Using his background and experience to his advantage has allowed the managing director of AUSUN Finance to continue growing despite the difficult lending conditions
Preparing to move to an even bigger office in Melbourne, Junhao Sun has made huge strides in growing his business in the four years since he became a commercial broker. The father of two originally came to Australia as an overseas student and kicked off his finance career in 2008 at Westpac as a personal banker.
He moved through a number of different roles, including residential lending manager, but in 2014 left the bank to think about his own broking business. “In the bank I didn’t have too much room to grow and I had ambitions to be managing myself,” he explains.
At the start of 2015, he began AUSUN Finance as the solo loan writer. Fast forward to today and he has 11 licensee holders and a team of 20 people.
Sun primarily deals in commercial property, such as shopping centres and office buildings. His experience at the bank and moving to Australia from overseas has given him an edge. Around 90% of his clients are Asian and the rest are generally made up of referrals from those clients.
“It’s helped me. Using my cultural background has lent me an advantage to gain the trust from Asian clients,” he says. “If I was to place myself into their shoes, they’re coming to this country, they don’t know too much and also language could be one of their barriers. Things are different in Australia and China, I can highlight all the differences in a language easy for them.”
While Sun says he has noticed the market slowing down, it has more affected the residential lending space than the commercial side. He expected a larger impact on his business but it is still growing, just not at the pace it had been previously.
One thing he has faced however is the need to change the lenders they use. He says he was well prepared for that shift. “We used to be dealing a lot with the major four,” he explains. “Since the lending policies and criteria have changed, we adapted ourselves to go back into the second tier and third tier lenders.”
Sun expects very few changes in the future, or even that lending will get tighter. But he has a plan in place to ensure his business runs smoothly. Ever since AUSUN’s first year in business – with just one or two brokers on board – he started weekly information sessions where brokers are kept updated on policies but can also workshop deals with eachother and share experiences with lenders, saving their time and their clients’ time.
“It’s very important,” he says. “The lending policies and the environment could be changing on a regular basis, we have to make sure we are always upfront.”
Total value of commercial loan settlements: $223,493,246
Number of commercial loans settled: 127
Average commercial loan size: $1,759,789
Years as a commercial broker: 9
Aggregator: Loan Market
