Brokers’ outlook on business health remains positive, commercial financing demand holds firm toward end of 2025

Against the backdrop of sustained rate cuts, the general broker outlook on client business health remains optimistic. In the latest Broker Pulse: Commercial Lending, Agile Market Intelligence gauged business health across Australia by capturing broker-forecasted financing needs alongside key business elements such as employee headcount, customer cash flow, customer revenue, and financing requirements.

Key stats you need to know

• Brokers maintain an overall positive outlook on their clients' business health.
  
  
• Demand for business loans, commercial mortgages and equipment or asset finance are still expected to increase as 2025 closes.
  
  
• Overall broker outlook on financing demand suggests sustained stabilisation among commercial clients.

Businesses to maintain a strong appetite for multiple financing types

• The market demand index for business loans rose to +49 in October.
  
  
• The majority of brokers predict demand for commercial mortgage and equipment or asset finance to still increase or stay the same.
  

Agile Market Intelligence uses a market demand index to track broker-forecasted financing demands for commercial clients. The index is calculated by subtracting the segment of brokers expecting a decrease in loan demand from those expecting an increase in financing requirements.

Amid rising sentiment ruling out rate cuts, broker outlook on commercial financing requirements in the next 3 months remains steady. 

As of October, the overall market demand index for business loans (e.g., secured, unsecured, etc.) rose to +49, trending decisively positive. Meanwhile, market demand index for commercial mortgage and equipment or asset finance both sit at +35, with most brokers predicting demand to stay the same.

“Despite minor fluctuations in data in the last 6 months, we are seeing stabilising commercial lending demand across all loan types,” said Michael Johnson, Director at Agile Market Intelligence.

Client business health remains positive but declining

•  Broker outlook on business health remains positive through the start of Q4.
  
  
• Projected customer cash flow (+6), revenue outlook (+21),  and employee headcount (+3) are all trending downward.
  
  
• Financing requirements climb to +46, rising 5 points since July.

Broker net sentiment scores were calculated by tallying the brokers predicting an improvement in business conditions minus those expecting a decline. 

In October, broker outlook was generally positive across all four client business health parameters, namely: customer cash flow, revenue outlook, employee headcount, and financing requirements.

However, most figures are declining. Net sentiment score for customer cash flow dipped 9 points since July, as it now sits at +6. Meanwhile, numbers for revenue outlook and employee headcount are down to +21 and +3, respectively. 

Unlike the other three parameters, the net sentiment score for financing requirements remains strong, even climbing 6 points to +46 in October, just two months after it sat at +40 in July.

“Financing requirements continue to be the strongest signal in the data. Businesses are leaning more on credit to navigate operating pressures,” said Michael Johnson. 

About the report

In November 2025, Broker Pulse launched a survey which gathered responses from 124 active commercial brokers, collected between the 1st and 25th November 2025. Brokers were asked to share their experiences with the lenders they worked with throughout October. The survey asks commercial brokers on their outlook on their clients’ business needs, commercial loan types, and demand forecasts on different industries. 

Broker Pulse is a monthly survey of residential and commercial mortgage lenders conducted by Agile Market Intelligence. It is a community-driven knowledge base of lender performance that offers transparency to the market by surfacing these collective insights from the broker community. This empowers brokers to make informed decisions and enables lenders to benchmark and improve performance.

Participating brokers receive access to a bird’s-eye view of the lender benchmarking data each month. To sign up or for more information visit www.brokerpulse.com.au.