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Jessica Darnbrough
One of the biggest non-bank lenders has launched a new broking division, making it a major new force in the broking market.
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Homeloans’ recent acquisition of Refund Home Loans will make the company one of the biggest brokerages in the country. Earlier this week, the lender announced 54 Refund Home Loans franchisees would join the brand and operate as Homeloans branded mortgage brokers.
Speaking to The Adviser, Homeloans general manager retail sales Greg Mitchell said while the company would love the recently acquired Refund franchisees to write Homeloans’ products, the brokers would be free to sell loans from any lender currently on the Choice aggregation lender panel.
“The brokers will continue to aggregate under Choice and they will be mortgage brokers rather than Homeloans representatives,” he said.
“While Homeloans is perceived as a non-bank lender, we are slowly starting to change that mindset. We are still a non-bank lender first and foremost, but we are looking at ways to broaden our scope and become a full solutions provider – and the Refund acquisition helps us do just that.”
Mr Mitchell said the company was currently on the lookout for further acquisition opportunities.
“We are always on the lookout for business opportunities and we have been very clear and transparent about that.”
If the company does manage to acquire yet another business or more brokers it would definitely make Homeloans a force to be reckoned with in the brokerage space.
At present, after the Refund acquisition, Homeloans would rank as the sixth largest brokerage in Australia – based purely on broker numbers.
And this ranking could be set to change sooner rather than later, with Mr Mitchell saying the company is keen to talk to some of the Refund franchisees who terminated their agreements before the acquisition took place.
“While we are confident the brokers we have brought on board are high achievers and some of Refund’s top performing brokers, there is about 70 franchisees who terminated their contracts with Refund some months ago that we would be keen to have conservations with.”
