A survey of mortgage brokers from Australia’s leading mortgage broker platform HashChing has revealed how mortgage brokers are looking towards refinancing to help keep 2020 profitable.
CEO of HashChing, Arun Maharaj, said that whilst we are now exiting lockdown, we should expect a lasting impact on the Australian economy, and the mortgage broker industry will need to be able to adapt to the changing environment to survive.
How is the mortgage broker industry doing?
“The majority of respondents in our latest survey (77%) said they saw refinancing as a key growth driver in 2020. 55% of brokers have already seen an increase, suggesting that this will be an area of increased competition in the months to come.
Interestingly, just under 60% of brokers indicated they saw first home buyers to be the winners from the disruption, which if true will put some of the digital customer acquisition and nurturing skills we have seen brokers develop these last few months to the test!
There’s a lot of pressure on mortgage brokers, so we sincerely hope these avenues of growth come through. The brokers themselves don’t anticipate much help coming from the central bank, with an overwhelming 73% expecting the cash rate to remain the same for the next 12 months.
There’s a hint of pessimism about what else can be expected from a monetary perspective, with 36% of respondents indicating they don’t think lower rates are really making that much of a difference in this environment.
We’ve seen a lot of talk from industry bodies and government officials on what can be done to revitalise the struggling construction sector – big, exciting fiscal stimulus in this area appears to be needed if only to bring optimism back to the market,” continued Mr Maharaj.
Finally, a whopping 80% of brokers also report that they don’t feel the media is accurately reflecting the market right now:
“This is a very broad inquiry, so we can only infer that whilst the market remains difficult, there is still a focus in the media on positive news such as individual major sales, rather than focusing on the bigger picture.
As a point of reference, we first asked this question in February, where 70% felt the media wasn’t an accurate portrayal – it appears the gap is widening, and will continue to widen, until good times return for the majority of Australians.”
Full survey results:
