Ca mpbell Smyth refl ects on Bluestone’s recent milestones

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whether they are buying to occupy or invest, have clear credit or not, and regardless of whether they draw income from their own business or from some form of permanent or casual employment set-up.

Customer is king To become that lender, one of our most important projects in 2019 was the launch of our new product suite, which we successfully achieved in early November. During the development phase, our priority was to use the needs of our brokers and borrowers as the key driving force for every decision we made. The feedback we received from our broker advisory panel was instrumental to creating the home loan suite we ultimately released to the market.

The result is a product set that is far simpler and more aligned to market needs than we have ever offered before. I had the pleasure of attending some of our early launch workshops in Sydney and Melbourne to personally introduce our new products and was thrilled to see the warm welcome we received from our brokers. This sentiment has since translated to the bottom line, as we’ve witnessed an immediate uptick in volumes across the country. As our volumes grow, it is still of the highest importance to me and the rest of Bluestone’s leadership to keep our brokers and customers at the heart of everything we do. To this end, we welcomed James Angus in the newly created role of chief customer officer in late 2019. His focus will be on guiding Bluestone’s transition into a wholly broker- and customer-centric organisation.

Putting money where the mouth is To ensure we would reach this goal, a decision our executive team made was to implement clear KPIs for all teams across Bluestone in relation to broker and customer satisfaction. Since the start of the third quarter of the current financial year, a minimum of 15% of the scorecard of every team from sales to IT will relate to broker and customer experience. The goal is to ensure that every employee at Bluestone will feel they have a personal and direct stake in ensuring our service delivery is the best it can be.

Alongside this initiative, we have launched regular NPS surveys for our Australian brokers and are planning to roll these out to customers as well as the New Zealand market over 2020. In our commitment to complete transparency to the market, we were extremely pleased to share our first NPS score of 42 in November; however, we want to stress that this first result will be used merely as a baseline to measure ourselves against as we progress.

Always one eye towards the future Of course, looking to the rest of 2020 we have no intention of slowing down. Continuous growth and evolution have become the new normal at Bluestone. New exciting product innovations are already in development, and we are working hard to ensure our service delivery will continue to become faster, more consistent, and more convenient. To this end, we are pleased to announce the launch of no-cost standard upfront valuations for select customers via CoreLogic’s PropertyHub platform.

I’m also excited to go on the road again to meet more of our brokers. Under the banner ‘Thriving in Changing Times’, Bluestone held roadshows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in early February. At these events we will share some of our insights and those of other leading minds in the industry on how brokers can respond to changing market conditions to build strong, successful businesses.

The last two years at Bluestone have been a journey of ongoing change and growth both for the company and for me personally as its head. I am extremely grateful for the support we have received from our brokers throughout this time, and can’t wait to share with you all what we have in store for you in 2020. AB

NEWS ANALYSIS

HOUSING MARKET TRENDS FOR 2020

Australian Broker talks to Michael Yardney, founder and CEO at Metropole Property Strategists, and Stephen Moore, Choice CEO, about the “continued confidence” in property markets and other key housing trends for the year ahead

COMMSEC recently released its latest quarterly report comparing housing data with decade averages – or the ‘normal’ performance – for each state and territory.

In six of the states and territories, as compared to four previously, the housing finance commitments trend was above decade averages. Additionally, in all states or territories except the NT, the home loans trend was above the levels of one year ago. Overall, Victoria remained the best-performing economy, while Tasmania claimed the second spot, with NSW close behind. Separated by a wider margin, ACT came in fourth. According to Michael Yardney, founder and CEO at Metropole Property Strategists, the latest finance commitments reflect the continuing confidence in property markets and increased interest from all buyer segments, but particularly owneroccupiers and first home buyers. Yardney says, “While investor

HOME LENDING TRENDS

“My advice for brokers is to get on the front foot and be ready to jump on business growth and opportunity” Stephen Moore, CEO, Choice

activity has also picked up, it is showing milder gains and our experience at Metropole suggests this is because property investors are still finding it difficult to borrow because of the banks’ tighter lending criteria.” However, he suggests it must be remembered that this rise in finance activity comes after a prolonged Stephen Moore, CEO, Choice

period of below-average lending that bottomed in mid-2019 before the general election.

“These figures only confirm the widely publicised property pricing data that shows the strength of the upturn in our housing markets, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne, which saw the biggest slumps in 2018–19,” Yardney says. “Finance approvals are a leading

Source: CommSec.ABS

Housing finance, % change on decade average, Nov 2019 (latest)

ACT

TASMANIA

NSW

VICTORIA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

QUEENSLAND

WEST AUSTRALIA

Michael Yardley, CEO, Metropole Property

indicator and suggest that our property markets will remain strong in 2020, particularly in light of the looming shortage in the new construction activity to supply the stock required to house the growing demand.”

Choice CEO Stephen Moore says, “Both Victoria and NSW capital cities have performed well and are expected to do so throughout 2020. Hopefully what we will see is steady growth rather than any dramatic price surges. I think we would all prefer to see steady price growth rates of around 5% rather than unsustainable jumps followed by negative growth.”

He points out that negative growth is particularly unhelpful for home loan customers given the impact on valuations, which can hinder their ability to get a better home loan deal.

He adds, “The last 12–18 months provided clear evidence of the cyclical nature of the property market and hence the lending market. In the current cycle, we are now in a period of growth in most states.

“My advice for brokers is to get on the front foot and be ready to jump on business growth and opportunity.” AB