Morning Briefing: Non-major reports new home loan record

A non-major bank has cracked the $1 billion mark in home loan applications... Number of new home loans drops over October...

Non-major reports new home loan record  
ME has celebrated five years working with brokers and reported record numbers in November, reaching $1 billion in home loan applications and $640 million in settlements.

ME’s general manager broker sales, Lino Pelaccia said the monthly results were partly due to the assistance of brokers.

“Despite only entering the broking market exactly five years ago, the broker channel already provides over half of ME’s home loan sales,” he said.

“Brokers are critical to ME’s growth plans so we’re continually adding and improving our broker service.

“We’ve recently introduced desk-based relationship managers available 9-5 for new-to-bank brokers, beefed up our BDM support team to quicken response times, and established a credit quality team to review the paperwork as soon as we have it, so brokers get notified quickly if an application is incomplete.

“Furthermore, we’ve refreshed our home loan pricing structure based on LVR and loan-size, effectively tripling our pricing options, making us competitive across all market segments.

Pelaccia said the most important service change will occur in 2017 when ME launches its new online broker portal. 

“The portal will let broker’s access clients’ home loan accounts so they have more control and information about clients, both pre-and post-settlement,” he said. 

Number of new home loans drops over October 
The Housing Industry Association's latest figures show a small reduction in the number of new home loans over October.

“During October, new home loans were down by 0.4 per cent compared with the previous month and 2.4 per cent lower than a year earlier,” remarked HIA senior economist, Shane Garrett.

“There was a 0.8 per cent decline in the number of loans for new home construction, whereas the volume of loans for the purchase of a new home rose by 0.3 per cent during October.

“With a record pipeline of higher density dwellings reaching settlement, home purchase lending is likely to stay at an elevated level.”