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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Great Southern Bank, the customer-owned bank based in Brisbane, reported its results for the year to 30 June 2026 on Tuesday 22 September. Its home loan book grew 7.6 per cent to $18.78 billion, deposits rose 10.4 per cent to $16.02 billion and net profit after tax increased 27.3 per cent to $55 million, according to reports of the result published the same day by the trade titles Australian Broker and MPA.
The detail that stands out is where the growth came from. The bank says it captured about 3 per cent of the national first home buyer market during the year, more than three times its share of the mortgage market as a whole, which is about 1 per cent. In a year when one Queensland bank has been shrinking its home loan book and another is being absorbed into a national brand, a third has been growing by lending to people buying their first home.
Great Southern Bank results for 2025-26, as reported by Australian Broker and MPA on 22 September 2026.
The result in figures
The bank has a little over 434,400 active customers, up by more than 12,500 in the year. The table sets out the main numbers, with the previous year's level worked back from the growth rates the bank reported.
| Measure | 2025-26 | Change on the year | Implied 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home loan book | $18.78 billion | +7.6% | about $17.45 billion |
| Deposits | $16.02 billion | +10.4% | about $14.51 billion |
| Net profit after tax | $55 million | +27.3% | about $43 million |
| Active customers | 434,400 | +12,500 | about 421,900 |
Reported figures from Australian Broker and MPA, 22 September 2026. The last column is calculated from the reported figure and its growth rate, and is approximate.
On those figures the home loan book grew by about $1.33 billion in twelve months and deposits by about $1.51 billion. Deposits rising faster than loans is the pattern a lender wants: it means new lending is being funded from customers' savings, which is cheaper and steadier than borrowing in wholesale markets.
Chief executive Paul Lewis is quoted by MPA as saying: "Homeownership remains at the heart of our purpose." Australian Broker reports him describing the year as a very strong one, with gains across the business and not in any single line.
Related readWho passed on the rate rise, and when: BOQ first, big four on 9 OctoberSlightly faster than the market
A growth rate means little without the market's rate beside it. The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's June quarter statistics, published on 17 September, show total home loan credit at banks and other authorised deposit-takers rising from $2,391.8 billion in June 2025 to $2,558.5 billion in June 2026, an increase of 7.0 per cent.
Great Southern Bank's 7.6 per cent is therefore a little ahead of the system. It is not a dramatic gain of market share, and at about 1 per cent of all mortgages the bank remains small beside the four majors. But it grew through a year in which the Reserve Bank raised the cash rate three times and new lending slowed sharply: the Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded a 5.4 per cent fall in the number of new home loan commitments in the June quarter alone.
The bank's customer satisfaction measure also rose. Its net promoter score, a standard survey measure of how likely customers are to recommend a business, was 56, up five points, which the reports describe as in the top quarter of its industry.
Why first home buyers matter to a small bank
A share of 3 per cent of first home buyers against 1 per cent of all borrowers is a deliberate position, not an accident. First home buyers are the one group of borrowers that every lender must win new, because they have no existing bank loan to stay with. A small bank that cannot match the majors' branch networks or advertising can still compete for them on price and on the speed and clarity of an approval.
Related readOne broker for every 904 adults: where the home loans they write goThe numbers show how large the group is. The ABS counted 29,319 first home buyer loans across Australia in the June quarter of 2026, of which 5,646 were in Queensland. First buyers held up better than any other group in that quarter: their loan numbers fell by about 3 per cent nationally while investor loans fell 8.6 per cent.
Policy has helped. The Australian Government's 5% Deposit Scheme, which allows eligible first home buyers to purchase with a 5 per cent deposit without paying lenders mortgage insurance, was widened on 1 October 2025. APRA's figures show banks wrote $5.3 billion of owner-occupier loans with deposits of 5 per cent or less in the June quarter, on Canstar's analysis.
Lending to first buyers carries its own risk for a lender. The loans are large relative to income, the deposits are small, and the borrowers have had the least time to build savings. A lender that concentrates on them needs to watch its arrears closely. The reports of the result do not give the bank's arrears rate, so there is no figure to set beside the system-wide 1.01 per cent of home loans that APRA records as non-performing.
Through brokers
The other channel named in the result is the broker. The reports say the bank ranked among the country's top four mortgage lenders in brokers' assessments, and first among the lenders that are not major banks.
That matters because of where loans now start. The Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia reported on 3 September that brokers arranged 81.6 per cent of new residential home loans in the June quarter of 2026. A lender with few branches reaches most of its potential borrowers through a broker's comparison, and its standing with brokers, how quickly it assesses an application and how consistent its decisions are, decides how often it is recommended.
Related readBrokers now write 81 per cent of new home loans, a record shareThe contrast within Queensland is sharp. Bank of Queensland paused new broker-originated home loans for its main brand at the end of August 2024, and an analysis of APRA data by Australian Broker on 7 May 2026 put the group's home loan book at $52.5 billion in March, down 13.4 per cent from its peak in February 2023. Suncorp Bank told its 1.2 million customers on 7 September that their banking will move to ANZ by June 2027. Great Southern Bank is far smaller than either, but it is the one of the three whose home lending is growing under its own name.
What a customer-owned bank does with a profit
Great Southern Bank has no shareholders. It is a mutual, owned by its customers, and traded as Credit Union Australia until it took its present name in 2021. A profit of $55 million is not paid out as dividends. It is kept, and becomes capital.
Capital is what allows a bank to lend. Regulators require every bank to hold capital in proportion to its loans, so a mutual that wants to grow its loan book by 7.6 per cent a year has to add to its capital at a similar pace, and retained profit is its main source. A rise in profit of 27.3 per cent is, for a customer-owned bank, the thing that makes the next year's lending possible.
For customers the model shows up in pricing. A mutual has no dividend to fund, and can set loan and deposit rates a little more keenly than a listed bank with the same costs. Reports of the result note that the bank was named Canstar's customer-owned bank of the year for savings for an eleventh consecutive year. Size works against it: a small bank spreads the cost of technology, compliance and fraud protection across fewer customers.
Related readMortgage hardship cases rise 5.3% as AFCA complaints hit a recordQueensland is unusually well supplied with customer-owned lenders. People First Bank, formed by the merger of Toowoomba's Heritage Bank with People's Choice, reported loans of $21.1 billion for the year to June 2025. The two mutuals together hold a loan book of about $40 billion, a meaningful alternative to the majors for borrowers in the state.
Beyond home loans
The result also describes a move into small business banking. The bank says a business savings account launched during the year has gathered more than $200 million in deposits, and that it now has more than 5,500 active small business customers.
On housing, the bank renewed its partnership with the charity Mission Australia, committing $3 million over three years toward community housing. It is a small sum beside an $18.78 billion loan book, and it reflects the same idea as the first home buyer strategy: a customer-owned bank defining itself by housing.
What borrowers can take from it
For a Queensland buyer the result is a reminder that the list of lenders is longer than the four names on every high street. A lender with 1 per cent of the market and 3 per cent of first home buyers is winning those customers on something, and a first buyer comparing loans, directly or through a broker, loses nothing by asking whether customer-owned banks are in the comparison.
The usual cautions apply. The lowest rate is not always the best loan; fees, features and how the lender treats a customer in difficulty matter too. And a bank's annual result says how the bank performed, not what any particular borrower will be offered. This article is not advice.
The next test for every lender comes within days. The Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Board meets on 28 and 29 September, and several banks raised fixed rates earlier this month in anticipation of an increase. How quickly each lender moves its variable rates, and whether it lifts deposit rates by the same amount, will say as much about its pricing as a year of results.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
