Value of commercial loans settled by brokers hits record high

The latest edition of the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia’s (MFAA) Industry Intelligence Service (IIS) report for the 1 April to 30 September 2023 period has shown that the value of commercial loans settled by mortgage brokers recorded its highest value on record at $17.29 billion.

This represents an increase of $53.12 million or 0.31 per cent year on year, (up from $17.23 billion) and an increase of $797.37 million (4.83 per cent) on the prior period (October 2022 to March 2023), up from $16.49 billion.

State by state, the value of commercial lending varied in growth when compared to the previous period, as NSW/ACT recorded the sharpest increase in the value of commercial lending by mortgage brokers, also reaching a record high of $6.55 billion, up $719.67 million or 12.33 per cent.

All other observed states excluding Victoria recorded increases in the value of commercial lending with South Australia recording an increase of $76.49 million to $0.73 billion (11.67 per cent), followed by Western Australia and Queensland, with increases of 7.99 per cent (to $1.52 billion) and (to $4.09 billion) 3.50 per cent, respectively.

Victoria saw values decline by $143.56 million, down to $4.36 billion, a fall of 3.19 per cent.

Comparatively, the report revealed that mortgage brokers settled $175.32 billion in residential home loans during this same period, marking the second-highest six-month value recorded for the April to September period and third-highest value to date.

The record high value came despite the number of mortgage brokers also writing commercial loans declining year on year by 7.58 per cent from 6,118 to 5,654 brokers and a period-on-period fall of 3.58 per cent (down from 5,864 brokers).

According to the MFAA, this marked the first time that two consecutive periods of decline have been recorded for this metric.

All states, with the exception of Western Australia, saw declines in the number of mortgage brokers also writing commercial loans, with South Australia recording the largest proportional decrease of 9.98 per cent, down to 343 brokers from 381, followed by Victoria and NW/ACT with drops of 5.22 per cent and 3.75 per cent, and Queensland with a 1.12 per cent drop.

NSW/ACT maintained the highest number of brokers writing commercial loans at 1,822, followed by Victoria at 1,688. Numbers in Western Australia increased by 2.62 per cent, up to 704 from 686.

Commenting on the report, MFAA CEO Anja Pannek said that despite the observed period being one of continued high refinancing levels and interest rate concerns, broker activity remained strong.

“Our industry is growing, with more mortgage brokers than ever before, and positive shifts recorded across a number of aspects of the industry during the period covered in the report,” she said.

“The choice and competition mortgage brokers have brought to the home lending market to the benefit of consumers shines through in this data.”

[RELATED: The fight to promote diversity in commercial broking]

Adrian Suljanovic is a journalist at Broker Daily with more than two years experience reporting on all facets of the third party distribution channel.

Adrian has written for a range of business and finance titles including IFA, Investor Daily and Lawyer’s Weekly before joining the mortgages team in 2022.

He graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2021 gaining a Bachelor of Communication & Media with a major in Digital & Social Media.

E-mail Adrian at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.