Broker-led mortgage growth has accelerated at Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) even as the major maps out a renewed proprietary push.
ANZ has reported a strong first-half financial year 2026 mortgage result, which leans more heavily on brokers while simultaneously flagging a rebuild of its proprietary sales force and branch network.
The latest numbers underline how central housing finance has become to the banks growth story.
Across the six months to 31 March 2026, net home loans and advances increased to about $348.1 billion, up from roughly $343.5 billion at the end of September 2025,.
The group reported 923,000 home loan accounts and $346 billion in mortgage funds under management, up from $333 billion a year earlier, with the average loan size stepping up to $375,000 from $354,000 over the same period.
Distribution is increasingly skewed to intermediated channels, with brokers by March 2026 originating 62 per cent of ANZ’s home loan portfolio, up from 60 per cent a year previously, while proprietary slipped from 40 to 38 per cent.
On new business in 1H26, 69 per cent of new loans came via brokers, up from 67 per cent in 1H25, leaving bank‑owned channels with just 31 per cent of flow.
Over the half, ANZ settled 84,000 new home loans, slightly down from 86,000 a year earlier, yet total new funds under management rose to $44 billion from $42 billion.
The average new loan climbed to $627,000 from $596,000.
The flow mix leaned 59 per cent owner‑occupied and 41 per cent investor, compared with 62/38 in the pcp.
ANZ flags branch‑led fightback
Set against this broker‑dominated picture, ANZ stressed that it had not abandoned ambitions for its own distribution footprint.
Within its customer first strategic pillar, the bank singled out a renewed proprietary push as a core priority, spelling out plans to “invest and train mortgage sales force” and “increase lenders in branches up to 50 per cent more over next 5 years.”
Chief executive Nuno Matos used the half‑year result to frame that shift within a much broader transformation agenda.
He said the latest figures “demonstrate that our transformation is tracking at pace, and we are making good progress in executing our five immediate priorities safely, sustainably and on time."
Margin squeeze in a hotly contested market
Behind the growth in balances and channels, ANZ made clear that home loan competition remained intense.
The bank noted that “lending volumes increased driven by home loans,” yet its net interest margin fell over the half, “driven by lower asset margin due to competition and timing impact of RBA rate changes.”
With roughly 96 per cent of the existing book and 97 per cent of new flows on variable rates, customers have been acutely sensitive to pricing, and the major banks has been forced to sharpen offers and retention tactics in response.
This pressure is showing up in market share, with ANZ’s home loan market share at March 2026 easing to 13.2 per cent from 13.6 per cent.
Risk settings, buffers and geography
Yet the composition of ANZ’s mortgage book offers some comfort around resilience.
The bank reported an average LVR at origination of 65 per cent at March 2026, down from 66 per cent.
In 1H26 originations, 11 per cent of loans carried LVRs above 80 per cent, 22 per cent were written at 80 per cent, and 67 per cent sat below that threshold.
Repayment behaviour remains supportive, with ANZ disclosing that 88 per cent of home loan customers were ahead on their repayments and that the loss rate was effectively 0.00 per cent.
By product, most balances are on principal‑and‑interest terms – $229 billion in owner‑occupied P&I and $79 billion in investor P&I.
Geographically, 34 per cent of mortgages are based in Victoria/Tasmania, 32 per cent in NSW/ACT, 17 per cent in Queensland, 10 per cent in WA and 7 per cent in SA/NT.
Profit jump, Suncorp integration and global risks
The group reported statutory profit of $3.650 billion, a 62 per cent rise on 2H25, which it said was supported by retail lending growth and cost‑reduction efforts.
In retail specifically, ANZ now counts 6.50 million customers, and identified the integration of Suncorp Bank as one of five immediate priorities designed to deliver scale.
The bank said it was on track to complete a “safe and secure” migration of Suncorp Bank customers by June 2027, reporting that 34 per cent of the integration was complete and 57 per cent remained to be done.
The remaining tranche is expected to be wrapped up by September 2026.
Even as the current arrears picture looks benign, ANZ is clearly wary of the global environment.
The bank said it had seen “limited effects from the war” in the half and had not observed a material rise in customers entering hardship or receiving assistance.
Yet it still booked a collective provision charge of $175 million for potential loan stress linked to the Middle East conflict.
That provision contributed to a first‑half credit impairment charge of $274 million, up from $145 million in the prior corresponding period, and follows Westpac’s recent decision to increase its own charge by $150 million.
Matos used the result to spell out how ANZ was reading those risks.
“As Australia’s most international bank, we have a front-row seat to global developments,” Matos said.
“Much of the potential impact of this crisis remains ahead of us, but the longer the flow of oil is constrained, the greater the chance the crisis shifts from being primarily an inflation challenge to much more a supply and growth challenge.”
[Related: Macquarie, ING charge ahead as BOQ, Suncorp retreat]
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