A word from Australian Leading Buyers Agents (ALBA)

For brokers, helping a client secure finance is only half the job. The real challenge begins when they try to secure a property. That is where ALBA steps in.

ALBA is Australia’s buyer’s agent aggregator, giving brokers a single, trusted property partner to help their clients purchase quality real estate.

More than 300 brokers nationally now rely on ALBA as their property partner, gaining a reliable, ethical, and efficient way to convert pre-approvals into purchases, while protecting their client relationships.

At no cost, every client that deals with ALBA gets:

• Same day contact and a structured discovery conversation to define their goals.

• Education and market insights explaining the value of a buyer’s agent and how the right one makes a difference.

• Best interests duty (BID) style recommendations, including fixed fee quotes and written comparisons from vetted buyer’s agents, all delivered within 24 hours at no cost.

Australia’s housing market has rarely felt tougher.

Even clients with pre-approvals are struggling to secure a property – spending months searching, missing out at auctions, or watching their approvals lapse before they can act.

Traditionally, referring clients to a buyer’s agent has been one way for brokers to help bridge this gap. But with inconsistent standards, conflicts of interest, and variable service levels, some brokers have been cautious about referrals.

But new models are now emerging to solve this problem.

Major brokerage Aussie, for example, has already done the legwork and launched its own in-house buyer’s agent referral program.

Another approach has been championed by Australian Leading Buyers Agents (ALBA).

Founded by Thomas Mifsud, ALBA connects brokers with a nationwide panel of qualified buyer’s agents, offering a structured, transparent referral pathway.

As Mifsud explains, broker clients receive an impartial, data-driven service.

“We’ve built what’s effectively the Best Interest Duty (BID) for buyer’s agents,” he says.

“Every client receives a clear, side-by-side recommendation of qualified buyers agents, complete with transparent fees and context.

“It gives brokers the structure, speed, and visibility they’ve never had at the property stage.”

Market pressures

Part of what has made a buyer’s agent – who advocates on behalf of the buyer – so essential is the competitive nature of today’s property market.

September 2025 saw the sharpest monthly rise in home values since October 2023, according to property insights firm Cotality, which reported rises across every capital and region.

Data from PropTrack, the property insights arm of REA Group, painted a similar picture: national home prices rose 0.5 per cent in September, marking the ninth consecutive month of growth and pushing values 6.2 per cent higher than they were a year ago.

Notably, these figures predate the launch of the federal government’s expanded First Home Guarantee Scheme, with the removal of income limits, unlimited places, and revised price ceilings expected to further boost demand.

Meanwhile, the supply of housing continues to lag behind target, with total building approvals falling 6.0 per cent in August due to declines in both detached and multi-unit dwellings, and Australia is looking increasingly likely to fall short of its target of 1.2 million homes by 2029.

With pressure on housing stock expected to grow in the coming months and years, Mifsud says buyer’s agents will become increasingly valuable, particularly for segments such as inexperienced first home buyers and investors looking to purchase interstate.

“More people are getting into the market faster. More people in the country are able to buy. Yet supply levels are actually going the opposite way,” he says.

“That makes it very, very challenging for people to buy a property, because stock is so low and the nature in which real estate is sought in Australia makes trying to secure the right asset a very emotional, risky process.”

Seizing the opportunity

Mifsud also says that while many buyer’s agents deliver excellent service, some are failing to follow even the minimum standards of process and client disclosure.

The industry’s low entry barriers also make compliance difficult to police, contributing to growing elements of mistrust.

ALBA addresses this by providing a layer between brokers, buyers, and buyer’s agents, ensuring every referral is backed by structure, transparency, and accountability.

Known as ‘The Alba’, these standards consider everything from real estate industry affiliations, local licenses, and investment property certifications, to the length of time panel members have run their business and positions held on recognised industry boards.

“It all comes down to understanding what problems your client is going to face when trying to secure property,” Mifsud says.

“If they’re uncertain about the market, don’t know where to start, or have already missed out, they’re the ones who’ll struggle. That’s where ALBA steps in early, to bring structure and certainty to the process before it becomes emotional or reactive.”

Toby Edmunds, managing director of Melbourne-based brokerage Loan Market Razor, started referring his clients to ALBA after seeing many struggle to secure their desired property.

“A lot of buyers work as hard as they can on this thing, and then they become very disgruntled and almost give up after a period of time,” he says.

“We were noticing that we were doing a lot of work on these pre-approvals, keeping in contact with our clients, but they would just never convert. In a rising market, you really want your clients to get in as soon as they can. And it’s only going to get worse.

“A lot of people are time poor. A lot of people get frustrated with the process. So to be able to hand them over to an expert who can do the legwork for them is worth its weight in gold.”

Keeping brokers at the centre of the relationship has been another advantage of working with ALBA’s referral model, according to Edmunds.

“I have clients who want to buy an investment property, and they’re interested in all six states. They really just don’t know where to go,” he says.

“ALBA will help them narrow that focus, give them all the relevant data to be able to make these decisions and move forward. The main thing is that conversation, when somebody has a desire to get into the market. It’s to fast track that process and also for them to be buying smarter.”

Starting the conversation

For brokers, ALBA’s model replaces what can at times feel like guesswork and blind faith – even when due diligence has been conducted – with a transparent BID-style process that ensures clients are represented by genuine professionals.

Edmunds says it’s also changed the conversation he has with clients.

“Understand what they can do for you,” he says.

“The borrowers who are doing it themselves are the ones that are struggling to actually convert and purchase a property. That’s what I’m noticing.”

Mifsud agrees, noting ALBA’s deliberate alignment with broker pain points.
“The great thing for brokers is that we’re deliberately built around the pain they feel,” he says.

“We protect their client relationships, we vet the right property professionals, and we keep every party accountable. It’s why the ALBA proposition rolls off the tongue, because it’s built for brokers.”

And when it comes to outcomes, the results speak for themselves.
“Our biggest advocates are brokers,” Mifsud says.

“Because of that, we get to speak to more of their clients, and those clients are buying safer and buying better.”