Broker Pulse Residential Lending wrap-up: September 2024

Last week, we shared the September 2024 Broker Pulse: Residential Lending survey results. In that report, we included all the insightful data the Broker Pulse community shared.

This week, we’re sharing a summary of those findings for anyone who wants a refresher on September 2024.

Broker Flows

Broker flows is the measure of broker-originated applications for the month—where the traffic of broker-originated applications are flowing within the lender market. 

Macquarie Bank is the most-used lender, a statistic which has been consistent for some time.

Following Macquarie, the most commonly used lenders are major banks— ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and NAB, meaning the Big Four banks make up the lion’s share of the top five lenders. 

Decision drivers

Product pricing is a major motivator for choosing non-major banks, and client circumstances is the most common reason for choosing a major bank or non-bank for brokers in September 2024. We can see that these factors have been steady over the past three months. Brokers’ reasoning for working with specific lenders is stable and reliable. 

Turnaround Times

Despite it not being the primary reason for working with a lender, turnaround time is a key factor for brokers deciding to work with lenders. Quick and easy processes make the broker’s life easier, so here are the top performers from each group of lenders:

Large ADIs

The average turnaround time for large ADIs in September 2023 was 3.6 days. The lender with the lowest average turnaround time was Macquarie with just 2 days, the same as the previous month. Second- and third-fastest were St. George Banking Group and ME Bank, with an average of 3 days each.

The slowest Large ADI in September was AMP bank, with an average turnaround time of 6 business days.

Small ADIs

Small ADIs had an average turnaround time of 5.9 days, with UBank leading the charge with an average turnaround time of 3 days—the same as the previous month. The small ADI with the second-lowest turnaround time was Great Southern Bank, at 4 business days—the same as the previous month for this lender, and third was Auswide Bank at 5 business days—again, the same as the previous month.

The small ADI with the longest turnaround time was Bank of Queensland, with an average of 12 business days—more than two weeks!

Non-ADIs

The turnaround time for non-ADIs generally sits between large and small ADIs. For September, this group had an average turnaround time of 4.2 days for September 2024.

The three lenders with the fastest turnaround time were Advantage, AFG Home Loans, and Connective Home Loans—all with an average of 3 days. Trailing behind was La Trobe Financial, with a turnaround time of 8 business days.

Experience

We ask about broker satisfaction at each stage of the process—from application to assessment to settlement. We calculate a lender’s experience rating as the average percentage of satisfaction across these stages.

We also further average these scores across the past three months to smooth out peaks and valleys for a more comprehensive understanding of broker satisfaction.

Large ADIs

Looking at average broker satisfaction, Macquarie once again leads the pack for large ADIs, with 95% of brokers who worked with Macquarie in September 2024 reporting being satisfied with the experience. 

Also performing well in September were Bankwest and ME Bank. Trailing, we can see Westpac, ANZ, and AMP Bank have low scores when it comes to broker experience. However, we note that AMP has shown month-on-month improvement over the past quarter, with the lender’s average score improving from 69% in July, to 71% in August to 74% in September. We hope this lender continues this positive trajectory.

Small ADIs

Great Southern Bank had the highest average broker satisfaction for the past three months, with 88% of brokers reporting being satisfied with each stage of application, assessment, and settlement. Following closely behind we see UBank at 85% and Newcastle Permanent at 81%. At the rear sits Auswide Bank, BOQ, and Heritage Bank with a concerning score of 49% satisfaction—meaning less than half of instances with this lender over the past three months were positive.

Non-ADIs

Connective Home Loans stood out for non-ADIs, with 93% of brokers reporting satisfaction across the phases of working with the lender. 

Most notable about this group is not the ranking of which lender has the highest satisfaction, but that all of these lenders have fluctuating ratings across the past three months. The lack of consistency is likely concerning for brokers who may want to work with these lenders.

All BDMs

Brokers rated their experience with BDMs throughout the month, and the average for all BDMs is 62/100 for September 2024. Year-on-year, a score of 62 is an improvement for BDMs, compared to 54 in September 2023. The highest peaks over the past 12 months were in May and July 2024, with scores of 64. 

About this survey

This month, Broker Pulse surveyed 281 residential brokers between the 1st and 16th of October 2024 to uncover their experiences with lenders through September 2024. The survey asks participating brokers to share their experiences with the lenders they've used throughout the month. Brokers are asked to rate each lender's turnaround times, credit assessment staff, BDMs and their overall experience. Broker responses are aggregated each month and distributed back to participating brokers and lenders to enable transparency across the market with the goal of improving consumer outcomes. This community-driven initiative is powered by brokers who want to unlock the collective experiences of their fellow brokers to make more informed decisions.