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A non-bank lender has seen a 96 per cent increase in applications and 153 per cent rise in settlements, as it continues its focus on near-prime customers.
Bluestone has announced that it has doubled its monthly application and settlement volumes less than six months after its renewed push into the near-prime lending space.
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The non-bank has been making moves into the near-prime space (which it defines as “borrowers who fall just short of qualifying for a prime loan”) after it identified that more borrowers could be finding themselves falling outside of the banks’ lending policies giving ongoing tightening.
According to the lender, the month of July saw record applications and settlements in both Australia and New Zealand.
Further, it added that between April and July 2018, its Australian business had seen a 96 per cent increase in application volume and a 153 per cent increase in settlements.
In New Zealand, where Bluestone has recently re-entered the market, settlement volumes were up 123 per cent over the same period.
Speaking of its growth and move into near prime, Royden D’Vaz, Bluestone’s head of sales and marketing, said that the company had “jumped head first into this space”.
He added that the company had been growing its team, making several new appointments recently, stating: “It’s all well and good for us to move into near prime, but if we’re not keeping our DNA intact, that is, our high-touch service and the enthusiastic way we work with our brokers, it doesn’t hit the mark.
“That’s why we’ve increased our staff numbers in our sales, lending and settlements teams; to cater for the increased volumes.”
Bluestone CEO for Asia Pacific, Campbell Smyth, also commented, saying: “In addition to the growth in volumes, we have so many exciting things in the pipeline, with our team growing and a significant number of projects underway which will facilitate our growth into the future.
“Building a great business does not happen by luck - the Bluestone team has been created based on both culture and technical competency. This combination creates a fantastic working environment in which we can outperform on delivery to brokers and borrowers.”
He concluded: “The growth has been phenomenal and the reason we are managing to keep up with it is because of the hard work of our people. There is no limit to what we can achieve.”
[Related: Non-banks winning prime mortgages as majors tighten]
