Australian Broker is back with the Spotlight Series, where we shine a light on standout talent across Australia’s mortgage and finance broking sectors
In round two, we're back with Scott Lung — founder and mortgage broker at Sydney-based Koala Financial — to hear his thoughts on the market, how he's navigating volatile times and his outlook as we enter into 2026.
The following interview has been edited for grammar and clarity.
SL: The whole loan process is extremely admin heavy, for both clients and brokers. One tip I learned from my coach is to try to reduce the amount of friction at each step of the process. Every time you ask for another document, the experience goes down. So now I try to be comprehensive by asking for everything up front. That can sometimes be overwhelming, but the more engaged people are and the more time they’ve invested into the process, the more likely I’ve found that they’ll see through to the end. Also, I review every single loan I do for what went well and what didn't. This has really helped me refine my process.
SL: The property market is the hottest it’s been since COVID-19, with 40% of new loans taken out by investors. There's a large number of people making more money from property than they do in their day jobs. And with supply and demand not improving, I don’t see this as slowing down. However, it’s likely not far away from when we'll see the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) pull the handbrake harder than its recent announcement on new [lending limits for high debt-to-income] limits.
SL: It sounds very Zen, but there’s always uncertainty and you should only ever try to control what you can control. My advice is to set goals, have buffers in place and make calculated decisions that get you closer to your goals at the end of the year than where you were at the start.
SL: The rise of social media has really accelerated the demand for investing in property. And it’s come with both positive and negative outcomes. People are becoming more educated and more motivated to use property as a vehicle for wealth creation. They're looking to replicate the COVID-era returns, through various structures and entities.
Also, the narrative around the direction of the next cash rate move has been downwards for a while, until recently. So the talk of fixing rates has come back in the cards with some clients weighing up, betting against the banks.
SL: There will be more of the same: continued growth likely in the double digits for regional areas and select pockets of capital cities. And regardless of the direction of interest rates next year — which, counterintuitively, doesn’t correlate with house prices as many people think — there is more upside to capital growth.
