Broker market share has climbed from 56% in 2017 to about 75% of all new residential loans. Deloitte's 2025 report explains what drove the shift, and why the value now sits in the book you already hold.
Deloitte Access Economics' Value of Mortgage and Finance Broking 2025, prepared for the MFAA, puts a hard number on something brokers have felt for years: the third-party channel is now the default way Australians borrow. Mortgage brokers arranged roughly 75% of all new residential loans in 2024, up 18 percentage points from 2017, when the figure was 56%.
The scale behind the share
- 22,031 brokers operating at the end of March 2024, up 29% from 17,040 in 2018
- 10,635 broking businesses, up 31% over the same period
- An estimated $353 billion of new residential home loans arranged by brokers in the year to March 2024
- Average monthly settlement value per broker up 42%, from $1m in 2018 to $1.4m in 2024
Two forces sit behind the growth. Rising rates and cost-of-living pressure pushed borrowers to shop harder for a deal, and post-Royal Commission reform — Best Interests Duty in particular — raised trust in the channel. Deloitte notes brokers were ten times more likely to report a positive impact on their business from BID than a negative one.
Growth changes where the risk sits
When the channel writes three quarters of the market, competition for a given loan is no longer broker-versus-bank. It is broker-versus-broker. The same 22,031 brokers chasing the same refinance pool means an unreviewed client in your book is an opportunity sitting in someone else's prospecting list.
"Repeat customers (44%) and referrals (28%) are the key leads for generating broker business."
That statistic is the strategic heart of the report. Roughly 72% of a broker's business comes from existing customers or their referrals. The book is not a byproduct of new business — it is the primary channel.
What to do with the finding
If most new business originates from people you have already served, the highest-return activity in a broking business is systematic review of existing clients: knowing every rate, every fixed expiry, and every client who has not heard from you in twelve months. Market share won at the application stage is only kept at the review stage.
Source: Deloitte Access Economics, The Value of Mortgage and Finance Broking 2025, prepared for the MFAA (February 2025).