Australian mortgage brokers have broken new records, bringing in $49.46bn worth of residential home loans through the June 2017 quarter.
This figure, which comes from the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia’s (MFAA’s) latest quarterly industry survey, shows a growth in loan settlements of $3.4bn between the March and June quarters this year.
The research also found that finance brokers settled 51.5% of all new residential home loans in Australia between April and June. This was an increase of 1.4% from the same time period in 2016.
While this was a decrease from the 53.6% broker market share recorded in the March quarter of this year, this drop was merely seasonal, MFAA CEO Mike Felton told Australian Broker.
“The June quarter is always the seasonal low point in percentage terms in the reporting cycle for broker volumes followed by the December quarter. To get the best view you need to compare June quarters between 2016 and 2017.”
While the seasonal increase observed in the value of home loan business written by brokers in the June quarter was partly responsible for higher lending figures in dollar terms, home prices on the eastern seaboard will also have likely contributed to this result, he said.
The increased market share data reflects the ongoing strength of the industry as well as consumer confidence in the broker proposition, Felton noted.
“Finance brokers provide consumers with greater choice, better personal service, expertise and flexibility. Busy people often look for the convenience brokers offer when organising residential home loans.
“Many finance brokers operate outside of normal office hours and can visit clients in their homes when arranging finance. Such flexibility and personal service is one of many compelling reasons consumers continue to strongly support finance brokers.”
The survey was conducted by CoreLogic’s Comparator service which examined the value of loans settled by 19 leading brokerages and aggregators as a percentage of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) housing finance data.
