PRDnationwide sets up home loan referral partnership with online lender eMoney

PRDnationwide estate agents will give home buyers the chance of discussing their mortgage needs with online non-bank lender eMoney following the signing of a referral partnership agreement between the two businesses.

PRDnationwide operates 120 franchise offices, all of which will have the option to refer on clients to eMoney.

Real estate firm tie-ups with lenders and mortgage brokers have become a fairly common feature of the industry over the past decade.

McGrath Estate Agents set up mortgage broker Oxygen Home Loans in 2004 to provide home loan services to clients. Oxygen Home Loans sub-aggregates under AFG. It was named major brokerage of the year at the 2012 Australian Broker Awards in August.

Ray White acquired mortgage broker Loan Market Group in 2009, which has 600 mortgage brokers across Australian and New Zealand and writes around $600 million in loans per month.

Century 21 has its own mortgage broker franchise, Century 21 Home Loans, as does Raine & Horne with its broker offering Raine & Horne Financial Services.

Under the arrangement with PRDnationwide, eMoney receives major bank wholesale funding and currently offers a standard variable rate home loan rate of 5.65% and a three-year fixed rate home loan from 5.25%. Lower rates are available for borrowers who can stump up a 25% deposit.

It consistently offers among the lowest variable and fixed-rate offerings in the market and says it is able to do so because it does not have the added cost of expensive overheads due to its online business model.

Tony Brasier, chairman and managing director of PRDnationwide, says the firm had a number of pre-requisites in its search for a home loan partner.

“The first was an online solution. We wanted to ensure our potential clients were referred to efficiently with a guaranteed response.

“The second was access to innovative and competitive financial products, and the third was to find a financial company that was honest with an exemplary reputation in the marketplace; eMoney ticked all the boxes for us,” he says.

Commenting on the tie-up with PRDnationwide, Neil Manuel, general manager of eMoney, says buyers will benefit through PRDnationwide’s expertise in the property market and eMoney’s competitively low variable home loan rate.

“It is important for buyers to shop around before they commit to a home loan and if a buyer is looking to purchase a home through a PRDnationwide franchise, they should speak to their agent and arrange a phone call with an eMoney consultant before signing on the dotted line with their current lender,” says Manuel.

“A simple phone call to get a better rate can potentially save thousands of dollars in future interest repayments.”

Manual says choosing an eMoney home loan at a variable rate of 5.5% could save a buyer up to $221 a month in repayments on a $300,000 mortgage over 25 years.

“That’s a saving of over $2,600 in mortgage repayments a year, and rather than giving your hard-earned cash to the bank, this spare coin could be used to take your family on a holiday,” he says.