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Gateway CEO, Paul Thomas, is confident about the future of competition in the Australian mortgage sector, despite the release of the latest lending figures highlighting the current rampant dominance of the bank lenders.
 
The Australian Bureau of Statistics mortgage figures for May 2011 show Australian banks accounted for a staggering 92.5% of the housing finance written - the highest market share figures ever recorded.

However, speaking to MortgageMix Thomas said that credit unions and other alternatives to bank lenders will continue to develop innovative product and service offerings to keep competition alive in the mortgage market. 

He said home buyers would always have a demand for a reliable well-priced home loan that is simple to understand.

Describing the combination as being a winning formula, Thomas maintained he was "optimistic about the future."

The same ABS figures revealed CUBS had 6.3% of the market share while non-bank lenders had a mere 1.2%.

In 2003 the non-bank share peaked at 15.2% and 20 years ago the mutuals had 10.2% of the market.

In addition, the figures show that banks are on average nearly 90 basis points more expensive than their non-bank rivals.

The standard variable rate average over the four major banks was 7.79%.

Meanwhile, the credit unions priced on average at 7.32%, and the non-banks at just 7.01%.
 
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