Despite increasing competition, non-major lenders are struggling to shake the grip of major lenders, which continue to have around 75% of all new home loans each month.
But
AFG's quarterly competition index shows that non-majors are faring best with first home buyers, with their share of first home buyer loans rising to a high of 31.7%.
However, the dominant lenders in this sector are state government organisations set up to help first home buyers. Keystart in WA took 9.7% of this market and Homestart in SA took 3.8%.
The next biggest non-major in the sector is Suncorp with a 3% share last month.
While non-majors made significant inroads late last year in the fixed rate mortgage space – seizing 42.3% of all new fixed rate loans in November – by March this year their share has fallen back to 35.2%.
AFG sales and operations general manager Mark Hewitt said competition has been partly restored in the past two years, with non-major lenders agile in targeting specific products and markets.
“But they are finding it a struggle to challenge the overall dominance of the major lenders. Collectively they still only account for around a quarter of all new home loans each month. We would like to see this figure higher and are looking forward to seeing if the financial services inquiry offers a solution.’
Macquarie Bank has emerged as the most successful non-major lender if the home loan space over the past year, growing from 3.7% of all home loans in April 2013 to 6.5% last month.
Loan applications processed by AFG for Macquarie in March was $264m, and total loan applications processed by AFG brokers in March was $4,048m.
Macquarie is strongest in the refinancing and investor sectors, where it accounted for 9.7% and 7.3% of all loans respectively last month.
Among major lenders,
CBA and
Westpac accounted for 24% of all home loans processed by AFG, while
ANZ accounted for 15.6% and
NAB 10.3%. The figures include their subsidiary lenders.
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