Key residential lending attributes: Product policy and BDM quality

Agile Market Intelligence, through the Third-Party Lending Report, tracks broker experience and sentiment with lenders they’ve worked with in the past year. The report reveals detailed broker assessments across five categories: Personnel, Products, Speed, Support, and Technology, identifying lender strengths, shortfalls, and trends in the residential lending industry. The Third-Party Lending Report enables a better understanding of the perceived level of broker support by various parts of their proposition and tracks changes year-on-year. 

Now in its 17th year, the 2026 Third-Party Lending Report: Residential Lending surveyed 1,261 mortgage, finance, and commercial brokers to evaluate the performance of lenders they have worked with in the past 12 months. Each lender was then rated across 16 attributes spanning five categories. Of these 16 attributes, brokers identified that product policy and BDM quality are both strengths in the industry, whereas factors such as turnaround time and call centre support require much improvement.

Key findings

• Product policy is an industry strength and key factor in lender recommendations.
• Turnaround time is an important attribute for brokers, yet is considered one of the weakest areas for lenders in 2026.
• Call centre support is the weakest factor in the industry today, as well as the least important driver in lender recommendations. 

Product policy: an industry strength and leading driver for broker recommendations

• Product policy and BDM quality are the lending market’s leading strengths, with both performance ratings at 80%.
• Technology ratings have improved overall in 2026.

Overall, product policy is the leading driver for broker recommendations, with 94% considering it as the top attribute in this area alongside a high performance rating. BDMs is the fifth-highest rated driver at 89%, with a similar high performance rating at 80%.

Improvements in the areas of broker portals, digital tools, and application lodgment have also improved the ratings of technology in 2026. As for the others, broker satisfaction has stabilised across personnel, products, and support. 

Turnaround time: An integral attribute in need of improvement

• 91% of brokers consider turnaround time a leading driver for lender recommendations, but is one of the attributes with the lowest performance ratings at 73%. 
• Credit assessment and product pricing are important factors which are also the industry’s weaknesses, rated at 77% and 75% in performance, respectively.
• Call centre support is the least important factor in lender recommendations and has one of the lowest performances at 73%. 

Turnaround time is one of the most important factors for brokers in 2026. Over 90% of respondents consider it the third-highest driver for lender recommendations. In spite of its importance, it has one of the lowest performance ratings at 73%. The speed of the industry as a whole has worsened in 2026 compared to last year, actually, with an initial satisfaction rating of 79% in 2025 dropping down to 73%. 

Similarly, credit assessment and product pricing are among the top four decision drivers for lender recommendations. However, their performances are lacklustre relative to their importance, rated at 77% and 75%, respectively. These two factors, alongside turnaround time, are areas to improve upon for the year ahead.

By contrast, call centre support is the least important attribute for brokers in 2026, with 51% viewing this factor as a leading driver for broker recommendations. Nevertheless, it is the attribute with the lowest rating at 73%. 

About the report

Broker Pulse’s Third-Party Lending Report is an annual review of Australia’s residential mortgage lenders in the past 12 months as evaluated by over 1,200 residential mortgage brokers. Survey responses were collected between 17 February and 30 April 2026.

You can download the report here.