.
“We enhanced our in-house technology system so we could improve our turnaround times, which has seen us cut our turnaround times by about half from 18 months ago. We are finding that our rate of applications to settlements has also increased dramatically,” James said.
“For example, last year our record from actual submission to settlement was 28 hours – we are talking from when the applicant dropped the home loan application to when we gave an unconditional loan approval and settled – no one can do that.”
James says the non-bank is now well-placed to benefit from the major tailwinds 2016 is likely to bring the non-bank sector.
“The banks have indicated that there are probably more out-of-cycle rate increases, so certainly for the first time in many years, non-banks are roaring back with competitiveness and we are seeing that right through from prime loans to speciality products to non-resident loans,” James told Australian Broker.
“Mortgage Ezy is undercutting the banks substantially now across the board.”
James says he believes APRA’s investment lending restrictions are likely to ease this year, however, that doesn’t mean the banks will also ease their investment policies.
“I do think it will ease, however, many of the banks have committed themselves to further increases on investment loans – and I know one or two in particular are predicting, in the medium to long term, that investor rates will be significantly higher than owner-occupied rates – even over 1% of a difference.
“It is almost like back to the future. Many, many decades ago investor rates were higher than owner-occupier and I think banks are suggesting that that is where they want to head to.”
