Login
ISCOVER
Jessica Darnbrough
Australia's non-major banks have proved they are not out of the fight, with the lenders growing their market share by almost 25 per cent in December 2011.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
According to the latest AFG Mortgage Index, Australia's non-majors grew their mortgage market share by 23.9 per cent – the biggest increase recorded all year.
This took the total non-major market share to 24.3 per cent, compared to an average of 19.1 per cent over the previous twelve months.
This data supports a recent poll by The Adviser which found brokers were keen to support the non-major lenders in 2012.
Of the 211 respondents, 67.6 per cent of brokers said they expected to write more business with the non-majors in the New Year.
Citibank's head of broker distribution, mortgages Aaron Milburn said AFG's data and The Adviser's straw poll supported what the bank was seeing internally.
"We have definitely seen an increase in deal volumes over the last two months," Mr Milburn told The Adviser.
"Just as your straw poll suggests, brokers are seeing merit in using the non-majors. They want to offer strong alternatives to their clients and clients are happy for them to do so. A lot of the increase in non-major volumes is client driven. At Citibank, we have some excellent fixed rate products on offer as well as other market leading variable rates."
AFG's general manager of sales and operations Mark Hewitt said while it is simply too early to read too much into the findings, there's no question that the market is becoming increasingly competitive and that non-majors did particularly well last month.
"This trend will help keep rates competitive as we move into 2012. If the expected rate reductions come through over the next quarter, we could see a very different lending environment, supporting the recovery of property markets across Australia," he said.
AFG Mortgage Index shows the proportion of fixed rate loans rise to 19.2 per cent in December, up from 17.2 per cent the month before, as more borrowers chose to lock in rates.
This figure is not far off the high of 20.4 per cent for fixed rate loans recorded in October.
Seasonal trends saw mortgage sales volumes decline month on month by 26 per cent in December, which together with January are quieter months for the industry. But compared to December 2010, sales volumes were up by 5.4 per cent nationally.
