Smaller players increase loan volumes but numbers fall at big four banks
NSW Land Registry Services has released its latest top 25 lenders report for NSW, showing only six recorded increases in mortgage registrations year-on-year.
A select number of smaller lenders have been able to increase their new mortgage volumes over the past year - even as the big banks and the market as a whole have gone backwards, the report shows.
The figures are based on official data from NSW Land Registry Services, which analysed newly originated mortgages in NSW for the year to September.
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It identified the 25 lenders with the largest number of new mortgage registrations over the year to September 2022. Released on Tuesday morning (November 22), the report ranks lenders by the year-on-year percentage change in new mortgage registrations (October 2021 to September 2022 v October 2020 to September 2021).
According to the report, big four banks CBA, Westpac, NAB and ANZ all experienced year-on-year declines in their NSW new mortgage volumes, as did Macquarie Bank, ING and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
Of the six lenders for which mortgage registrations increased year-on-year, three were banks (MyState Bank, Suncorp Bank and Great Southern Bank), and three were non-banks (BNY Mellon, Bluestone Home Loans and Pepper Money).
MyState Bank came in at No.1 on the top 25 list, with 350 more mortgage registrations year on year, a 96.4% increase. BNY Mellon was second, recording a 41.3% increase in new mortgages (190); Bluestone Home Loans was No.3 with 162 new registrations, a 21.5% boost; Suncorp Bank was next with 360 more mortgages (14.2% increase); Great Southern Bank recorded a 10.1% rise to 126, while at No.6, Pepper Money had a 2.1% increase to 49.
The top 25 lenders by new mortgage registrations:
NSW Land Registry Services head of data and insights Jerry Goldfried (pictured above) said the decline in new mortgage volumes among the bigger banks reflected the downturn in the Sydney property market.
The decline in new mortgage volumes across bigger banks was due to fewer active buyers in the market, compared to the property boom, he said.
“That can be seen in property price growth statistics, which show that Sydney’s median property price increased in the year to September 2021 but then fell in the year to September 2022,” Goldfried said.
As a result, NSW Land Registry Services data showed that new mortgage volumes in the NSW market as a whole fell 8.7% in the year to September 2022.
“Nevertheless, Suncorp Bank and Pepper Money increased their new mortgage volumes, as did MyState Bank, Great Southern Bank, BNY Mellon and Bluestone,” Goldfried said.
“Sometimes, it can be easier for a smaller institution to grow, because they’re starting from a lower base. It’s also possible those institutions took certain strategic or marketing decisions that allowed them to do more new business, even as the market as a whole went backwards.”
