YBR loan receives five-star rating

The Empower Variable loan was one of only 31 residential variable products out of 328 to receive five stars, the researcher’s highest rating.

YBR executive chairman Mark Bouris said competition is alive and well in the mortgage market, even in the face of the Financial System Inquiry.

“The results shown in the ratings report tell us that non-banks can produce outstanding products that can compete alongside well-established banking products,” Mr Bouris said.

“Consumers are becoming savvier and are using research services to compare home loan products,” he said.

“They can see the value in shopping around and looking outside the major banks.”

Mr Bouris said that if non-banks like YBR continue to produce better products at lower rates than those the majors can offer, market share will be up for grabs and competition will heat up even more.

The Empower Variable loan is a Yellow Brick Road product that currently has a variable rate of 4.94 per cent per annum (comparison rate 4.95 per cent).

Of the 31 CANSTAR five-star rated loans in the residential variable category, only five were major bank home loan products.