Mortgage market growth at historical lows
The Australian mortgage market has recorded historically low growth in the year to September 2012, increasing by only 4.2 per cent, according to CoreData's Australian Mortgage Report.
The report found the low growth figures were mostly due to the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) and National Bank of Australia (NAB) reclassifying residential lending as business debt.
The impact of these errors - which were fixed in the September 12 quarter - dragged mortgage system quarter growth down from 4-7 per cent growth in 2011.
"Even at these levels it remains well below the near 12 per cent annual system growth experienced five years ago," CoreData stated.
"Removing the errors - net new lending has generally been trending lower for the past six years, with the uptick in 2010 driven by first home buyers."
Interest rate is the biggest decision driver when it comes to taking out a mortgage, followed by fees, charges and product flexibility.
In terms of market share, CBA is the largest player on the residential lending market, holding almost a quarter of the whole market.
Coming in second is Westpac with 23.8 per cent market share, followed by NAB (14.9 per cent) and ANZ (13.6 per cent).
Recommended for you
The FSCP has announced its latest verdict, suspending an adviser’s registration for failing to comply with his obligations when providing advice to three clients.
Having sold Madison to Infocus earlier this year, Clime has now set up a new financial advice licensee with eight advisers.
With licensees such as Insignia looking to AI for advice efficiencies, they are being urged to write clear AI policies as soon as possible to prevent a “Wild West” of providers being used by their practices.
Iress has revealed the number of clients per adviser that top advice firms serve, as well as how many client meetings they conduct each week.
