Brokers recommend: People’s Choice for pricing, Macquarie for speed, and RedZed for client fit

The latest Broker Pulse: Residential Lending data from Agile Market Intelligence reveals the key reasons why mortgage brokers are recommending specific lenders. This analysis of broker recommendations for the last 3 months highlight the lenders most commonly recommended by mortgage brokers driven by product pricing, turnaround times and client circumstances.

Key stats you need to know

• 88% of brokers who recommended People’s Choice cited product pricing as the primary driver.
  
  
• 48% of brokers who submitted applications to Macquarie Bank did so due to their turnaround time.
  
  
• 93% of brokers who chose RedZed said their decision was based on client circumstances.

Brokers turn to People’s Choice for product pricing

• People’s Choice was the most cited lender for pricing, with 88% of brokers identifying it as their main reason for their recommendation. Newcastle Permanent and HSBC followed with 84% and 76% of brokers recommending them based on price, respectively.
  
  
• Bank Australia (75%) and BCU (71%) also performed strongly on pricing considerations, closing the top 5. 

Brokers consistently turn to non-major banks owing to product pricing, with People’s Choice (88% of brokers) leading the pack in the past three months, along with Newcastle Permanent (84%) and HSBC (76%). Bank Australia (75%) and BCU (71%) rounded out the top five, demonstrating the continued strength of regional and customer-owned banks in the competitive pricing space.

“Brokers are clearly signaling where the best value lies for their clients. People’s Choice and Newcastle Permanent have consistently delivered competitive pricing that resonates with borrowers.” said Michael Johnson, Director at Agile Market Intelligence.

Macquarie remains undisputed for turnaround times

• 48% of brokers continue to choose Macquarie based on turnaround times.
  
  
• BCU comes in close with 43% of brokers recommending it for speed. Bendigo Bank ranks a far third with 22%.

Macquarie maintained its dominance on speed with 48% of brokers recommending the lender based on turnaround times over the July-September quarter. BCU followed at 43%, with Bendigo Bank a distant third at 22%. The gap between the top two and the rest of the field underscores Macquarie’s sustained competitive advantage on processing speed. 

“Speed is Macquarie’s clear differentiator. When brokers need fast turnarounds, Macquarie remains the go-to lender.” said Michael Johnson, Director at Agile Market Intelligence.

RedZed overtakes other lenders for client fit

• 93% of brokers chose RedZed based on client fit this past three months, with Liberty Financial (89%) and Pepper Money (89%) following closely.
  
  
• Non-bank lenders dominate the list, with the exception of BOQ (86%) and CBA (76%) remaining competitive in this space.

RedZed dominated recommendations based on client circumstances, with 93% of brokers citing client fit as their primary reason for choosing the lender. Other non-bank lenders Liberty Financial (89%), Pepper Money (89%) and Resimac (88%) followed closely. This underscores brokers’ reliance on non-bank specialist lenders when working with clients who fall outside of traditional lending criteria.

“Client fit is where specialists prove their value. RedZed’s 93%, along with other non-bank lenders dominating the list shows how effectively they’ve carved out their niche.” said Michael Johnson.

About the report

In October 2025, Broker Pulse launched a new survey format, resulting in increased engagement. This new survey gathered responses from 306 residential brokers, collected between the 1st and 16th October 2025. Brokers were asked to share their primary reason for choosing lenders they’ve sent applications to in the past month. Results from July to September were averaged and ranked for this article.

About Broker Pulse: Residential Lending

Broker Pulse is a monthly survey of residential 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.