Borrowers keep borrowing despite rate hikes, and Mortgage Choice is seeing the payoff.
The mortgage brokerage, which falls under the REA Group umbrella, recorded a 13% year-over-year increase in loan settlements to $27 billion for the year ended 30 June, signaling strong underlying resilience in Australia's housing market.
In fact, Cameron McIntyre, chief executive officer and executive director of REA Group, said settlement volumes could have been even stronger were it not for the recent interest rate increases and tax changes introduced in the 2026 to 2027 federal budget.
"Market fundamentals remain solid and we can see consumers are still there closely monitoring the market through our traffic and engagement," McIntyre said during the group's conference call, attended by Australian Broker. "Interest rates, however, are the biggest factor contributing to current market uncertainty. At the moment, it's likely that we're at or near the peak of the interest rate cycle we believe. But the most recent rate rises, along with the federal government budget tax changes, have impacted buyer sentiment in recent months in listings.
"The market is still recalibrating post budget, but once the dust settles and interest rates stabilise, we expect consumer confidence to improve and buyers to become more active, particularly looking towards H2," he added.
REA Group is parent company to Mortgage Choice, Athena Home Loans and data services firm PropTrack, as well as real estate platforms realestate.com.au, flatmates.com.au, and property.com.au. In June, REA Group closed its 70% acquisition of boutique commercial brokerage Simplicity Loans & Advisory, which executives on the call also said helped accelerate growth.
In the broader market, Australia's central bank has raised interest rates three times in 2026, lifting the official cash rate (OCR) to its current level of 4.35%. But with inflationary pressures still on the rise, mortgage holders and investors are increasingly concerned the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) could deliver another rate hike at its August monetary policy meeting, further squeezing borrowing capacity and weighing on market sentiment.
Yet Mortgage Choice's latest results tell a different story. Despite higher borrowing costs and ongoing rate uncertainty, demand for home loans has remained robust.
On the ground, brokers say buyer activity is beginning to regain momentum, despite recent uncertainty.
"Previous to the budget, we were pretty busy," Donna Campbell, mortgage broker at Mortgage Choice South Morang, Victoria, told Australian Broker. "It was probably just the last three weeks, after the budget was announced, that things went quiet for a bit.
"But the market definitely picked up in the first six months of the year," the broker continued. "The first-time homebuyers, with the concessions and stuff that the federal government announced, the 5% Home Guarantee Scheme, and stuff like that, and obviously changing the rules, the October beforehand, got a lot more people active in the market. Because it used to be limited income and limited places, and then they changed it to unlimited income and unlimited places, and increased the price caps. So that obviously got a lot of people into the market who were not eligible for the schemes previously.
"Now, post budget, people are definitely coming back into the market, more first-time homebuyers and construction," Campbell added.
Mortgage Choice's results also highlight the increasingly important role brokers are playing as borrowers seek guidance on navigating a more complex lending environment.
"Obviously, anything that changes, pivots, and you just have to just change and go with what's available," Campbell said. "So there's still opportunities out there. It's probably just looking at different opportunities."
