Mortgage brokers continue to handle the lion's share of new residential mortgages in Australia — only slightly less than before.
The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), released its latest results on Monday, revealing that mortgage and finance brokers in Australia facilitated 77.3% of all new residential home loans in the September 2025 quarter, down from 77.6% in the June quarter. The data, sourced from Cotality, the research firm formerly known as CoreLogic, is compiled from aggregators and broker groups.
But by mortgage values, brokers continue to outshine. In fact, mortgage brokers settled approximately $130.23 billion in new home loans during the September quarter, up from $122 billion in the June quarter.
For MFAA Chief Executive Officer Anja Pannek, the results underscore brokers' dominant force in the mortgage broking sector.
"Australian borrowers clearly value the skill, expertise and choice a mortgage broker brings, in what is a complex lending market," she said. "The smartest approach is to work with a broker who can help you navigate your options with confidence and clarity."
The latest broker results arrive amid Australia’s rapidly evolving loan and property markets, shaped by a mix of competing forces. Borrowers are re-entering the market, buoyed by lower interest rates and government incentives. Yet a persistent housing shortage and rising property prices continue to complicate both borrowing and the broader financial landscape. It’s little surprise, then, that increasing numbers of Australians are turning to brokers for clarity and guidance.
At the same time, some industry players have voiced concerns that certain lenders — including members of Australia’s Big Four — are strengthening their proprietary networks, raising questions about the future of the broking sector.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) — one of two initial lenders in the government's new Help To Buy Scheme — said brokers will not be able to write loans during the December launch of the program.
CBA's General Manager Third Party Banking Baber Zaka told Australian Broker "that might change in the future."
The major bank also reported that broker-originated loans made up 32% of new flows during the September quarter, down from 34% the year before, despite CBA growing its loan book by more than $9 billion.
National Australia Bank (NAB) is also ramping up its proprietary channel. In November, the major bank revealed that 41% of residential mortgages in financial year 2025 were written through the proprietary channel, up from 38% the year before.
Meanwhile, third-party brokers at NAB still wrote the majority of home loans at the bank, just not as many as in previous years. In FY25, roughly 59% of all new business came through the third-party broker channel, down from 61.1% in the second half of FY24, and 64.9% in the first half of FY24.
The results have sparked debate about where Australia’s broking industry is headed. Yet NAB insists it has no plans to abandon third-party brokers.
"The broker channel is a hugely important channel," Adam Brown, executive broker distribution at NAB, has previously told Australian Broker.
Elsewhere, industry players describe the MFAA's latest broker results as a typical market rhythm, rather than a disruption.
"Looking at the history of our market-share growth, it's normal to see periods of strong gains followed by modest pullbacks — two steps forward and one step back," Blake Buchanan, general manager at aggregator group Specialist Finance Group, told Australian Broker. "The latest movement is a slight reduction of just 0.3%, the smallest decline we’ve seen in years, and not a cause for concern.
"We always knew broker market share would grow to its current levels, where brokers are now writing nearly all of the loans," he continued. "With that scale, however, comes greater sensitivity to broader market trends and cyclical shifts. From that perspective, a single quarter of softening is simply part of a long-established and healthy growth pattern.
"We believe there is still room for broker share to move further into the 80% range," Blake said. "That outcome, however, is ours to protect. It will depend on avoiding complacency and continuing to strengthen the areas where the industry knows improvement is needed. Work that is already well underway."
