Settlements have surged at Yellow Brick Road Home Loans as the major mortgage broking and aggregation group embarks on its next growth push.
Mortgage broking and aggregation group Yellow Brick Road Home Loans has reported $30 billion in settlements for FY2025–26, lifting its underlying loan book to $81.1 billion as its broker network expanded.
Settlements increased 28.6 per cent from $23.3 billion in FY2024–25, while the underlying loan book, including Resi Wholesale Funding (RWF), the non-bank lender co-owned by YBR and investment firm Magnetar Capital, grew 12.8 per cent from approximately $72 billion.
Both measures reached their highest levels in the group’s seven-year performance series.
Independent aggregation accounted for $27.3 billion in settlements, or 91 per cent of the group total, while the franchise business contributed $2.7 billion.
Their underlying loan books stood at $72.4 billion and $8.6 billion, respectively.
Broker numbers increased 8.9 per cent to 1,406 from 1,291, comprising 1,280 under the aggregation business and 126 under the franchise business, while the franchise footprint edged down from 83 to 82 locations.
With settlement growth outpacing headcount growth, the results show lending volumes expanding faster than the network itself.
YBR also put its share of the broker workforce at approximately 6 per cent.
Earnings rise despite lower future-trail value
Profit before tax excluding movements in the net present value of trail commissions reached $8.7 million, up from $4.7 million with the presentation reporting an 88 per cent increase.
Statutory pre-tax profit rose 87.2 per cent to $5.7 million from $3.1 million, with the distinction reflecting a $3 million net loss associated with future-trail valuation movements.
The net present value of future trail, the discounted value of expected future commission receipts after corresponding broker payments, fell 10.1 per cent to $26.7 million.
The earnings improvement also reflected cost savings and a $1.45 million net uplift from ending the mortgage management agreement with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
Cash holdings increased to approximately $20 million from $13.4 million.
Funding growth shapes the next expansion phase
RWF’s own loan book reached $1.4 billion, increasing 180 per cent from $500 million at June 2025, with YBR stating that further investment in the funding business formed part of its margin-improvement strategy.
The group reported that the non-bank lender share within its panel had increased approximately 60 per cent over 12 months, largely driven by RWF, and presented a 90:10 bank/non-bank split.
Its growth agenda also includes new white-label arrangements to broaden its brand and lender reach, together with additional broker support across sales, operations and customer service.
YBR also said that it expected housing-market headwinds to persist through 2026.
The results come after YBR in September announced that it had rolled out Nectaria, an in-house-built multi-agent artificial intelligence (AI) platform, which it said was intended to support its franchise and aggregation network across the entire customer journey.
Launched at YBR’s Next Level conference on the Gold Coast, the platform was developed using the network’s proprietary data and is designed to reduce administrative work, accelerate customer settlements, and improve franchise performance.
Nectaria comprises a suite of AI agents that can record customer calls, populate client profiles, identify missing information, create follow-up actions, and search lender policy, with the agent also able to provide coaching and compliance feedback.
[Related: Brokers ‘pivotal’ as industry responds to Cup Day rate hike]
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