I remember when broker market share first crossed the 50% threshold. It was 2014 and a genuine turning point. For the first time, brokers became the primary channel for home lending in Australia.
What’s happened since hasn’t been a fluke. Today, brokers originate more than three-quarters of all new home loans. That kind of dominance doesn’t come from luck.
The industry grew up.
For newer entrants, it’s hard to imagine a time when brokers weren’t the default choice. But before that 50% milestone, the job was as much about education as it was about advice. We weren’t competing with each other; we were competing with the banks. And convincing a customer not to walk into their local branch took real effort.
Once borrowers understood the value of choice, competition, and advocacy, the shift began. And once that shift took hold, it accelerated.
The introduction of Best Interests Duty only confirmed the direction of travel. It formalised what the best brokers were already doing and set a clear expectation across the industry: the client comes first. In doing so, it sharpened the contrast with banks, who aren’t held to the same standard.
That distinction matters. Because it has helped brokers build something banks have struggled to replicate: trust at scale.
For decades, banks owned the customer relationship. That’s no longer true.
Today, brokers are the human face of the mortgage process. They’re the ones guiding decisions, explaining trade-offs, and helping clients navigate complexity. And when borrowers have a question, they don’t head to their local branch or dial the bank’s call centre. They call their broker.
That relationship has become one of the most valuable assets in the lending ecosystem. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed.
When a channel achieves this level of dominance, competitors start to adapt. That’s exactly what we’re seeing from the major banks. Increased investment in proprietary channels, renewed focus on direct origination, and the rise of referral-style programs all point to one thing: a desire to reclaim relevance at the front line.
But these responses reveal a tension. Some of these models prioritise access to customers without fully replicating the governance, consistency, and accountability that underpin the broker model. The compliance challenges we’ve already seen in introducer-style programs highlight that risk.
In many ways, it’s a return to distribution-first thinking in a market that has clearly moved on.
There’s an irony here. In trying to respond to broker growth, some lenders are drifting toward the very behaviours brokers were once criticised for, like being transactional, volume-driven, and disconnected from long-term client outcomes.
It’s a reversal worth paying attention to.
Because the reason brokers now lead isn’t simply price or convenience. It’s structure.
Brokers built a model aligned with how people actually make decisions: guided, informed, and personalised. Banks, by contrast, are still trying to systemise relationships at scale. That’s a far more difficult problem to solve.
But leadership brings responsibility.
As the primary channel, brokers are now the standard. And with that comes higher expectations. Clients expect clarity, consistency, and confidence in every interaction.
The next phase of the industry’s evolution will be professionalism at scale. We’re not there yet but we are well on our way.
What will it look like? Building businesses with strong processes, consistent client experiences, and a level of quality that doesn’t rely on individual effort alone. Businesses that attract talent and can provide stable employment for a range of different roles.
The fact that lenders are reshaping their strategies to compete with brokers tells you everything about where the power now sits.
This position wasn’t handed to the industry. It was earned through better alignment with clients, higher standards, and a willingness to evolve.
