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Brokers settled 55.7 per cent of all residential mortgages in the September 2017 quarter, new industry data has revealed. According to the MFAA, this number is an “all-time high”.
According to research from Comparator (a CoreLogic business) and released by the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), brokers settled $51.77 billion (or 55.7 per cent) of all residential home loans in the three months to September.
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This marks a 2.1 per cent rise from the same quarter in 2016, when brokers settled 53.6 per cent of home loans, and is said to be the largest value reported to date for any quarter.
The data is based on information from 19 aggregators (plus 3.3 per cent to account for smaller brokers not captured in the survey) and is calculated as a proportion of ABS Housing Finance commitments.
MFAA CEO Mike Felton credited increased broker service satisfaction for the surge, saying: “The broker share of the residential market is now at an all-time record which is reflective of the excellent value and service the broker model delivers.
“The dollar values represent a pleasing 6.6 per cent increase from the September 2016 to the September 2017 quarter.”
Mr Felton continued: “The results suggest a rising trajectory for the broker-originated lending share and are further evidence of the trust and confidence consumers have in their broker.”
Growing demand for brokers has been met with increased supply, with the MFAA’s recent Industry Intelligence Services (IIS) report noting a 3.3 per cent increase in the number of brokers in the six months between October 2016 and March 2017.
Despite both broker supply and demand heading in the same trajectory, Mr Felton warned that the reported slowdown in the residential lending space may leave the average broker with a smaller slice of the revenue pie.
Speaking after the release of the IIS report, Mr Felton said: “While the improved broker coverage is positive for consumers, these statistics [IIS data] should be seen as grounds for caution and need to be closely monitored.
“It is not a sustainable trend to have broker numbers continually rising faster than the value of new business written and could be part of the reason why the report shows the average income for brokers is down [by] 6 per cent nationally.”
However, the MFAA CEO added that while a complete assessment of the Comparator data cannot be made until broker numbers in the same period are revealed, the figures are still a positive sign for brokers.
Concluding, the CEO said: “Of course, these figures need to be viewed in the context of the growth in broker numbers for the same period, which is a statistic that will only be made available in the first quarter of next year, but the latest surge in broker market share in both percentage and value terms is extremely positive.”
[Related: Broker boom ‘unsustainable’, warns MFAA CEO]
