Online Mortgage Broker Australia: Former Bankers, 40+ Lenders, Every State, Free to You
Mortgage brokers wrote a record 81.6 per cent of all new residential home loans in Australia in the June 2026 quarter, according to MFAA data compiled by Cotality, up from 77.6 per cent a year earlier and 53.9 per cent in June 2018. Four in five borrowers have already decided that a broker beats a branch. The question left is which broker, and whether it matters that yours is in a different city. It does not. Settlement is electronic, identity is verified by video or at a post office, and the lender’s credit desk is in a capital you will never visit anyway. What matters is who reads your file, how many lenders they can put it in front of, and whether they have sat on the other side of the desk. Everstone Finance is an online mortgage broker for all of Australia, run by former bankers, with more than 40 lenders on the panel and no cost to you.
Straight answer: an online mortgage broker does everything a local one does, from any postcode in Australia: compares your file across a panel of lenders instead of one bank’s product list, is bound by a legal Best Interests Duty that bank staff are not, is paid by the lender on settlement rather than by you, and runs the whole process by video, phone and electronic documents through to PEXA settlement. Everstone is run by former bankers and lends in every state and territory.
- Mortgage brokers wrote a record 81.6 per cent of new residential home loans in the June 2026 quarter (MFAA data compiled by Cotality), up from 77.6 per cent a year earlier.
- A broker must act in your best interests under the Best Interests Duty, in force since 1 January 2021; a bank employee recommending the bank’s own product has no equivalent obligation.
- The service is free to you: the lender pays an upfront commission and a monthly trail from its own margin, disclosed in writing before you apply, and your rate is not loaded to cover it.
- Everstone Finance is run by former bankers, compares more than 40 lenders, and lends in every state and territory and to Australians overseas.
- Every file is decided on three numbers: serviceability, valuation and policy. The rate is the last question, not the first.
- The whole process runs online: video or phone, electronic signing, identity verified by video or at Australia Post, and settlement through PEXA.
What does an online mortgage broker do that a bank branch cannot?
The branch can offer you one lender’s products at that lender’s pricing. A broker’s job starts before the product: working out which lenders will approve your file at all, then which of those will price it best, then structuring it so the next purchase or refinance is easier rather than harder. The differences that matter are structural, not a matter of service style.
| What decides your loan | Bank branch | Everstone (online broker) |
|---|---|---|
| Lenders compared | One | More than 40, priced on your numbers |
| Legal duty to you | None specific to the recommendation | Best Interests Duty under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act since 1 January 2021 |
| Cost to you | Nothing | Nothing; the lender pays on settlement, disclosed in writing |
| Who reads the file | A lender or a call centre | Former bank credit and lending staff |
| Where you need to be | Near a branch, in its hours | Anywhere in Australia or overseas, by video |
| If the answer is no | The process ends | The file goes to the next lender whose policy fits, without a second credit enquiry where we can avoid it |
The Best Interests Duty is the line most people miss. Since 1 January 2021 a mortgage broker must act in your best interests and give priority to your interests when providing credit assistance, and cannot contract out of that duty. A bank employee recommending the bank’s own product has no equivalent obligation. Our guide to what a mortgage broker costs sets out how the duty and the commission work together.
How is an online mortgage broker paid?
When your loan settles the lender pays us an upfront commission, and while the loan runs a smaller monthly trail, both out of the lender’s own margin. Your rate is not loaded to cover it and you are not charged a fee. The amounts are disclosed to you in writing before you apply. If a loan is repaid inside roughly two years some brokers pass on the lender’s commission clawback; ask any broker that question up front and you will learn a lot from the answer. The commission rates across the major lenders sit in a narrow band, which is why a broker has no financial reason to prefer one bank over another and every professional reason to get the approval right the first time.
What is the Australian property market doing in August 2026?
National dwelling values recorded a fifth consecutive monthly fall in August. Ninety-three per cent of capital city suburbs recorded a decline through winter, capital city listings were 24 per cent higher than a year earlier, the rental vacancy rate reached 1.9 per cent (still well below the pre-COVID decade average of 3.3 per cent), and the Reserve Bank has held the cash rate at 4.35 per cent since May. The eight capitals are not moving together, and the direction of your city changes what a sensible loan looks like.
| Capital | Median dwelling value | August | Past 12 months | What it means for a loan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $1,222,718 | -1.4% | -4.6% | Valuations lag contracts; refinance early while LVR allows. Sydney broker page |
| Melbourne | $786,718 | -1.1% | -4.7% | Best value of the big three for buyers; serviceability is the constraint, not price. Melbourne broker page |
| Brisbane | $1,080,142 | -1.0% | +10.8% | Strong equity for owners who bought before 2024; the first monthly falls of the cycle. |
| Adelaide | $937,207 | -0.8% | +8.6% | Equity release and investment purchases on the back of three growth years. Adelaide broker page |
| Perth | $999,987 | -0.8% | +15.6% | The largest annual gain of any capital; lenders’ valuations have caught up. |
| Hobart | $752,397 | -0.2% | +8.1% | Flattest month of the capitals. |
| Darwin | $647,259 | +0.6% | +14.6% | The only capital still rising month on month; the cheapest entry point in the country. |
| Canberra | $864,998 | -1.1% | -0.4% | Back to where it was a year ago; public service income is well treated by most lenders. |
Cotality Home Value Index, results as at 31 August 2026. Loan commentary is ours. Our median and average house prices page tracks every capital monthly, and the deposit needed by city guide turns each median into the cash required.
What three numbers decide a home loan application?
Every home loan application is decided on three numbers: serviceability (whether you can repay at the lender’s assessment rate, after its own view of your living expenses and debts), valuation (the lender lends against its valuer’s figure, not the contract price) and policy (loan to value limits, LMI waivers, property types and postcodes). The rate is the last question, not the first.
From the credit side of the desk, an application is three questions. Everything else is paperwork.
Serviceability. Can you repay the loan at the lender’s assessment rate, which is set above the actual rate, after the lender’s own view of your living expenses and existing debts. Each lender counts income differently: casual and overtime income, bonuses, rental income, self-employed income and foreign income are all shaded or accepted on rules that vary by lender. Two lenders can produce borrowing capacities tens of thousands of dollars apart on the same payslips. That is the first place a broker earns their commission.
Valuation. The lender lends against its valuer’s number, not the contract price. In a falling market the valuation can land under the contract, and the gap must be met in cash. Some lenders accept an automated valuation for standard properties and others insist on a full inspection; knowing which lender will do which for your property type is not something the borrower can find out in advance. We can.
Policy. Loan to value limits, lenders mortgage insurance waivers for particular professions, maximum loan sizes, treatment of guarantors, acceptable property types and postcodes. A file that fails one lender’s policy on a technicality is often a routine approval at another. The skill is placing it at the second lender first.
In short: the rate is the last question, not the first. A cheaper rate at a lender that declines you, or values the property short, is not cheaper.
Have a former banker run your three numbers across the panel, free
Anywhere in Australia? Call, text or WhatsApp Ahmed directly. It is his own mobile, no call centre, and the first chat is free.
Which situation is yours?
Six situations cover most home loan files: first home buyers, refinancers, investors, Australians living overseas, self-employed borrowers, and business or commercial borrowers. Each has a lender panel that suits it, and the chooser below gives a plain-English starting point for the closest fit, from the deposit maths for a first home to the loyalty tax on a refinance.
Which of these is you?
Pick the closest fit and we will tell you what the lender panel does for that file and where to start.
Where does Everstone Finance work?
Everstone Finance works everywhere in Australia and with Australians overseas. The practice is based in Melbourne and lends into every state and territory, with local pages for Melbourne and Victoria, Sydney and New South Wales, Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Queensland, Perth and Western Australia, and Adelaide and South Australia, plus expat guides for Australians in the UK, the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, India and Japan.
- Melbourne and Victoria: our home market, from Melbourne and South Yarra to Geelong and Mildura, with more than forty suburb pages across the city.
- Sydney and New South Wales: the Sydney broker page covers duty, deposit and lender fit at Sydney prices, with local pages from Manly to St Marys and Byron Bay.
- Brisbane, the Gold Coast and Queensland: New Farm, Teneriffe, Wynnum, Burleigh Heads, Tamborine, and north to Townsville, Mackay and Port Douglas.
- Perth and Western Australia: Cottesloe, Fremantle, Dalkeith, Carine and Bateman.
- Adelaide and South Australia: the Adelaide broker page, plus Glenelg, Henley Beach and Bowden.
- Overseas: the Australian expat home loans guide and the expat mortgage broker page, with city guides for Australians in the UK, the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States, India, Japan and a dozen more.
The full list is on our locations page. If your suburb is not there, nothing changes: the lenders are the same and so is the process.
What specialist lending does Everstone run nationally?
Everstone runs six specialist lending lines nationally: refinancing, commercial and business lending, SMSF limited recourse borrowing and SMSF refinancing after the 2026 rule changes, profession-based lending for nurses, midwives, teachers, dentists and accountants, bridging loans for buying before you sell, and harder files such as bad credit, low-doc, self-employed income and guarantor structures.
- Refinancing. The refinance guide is the starting point; the best refinance home loan page matches ten borrower situations to loan types, and the refinance savings calculator puts a number on the loyalty tax.
- Commercial and business. Commercial property, business loans, equipment and unsecured facilities, from the commercial property loans pillar and the commercial loan rates guide to the commercial refinance calculator.
- SMSF. Limited recourse borrowing and the SMSF refinance market after the 2026 rule changes.
- Professions. Nurses and midwives, teachers and educators, dentists and accountants, where lender policy on deposit and lenders mortgage insurance differs from the standard file.
- Bridging. Buying before you sell, from the bridging loans guide to the costs and the downsizer version.
- Harder files. Bad credit and low-doc lending, self-employed income and guarantor structures, placed with the lenders that actually write them.
What does working with an online broker actually look like?
A first conversation by video or phone, usually thirty minutes, where we take your numbers and tell you what the panel does with them. Then a document list, short and specific to your lender, uploaded through a secure link rather than emailed around. We lodge, manage the valuation and the credit assessment, and negotiate with the lender’s credit desk where a file needs it, which is the part of the job that having sat on that desk makes possible.
Documents are signed electronically, identity is verified by video or at Australia Post, and settlement runs through PEXA. You do not visit an office at any point, and most clients never meet us in person. Nothing about the loan is different from one arranged across a desk, except the number of lenders it was priced against.
Book a free video appointment with a former banker
The people behind Everstone
A home loan is one of the largest financial decisions most people make. Here is who will actually be working on yours.
Ahmed Lotfi
A former major bank lender who now works entirely for you. Ahmed runs the file personally: structure, lender selection and the negotiation with the credit desk. English, Arabic and French.
Zappelin Heng
Co-founder with deep lender experience, focused on getting complex and self-employed files assessed on their real strength, not a tick-box, including business owners and investors with multiple securities.
Online mortgage broker FAQs
Is an online mortgage broker as good as a local one?
The work is identical: reading your file, comparing lenders, structuring the loan and managing it to settlement. The only thing a local broker offers that an online one does not is a desk to sit at. Everything else, from identity verification to settlement, is already done electronically by every broker in Australia.
Does it cost anything to use Everstone?
No. The lender pays us a commission on settlement, disclosed to you in writing beforehand, and your rate is not increased to fund it. Fees apply only in specialist cases and are agreed in writing first.
Which lenders do you use?
More than 40, including the major banks, their subsidiaries, the regional and customer-owned banks and the non-bank lenders. We do not start from a preferred lender; the file decides.
Can you help if I am outside a capital city?
Yes. We lend in every state and territory, including regional areas. Some lenders restrict postcodes or property types in regional Australia, which is exactly the kind of policy difference a panel exists to work around.
Do you help Australians living overseas?
Yes. Expat lending is one of our specialties. Foreign income, currency and tax treatment vary sharply between lenders, and we place those files with the lenders that assess them best. The expat home loans guide covers it in detail.
How quickly can you get a pre-approval?
It depends on the lender and on how quickly your documents arrive; the lender’s assessment queue is the usual constraint. We tell you the realistic timeline for the specific lender before we lodge, rather than quoting a best case.
What share of Australian home loans do mortgage brokers write?
A record 81.6 per cent of new residential home loans in the June 2026 quarter, according to MFAA data compiled by Cotality, up from 77.6 per cent a year earlier and 53.9 per cent in June 2018.
Do I have to meet an online mortgage broker in person?
No. Identity is verified by video or at Australia Post, documents are signed electronically and settlement runs through PEXA. Most Everstone clients never meet us in person, and nothing about the loan differs from one arranged across a desk.
Read before you borrow
- What a mortgage broker costs: commission, the Best Interests Duty and the one question to ask any broker.
- Refinancing your home loan: when it pays, when it does not, and what it costs.
- Australian property price forecast 2027: what the banks and portals expect, city by city.
- The home loan self-audit: ten minutes to find out whether your current loan is costing you.
- If you know nothing about mortgages: the plain-English starting point.