Huw Bough
More than 50% of brokers surveyed by MyState Bank say their number one concern is the speed with which regulators have made changes to LVRs and loan availability as they attempt to cool down hot residential real estate markets in Sydney and Melbourne.
A further 25% said their primary concern was the potential for further regulatory change with limited notice, while 8% cited the ability of their broking businesses to adequately respond to change at short notice. Only 9.5% nominated the potential for a significant housing market slowdown as their major concern. The survey of MyState’s national broker network was carried out over the past 10 days.
More than 60% of respondents said they did not believe regulators gave enough consideration to the wishes of consumers, such as home buyers and investors, in making the recent changes.
More customers say they do not want a mortgage from a big four or major bank
In addition to this, 46% of respondent brokers said they were seeing a marked increase in customers saying they did not want a mortgage from a big four or major bank.
When asked how much this had increased over the past six months, 29% of respondents said anti-big bank sentiment had increased 20% or more, 10% said it had increased between 15-20% and 15% said it had increased between 10-15%.
Just over 20% said the number of customers requesting a non-big four or major bank mortgage had increased by 5-10%, with 25% saying it had increased by around 5%.
MyState Group Executive Broker Distribution, Huw Bough said the responses indicated members of the mortgage broker community believed they and other stakeholders were not given adequate notice of recent regulatory changes and were wary of further changes being imposed on their businesses and occupation without adequate consultation.
“Mortgage brokers are a key mortgage distribution channel in Australia. Broker networks give consumers greater choice and encourage competition by enabling smaller challenger banks to offer products in markets right across the country.
“As an integral part of our financial system, it is important that the broker industry’s views are fully considered and taken into account in any industry change,” Mr Bough said.
