The customer-owned banking sector has put itself forward as part of the solution to Australia's housing affordability crisis, telling the Select Committee on Intergenerational Housing Inequity that its 47 mutual banks and credit unions were founded specifically to address the kind of financial exclusion now driving the inquiry.
COBA senior manager policy Robert Thomas told the hearing that the sector, which serves more than 5.4 million Australians, has direct historical roots in solving the problem now under scrutiny.
"Housing inequity is not a new phenomenon; in many ways, inequity is the very reason our sector was formed," Thomas said. "When traditional institutions refused to lend to working-class Australians or single women, everyday people pooled their money to help one another buy homes. Today, 95% of our lending is for home loans, with 80% supporting owner-occupiers."
The inquiry also heard evidence of large-scale mutual financing commitments, including Bank Australia's contribution of more than $450 million to community housing providers and $260 million to Specialist Disability Accommodation, alongside Police Bank's HOPE Housing shared equity partnership for frontline workers.
Thomas was joined at the hearing by Bank First CEO Michelle Bagnall (pictured left), who described the bank's approach to helping members access housing near their work and community, and Bank of us CEO Paul Ranson (pictured right), who detailed the bank's shared equity work in Tasmania.
In Victoria, Bank First is partnering with cooperative housing models to help essential workers such as nurses and teachers into housing near where they serve. In Tasmania, Bank of us runs the state government's MyHome shared equity scheme as sole lending partner, helping 3,000 Tasmanians into homes with deposits as low as 2% since 2022.
"Helping more than 3000 Tasmanians into a home is a milestone we're incredibly proud of. But what inspires us most are the individual stories behind that number," Ranson said.
While acknowledging that boosting housing supply remains critical, COBA argued that having genuine alternatives to the major banks — competitive, member-owned institutions offering tailored products — matters just as much for giving borrowers real choice.
The major banks, addressing the same inquiry on its final hearing day, placed the emphasis differently — pointing primarily to housing supply as the key barrier. Representatives from Australia's big four banks told the committee that inadequate housing supply is the central driver of the affordability crisis facing first-home buyers, with NAB chief economist Sally Auld noting that recent house price declines following May budget tax changes haven't been enough to meaningfully improve affordability.
Thomas pointed to the mutual sector's broader economic footprint to reinforce his point, noting mutuals contribute an estimated $2.6 billion annually to the Australian economy and employ 12,000 people, with profits retained onshore rather than distributed to shareholders.
"Banking with a mutual means profits stay right here in Australia, reinvested directly into the local economy and the communities our members serve," he said.
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