The vast majority of Australia’s mortgage brokers want to see more support from the government in 2021.
Broking platform HashChing ran the survey and nine out of ten respondents said they wanted to see either more political of financial support this year.
One reason brokers could be feeling like they need a leg up is the growing compliance and regulatory regime they are having to operate under since the banking royal commission.
One of the main measures that has been introduced is the best interests duty (BID) for brokers, which could also extend to other credit assistance providers in the future.
In the survey, around 70 per cent of broker respondents didn’t think it was needed as a statutory obligation, but the rest did think it was a good idea and would help consumers.
Interestingly, respondents were pretty evenly divided on whether they thought having to comply with the BID would increase or decrease their clientele.
CEO of HashChing, Arun Maharaj, told The Adviser he thought more brokers would think they’d become busier now they have to comply to a BID.
“Given the onus that is now being put on brokers, I was expecting this number to be a little higher,” he said.
Those brokers that expected things to get busier did so expecting it to be driven by refinancing, first home buyers and to a lesser extent investors.
Regardless of whether they thought they’ll busier or not, most brokers were united in the need for more government support.
“Despite a positive outlook, brokers are united in their position on government funding – 90 per cent of repondents said they would like to see more government support,” Mr Muharaj said.
