The Broker Times · Segment Brief
62% Sought Financial Advice. 10% Used a Broker.
Bluestone and Agile Market Intelligence polled more than 18,000 Australians. Among self-employed respondents the appetite for advice is already there — it is going somewhere else.
The self-employed numbers
As reported by Australian Broker, 22 September 2026, from Bluestone research with Agile Market Intelligence.
Who they would turn to with a complex situation
Self-employed respondents, as published.
The non-bank gap, in two numbers
45% unfamiliar
Close to half of self-employed respondents said they were unfamiliar with non-bank lenders — the part of the market built for complex income.
63% would consider
Almost two-thirds said they would consider a non-bank if it were presented as an option. The distance between these two numbers closes at a first meeting.
Commissioned by a non-bank
Bluestone is itself a non-bank lender. The sample is large, but these two findings suit the sponsor — attribute them rather than citing them as neutral data.
Read the headline comparison carefully
Brokers’ record 81.6% is a share of new residential home loans written. Bluestone’s 10% is a share of self-employed people surveyed, including those who did not borrow at all. They are not the same measure, and saying so protects the point rather than weakening it.
The broker takeaway
This is a distribution problem, not a conversion problem. The 62% who wanted advice found someone to give it — usually an accountant. The broker was not in the room to lose the deal.
Which makes the fix upstream of the file: referral relationships with the advisers these clients already pay, and a first conversation that names the lenders a bank cannot.
Sources: Bluestone Home Loans research with Agile Market Intelligence, as reported by Australian Broker, 22 September 2026, and Broker Daily, 23 September 2026. Self-employed population from Australian Bureau of Statistics data for 2025 as cited in that reporting. Broker share of 81.6% of new residential home loans, June 2026 quarter, from MFAA data as reported by The Adviser, 23 September 2026.
Growth · Broker Analysis
The Broker Channel Writes 81.6% of New Home Loans. Bluestone’s Survey Found 10% of Self-Employed Borrowers Used One
Two different measures, one real gap. Self-employed Australians are paying for financial advice in large numbers — they are just not paying it to brokers.
Bluestone Home Loans and Agile Market Intelligence polled more than 18,000 Australians. Among self-employed respondents, 62% had sought professional financial advice in the past year, and 10% had used a mortgage broker. The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted roughly 2.2 million self-employed Australians in 2025. The appetite for advice is already there; the channel is not capturing it.
In this article
What the survey actually found
Bluestone Home Loans, working with Agile Market Intelligence, surveyed more than 18,000 Australians. The findings on self-employed borrowers, reported by Australian Broker on 22 September, describe a segment that is actively looking for help and largely not finding its way to a broker.
| Finding | Share of self-employed respondents |
|---|---|
| Sought professional financial advice in the past year | 62% |
| Used a mortgage broker | 10% |
| Would turn to a bank first for a complex financial situation | 36% |
| Would turn to a broker first for a complex financial situation | 25% |
| Unfamiliar with non-bank lenders | 45% |
| Would consider a non-bank lender if it were presented as an option | 63% |
| Concerned lending conditions will tighten over the coming year | 68% |
The Australian Bureau of Statistics counted approximately 2.2 million self-employed Australians in 2025. Australian Broker framed that as the scale of the group brokers are not reaching.
That is a distribution problem rather than a conversion problem, and the two call for completely different responses. A conversion problem is fixed with better meetings. A distribution problem is fixed before the meeting exists.
Two measures, and why the gap is still real
Before building a strategy on the headline contrast, it is worth being precise about it, because the two numbers are not measuring the same thing.
The 81.6% figure — brokers’ record share of new residential home loans, reported for the June 2026 quarter and drawn from MFAA data — is a share of loans written. Bluestone’s 10% is a share of self-employed people surveyed who said they had used a broker. One counts settled lending flow; the other counts people, including people who did not borrow at all in the period.
So the honest statement is not “the channel converts 81.6% of everyone but only 10% of the self-employed”. It is that the channel dominates the loans it competes for, while a very large group of prospective borrowers reports little contact with it.
That is still a gap worth acting on. It just means the opportunity is measured in relationships not yet started, rather than deals lost at the last step.
Where self-employed borrowers go instead
The survey puts a number on the instinct. Asked where they would turn with a complex financial situation, 36% of self-employed respondents named a bank and 25% named a broker. That is the wrong way round for a cohort whose files are, almost by definition, the ones a single lender’s credit policy handles worst.
A PAYG applicant with two payslips fits nearly every lender on a panel. A sole trader with one year of financials, an ATO payment plan, add-backs and a trust structure fits a handful — and which handful changes with policy. The value of a panel rises with file complexity, which is exactly when this cohort is least likely to be using one.
Note where the 62% who sought advice are going: accountants, bookkeepers and business advisers. For a self-employed client, the accountant is the incumbent financial relationship and often the only one. That is the referral channel this data points at, and it is not a new idea — but the survey gives it a size.
The non-bank blind spot
Two figures sit next to each other and between them describe most of the commercial opportunity: 45% of self-employed respondents were unfamiliar with non-bank lenders, and 63% said they would consider one if it were presented as an option.
Read those together. Roughly two-thirds are open to the part of the market built for their file type, and close to half do not know it exists. The gap between those numbers is not a persuasion problem. It is an awareness problem, and awareness is what a broker supplies at the first meeting simply by naming the panel.
One caveat on who commissioned this
Bluestone is a non-bank lender, and this survey was commissioned by Bluestone. The finding that borrowers are unfamiliar with non-banks but open to them is a finding that suits the sponsor. That does not make it wrong — the sample is large and the direction is consistent with what brokers report — but treat the non-bank figures as advocacy-adjacent research rather than neutral market data, and say so if you quote them to a client.
What RG 273 says about the options you present
There is a compliance reading of the 63% number as well as a commercial one, and it cuts in the broker’s favour.
ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 273 on the best interests duty says at RG 273.51 that it generally expects the cost of a credit product — “such as interest rate, fees and charges and the size of repayments” — to be a factor brokers should prioritise. RG 273.54 goes further: a failure to consider cost and investigate the lowest cost options available to the consumer may suggest non-compliance, and recommending a higher cost loan needs evidence demonstrating why that is in the consumer’s best interests.
RG 273 also anticipates that some borrowers simply cannot reach the cheapest products. RG 273.59 and RG 273.60 acknowledge that access may be limited by a consumer’s circumstances, and that a credit provider’s credit policy, pricing practices and risk appetite may preclude some consumers from the lowest cost options. For a self-employed file, that is the whole game: the question is not only what is cheapest, but what is cheapest among the lenders whose policy will actually accept the income evidence.
Which is the argument to make to a self-employed prospect in one sentence: a single lender can only tell you whether you fit that lender. Working out which lenders your income structure fits, and what that costs, is the job.
General information, not compliance advice
This is a plain reading of published ASIC guidance, not advice about your obligations. RG 273 is ASIC’s guidance on the best interests duty, which RG 273.6 sources to sections 158LA and 158LE of the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009. How it applies to any file depends on facts this article cannot see. Check your process with your licensee or aggregator’s compliance team.
The 68% who expect it to get harder
The survey’s most time-sensitive number is that 68% of self-employed respondents were concerned lending conditions would tighten over the coming year.
Whatever happens to policy, that expectation is itself commercially useful, because it changes what a prospect is willing to hear. A borrower who assumes credit is about to get harder has a reason to have the conversation now rather than at contract. For a segment that usually appears at the worst possible moment — finance clause already running, two years of financials not yet lodged — that is the opening.
It also sets up a service that costs a broker very little and is worth a great deal to this client: a structural review well ahead of any application. What the last two years of financials will support, which add-backs a lender will accept, whether an ATO arrangement needs to be closed out first, and how long the paperwork takes to assemble.
What to review this week
- Count the self-employed share of your own settlements. Not your impression of it — the actual figure for the last twelve months. If it sits well below the share of self-employed people in your local market, the gap in this survey is your gap too.
- Pick the three accountants who already refer to you and ask what they do with a lending question. The 62% who sought advice went somewhere. For most self-employed clients, the accountant is the incumbent adviser. Find out whether lending questions currently stop there.
- Write down which of your lenders will take one year of financials, and on what terms. This is the single most useful thing you can say to a self-employed prospect, and most brokers carry it in their head rather than in a form they can send.
- Build a structural review you can offer twelve months before an application. Add-backs, ATO arrangements, trust and company structures, and how long the documents take to assemble. It costs an hour and it is the reason a client calls you instead of their bank.
- Check how your own marketing describes complex income. 36% would go to a bank first with a complex situation. If nothing you publish says you handle self-employed income, you are invisible to exactly the people this survey identified.
- Name your non-bank options explicitly at first contact. 45% do not know this part of the market exists and 63% would consider it. Both numbers move at the first meeting, and only if you raise it.
- Record why the recommended lender was chosen on complex-income files. RG 273.54 expects evidence where a higher cost loan is recommended, and RG 273.60 recognises that credit policy can put the cheapest option out of reach. Write down which lenders the income evidence ruled out and why.
What to watch next
Two things. Whether the non-bank share of self-employed lending moves as aggregators keep adding non-bank panel options — the awareness gap in this survey is the constraint on that, not appetite. And whether the expectation of tightening in the 68% figure is borne out, because if it is, the structural-review conversation gets easier to sell and the window to have it gets shorter.
The underlying point outlasts the survey. A channel that writes four in five new home loans has enormous reach among people who already know they need a broker. This data describes a large group who do not yet know that, are paying someone else for advice, and say they are open to options nobody has shown them. That is a distribution problem, and distribution problems are solved before the file exists.
Key takeaways
- Bluestone Home Loans and Agile Market Intelligence surveyed more than 18,000 Australians; among self-employed respondents, 62% had sought professional financial advice in the past year and 10% had used a mortgage broker.
- The ABS counted roughly 2.2 million self-employed Australians in 2025, which is the scale Australian Broker attached to the gap.
- The 81.6% record broker share is a share of new residential home loans written, not of people surveyed, so the two figures are not directly comparable — but a large group reporting little broker contact is still a real opportunity.
- Asked about a complex financial situation, 36% would go to a bank first and 25% to a broker, which is inverted relative to where a panel adds the most value.
- 45% were unfamiliar with non-bank lenders and 63% would consider one if presented — an awareness gap, not a persuasion gap. Note that Bluestone, a non-bank, commissioned the survey.
- RG 273.51 and .54 put cost among the factors brokers should prioritise; RG 273.59 and .60 recognise that a lender’s credit policy and risk appetite can put the cheapest product out of a borrower’s reach.
Common questions
Does 10% mean brokers are losing self-employed clients at the meeting?
The survey measures whether respondents used a broker at all, not whether they met one and went elsewhere. On this data it reads as a distribution problem — many never reach a broker — rather than a conversion problem. Tony MacRae of Bluestone framed it as borrowers not making it in front of the broker in the first place.
Can I quote the 81.6% and 10% figures side by side to a client?
You can, but explain them properly. 81.6% is brokers’ share of new residential home loans written, reported for the June 2026 quarter from MFAA data. The 10% is the share of self-employed survey respondents who said they had used a broker, including people who did not borrow at all. They are different measures of different populations.
Is this survey independent?
It was commissioned by Bluestone Home Loans, a non-bank lender, and conducted with Agile Market Intelligence across more than 18,000 Australians. The sample is large, but the findings most favourable to non-banks are findings that suit the sponsor. Attribute it rather than presenting it as neutral market data.
Does BID require me to put a non-bank on the table?
RG 273 does not name lender types. What it says is that cost is a factor brokers should prioritise (RG 273.51), that failing to investigate the lowest cost options available may suggest non-compliance (RG 273.54), and that credit policy and risk appetite may put some products out of a consumer’s reach (RG 273.60). On a complex-income file that usually means looking wider than the lenders that decline the income evidence. Confirm your process with your licensee.
What is the quickest thing to change?
Say the words “self-employed” and name your non-bank options at first contact. The survey found 45% unfamiliar with non-banks and 63% open to them; that distance closes in one conversation, and only if you start it.
Sources and method: Survey findings, sample size and the 2.2 million self-employed figure as reported by Australian Broker, 22 September 2026, drawing on research by Bluestone Home Loans with Agile Market Intelligence and Australian Bureau of Statistics data for 2025; further reported by Broker Daily, 23 September 2026. Quotes from Nicole Avery and Tony MacRae of Bluestone as reported by Australian Broker. Broker market share of 81.6% of new residential home loans for the June 2026 quarter from MFAA data as reported by The Adviser, 23 September 2026. Regulatory references are to ASIC Regulatory Guide 273, Mortgage brokers: Best interests duty (June 2020), paragraphs RG 273.6, .51, .54, .59 and .60. Percentages are as published and are subject to the survey’s own methodology and sponsorship.
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Lender policy, regulation and market moves, read for what they change on your desk.
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Can a Self-Employed Borrower Actually Find You?
This survey describes brokers who never get the meeting. These six questions are about the things that decide whether a self-employed prospect reaches you at all — not how well you would handle the file once they did.
Six questions about your own practice
1. Do you know what share of your last twelve months of settlements were self-employed clients?
2. Do you have live referral relationships with accountants or bookkeepers who send you lending questions?
3. Does your public marketing say plainly that you handle self-employed and complex income?
4. Could you send a client today a written list of which lenders accept one year of financials, and on what terms?
5. Do you offer a structural review well before an application — add-backs, ATO arrangements, entity structure?
6. Do you name your non-bank options at the first conversation rather than when a bank declines?
What to do with the score
This is a prompt for your own planning, not a benchmark or a compliance assessment. It is not scored against any industry standard and nothing here is advice about your obligations — check your process with your licensee or aggregator’s compliance team.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information and professional development purposes only. It does not constitute legal, compliance, or financial advice. Brokers should consult their aggregator’s compliance team and, where required, seek independent legal advice regarding their obligations under the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 and ASIC’s responsible lending guidelines.
