One broker for every 904 adults: where the home loans they write go

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Kooky

Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.

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Australia had 24,116 mortgage brokers at the end of 2025, one for every 904 adults, and between them they settled 838,815 home loans worth $495.55 billion in the calendar year. The figures come from the State of Mortgage and Finance Broking Report 2026, published by the Mortgage and Finance Association of Australia and reported by the trade titles MPA on Friday 25 September and Australian Broker on Monday 28 September.

The report follows the association's quarterly market share release of 3 September, which put brokers' share of new residential home loans at a record 81.6 per cent in the June quarter of 2026, up from 81.0 per cent in the March quarter. That figure says how many loans go through a broker. The annual report says something the quarterly number cannot: which lenders those loans end up with, how the people who arrange them are paid, and how often the commission is taken back.

MFAA State of Mortgage and Finance Broking Report 2026, covering calendar 2025, as reported by MPA and Australian Broker; market share from the MFAA release of 3 September 2026.

A year of growth in every measure

The report draws on data from nine aggregators, the wholesale groups that sit between brokers and lenders, and compares calendar 2025 with 2024.

The number of brokers rose from 22,105 to 24,116, an increase of 9.1 per cent, with growth in every state and territory. Loans settled rose 17.2 per cent, or by about 122,800 loans. The value settled rose 23.5 per cent, from $401.21 billion. Home loan applications reached 911,150, up 18.4 per cent across the eight aggregators that reported them. The stock of home loans originally arranged by brokers stands at about $1.17 trillion, up about 11 per cent.

Two derived figures put the totals on a human scale. Dividing loans by brokers gives roughly 35 home loans settled per broker over the year, a little under three a month. Dividing the value by the number of loans gives an average loan of about $591,000. The association's own image is that a broker-arranged home loan settled every 38 seconds.

Loans and value both grew much faster than the number of brokers, which is the point the association's chief executive, Anja Pannek, drew out. MPA quotes her describing "greater output across the industry than we have growth in broker numbers".

The year the report covers was a strong one for borrowing. Interest rates were lower through 2025 than they are now, and the three cash rate increases of 2026 and the tax changes in the May Budget came afterwards. The report is a picture of the industry at the top of a cycle, published in a quarter when the Australian Bureau of Statistics has recorded a 5.4 per cent fall in new home loan commitments.

Which lenders the loans went to

The part of the report with the most bearing on a borrower is the breakdown of where broker-arranged loans were placed. Australian Broker sets out the shares by type of lender.

Set against 2024, the movements are small in size and consistent in direction. The major banks' own brands took 43.88 per cent, down from 44.21 per cent. Regional brands owned by a major bank fell from 16.5 per cent to 14.7 per cent, and independent regional banks from 6.5 per cent to 5.4 per cent. Non-bank lenders rose from 6.5 per cent to 7.2 per cent, mutual banks held at 3.1 per cent, and the report notes growth among international banks and other lenders.

Ms Pannek's reading, as quoted by MPA, is that "brokers are recommending clients beyond the Big Four". The figures support that, with a qualification. The four majors and the regional brands they own together received 58.58 per cent of broker-arranged lending, down from 60.71 per cent, so the larger banking groups still take close to three loans in five.

What the lender mix says about Queensland's banks

The two categories that lost most ground are the ones Queensland's traditional banks sit in.

Suncorp Bank has been owned by ANZ since 2024, and told its 1.2 million customers on 7 September that their banking will move to ANZ's products and platforms by June 2027. Bank of Queensland, the state's listed regional bank, paused the broker channel for its main brand at the end of August 2024; an analysis of official banking data by Australian Broker on 7 May 2026 put the group's home loan book at $52.5 billion in March, 13.4 per cent below its peak in February 2023. The report does not name individual lenders in these categories, and many banks from other states are counted in them, so the national shares cannot be pinned on two Queensland institutions. They are, though, moving the same way.

The mutual sector shows the other side. Mutual banks held their 3.1 per cent share while the regional categories fell. Great Southern Bank, the Brisbane-based mutual, reported on 22 September that its home loan book grew 7.6 per cent in 2025-26 and that brokers rank it first among lenders that are not major banks.

For a Queensland borrower the practical meaning is about the panel in front of them. A broker's comparison in 2026 is likely to include the majors, a growing number of non-bank and international lenders and the customer-owned banks. It is less likely than it was two years ago to include the regional bank brands that many Queenslanders grew up with.

Clawbacks, and why they concern borrowers

The report also publishes what brokers earn, and what they give back.

The median broker received $126,941 in gross upfront commission in 2025, up about 16 per cent from $109,473, and $77,894 in gross trail commission, up 18.7 per cent. Upfront commission is paid by the lender when a loan settles. Trail commission is a smaller amount paid for as long as the loan stays in place. These are gross figures, before the aggregator's share, staff and the costs of running a business.

A clawback is the lender taking back upfront commission because the loan was repaid or refinanced away soon after it was written. The median clawback per broker was $11,442, up 16.5 per cent, based on figures from five aggregators. Set against the median upfront commission, that is about 9 per cent handed back.

Clawbacks rise when borrowers move. Ms Pannek told Australian Broker there is a correlation between clawback activity and the level of competition in the market. That fits the lending data: the Australian Bureau of Statistics counted 66,449 owner-occupier loans refinanced with a different lender in the June quarter of 2026, and S&P Global Ratings reported that prime home loans were being repaid ahead of schedule at a faster rate in the same quarter.

For a borrower the mechanism matters in one situation. A broker who arranged a loan a year ago has a financial reason not to move it yet. The law requires brokers to act in the customer's best interests regardless, and most do. A borrower is still entitled to ask the question directly, and to know that the answer to "should I switch again?" involves the broker's income as well as their own.

Bigger offices, a slowly changing workforce

The structure of the industry is shifting toward larger businesses. The report finds that 56.8 per cent of the brokers it could classify work in offices with more than one broker, up from 52.9 per cent, while the number of sole operators is broadly flat. Ms Pannek cautioned that the label can mislead, telling MPA that a single broker can have 20 support staff.

The workforce is getting younger, with the number of brokers aged over 50 declining, according to MPA's account. Women make up 27.4 per cent of brokers, up 0.6 percentage points since September 2024, and wrote 25.6 per cent of settlement value across seven aggregators, against 25.9 per cent a year earlier.

Brokers are also doing more than home loans. Commercial and business finance settled through brokers reached $52.3 billion in 2025, up 27.4 per cent from $41.1 billion, and the number of brokers writing commercial loans rose 6.3 per cent to 11,785. For a small business owner in Queensland, the broker who arranged the home loan is increasingly likely to offer to arrange the business loan as well.

What a borrower can take from the report

Three points follow for someone buying or refinancing. They are general observations, not advice.

• The channel is large and still growing. With one broker for every 904 adults and more than four in five new loans going through one, a broker is the ordinary way to get a home loan, and brokers are not scarce.
• The panel is where the choice lies. Two brokers can have different lenders available. Asking which lenders are on the panel, and which are not, tells a borrower how wide the comparison really is.
• Incentives are disclosed for a reason. Commission and clawback are the terms on which a broker is paid. A borrower who understands them can weigh a recommendation properly.

A different year ahead

Next year's edition of the report, covering calendar 2026, will describe a harder year. Applications to the major banks fell by between 15 and 20 per cent after the May Budget, on the banks' own figures in August, and the association's quarterly series has shown brokers gaining share in a market that is shrinking.

The association's next quarterly market share figure will cover the September quarter. The ABS publishes its September quarter Lending Indicators on 11 November, the first official count of loans for a full quarter after the Budget.

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.

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