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Great Southern Bank continues to expand the options available to support Australians into home ownership.
There are many paths to home ownership
Many home buyers are surprised by the amount of support that’s available to them on their home buying journey.
As a bank, we firmly believe that there’s more than one path to home ownership – and getting there might involve help from a range of sources, including banks, Government schemes, parents and, of course, brokers.
It’s a belief backed with lending – last financial year we helped 2.1% of all first home buyers, which is around three times more than our natural market share (our lending also reflects our purpose of helping all Australians own their own home).
Banking on Government schemes
We’re a key supporter of Government-backed lending schemes, as well as government and non-government shared equity programs.
To help with first home buyers in regional centres, we do not have any additional postcode restrictions to those outlined by our LMI provider.
These schemes are potentially taking years off the time it takes to purchase a home. One of our customers, Kirsty (a customer of broker Spencer Clarke from Cube Home Loans), recently purchased a one bedroom unit in Brisbane’s inner north through a Government scheme.
“Buying a home for me was an opportunity I never saw coming. Without the First Home Guarantee, it would have taken me about 8 years to save up on my own,” she said.
Green home offering
Most recently our bank launched its first discounted green home offering. The discounted offer applies to loans on homes constructed in the last 12 months with a Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) rating of 7.5 or above.
“We know from our research that Australians are frequently looking for more from their banks than just finance,” said Megan Keleher, Chief Customer Officer at Great Southern Bank. “They want a trusted partner that seeks to operate sustainably and ethically, in ways that benefit customers, community and the wider environment. Through this green home offer, we’re looking to reward Australians who are being more environmentally conscious.”
Bank of mum and dad
Another key pathway for customers is the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’, which is an increasingly common option being taken up by young people wanting to buy their own homes.
Financial help from parents can come in the form of cash (a gift or loan) or as guarantor to their child’s home loan.
According to our No Place Like Home report, Millennial first homebuyers are three times more likely to have received financial help from their parents than Baby Boomers.
This trend shows no signs of abating with the report finding almost half of Gen Z are considering asking for help from their parents.
Getting home loan customers to ‘ready’
Sometimes brokers meet customers who are on the journey to home ownership, but financially not quite ready.
To help, we offer a range of competitive savings products that can help with saving for a deposit. In fact, we were recently named Canstar’s Customer Owned Bank of the Year for Savings for a 10th straight year.
Our Home Saver Account does exactly what the name says – it helps people save for their deposit thanks to a combination of zero monthly account fees and bonus interest, while enabling customers to access their savings at any time.
We also offer tools to help grow customers’ savings, like the Vault and the Boost.
The Vault hides savings from customers when they login to mobile or online banking, removing the temptation to spend, while The Boost enables customers to automatically transfer a set amount to their account every time they use their debit card, helping them build their savings.
Finding the right path, together
We believe a great partnership with brokers is essential to helping our customers succeed.
That’s why we aim to back our products with great service. We were ranked first in the industry for the on-day settlement of home loans during every month of the last financial year (as measured by online settlements provider PEXA), and we were second nationally for Broker Net Promoter Score* (a measure of how likely brokers are to recommend us to their customers).
Ultimately, our partnership with brokers is helping more Australians find their best path into home ownership.
*Broker Pulse Third Party Lending Report, September 2024.
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