Customers vary widely in their rating of their investment property lenders, with some regions rating certain lenders much higher than others. Due to these variations, it pays for prospective borrowers to shop around, according to the latest Consumer Atlas research by DBM Consultants.
Dhruba Gupta, research director at DBM Consultants, said the variations came down, in part, to customer service. “While the Big 4 banks would be expected to have similar products and pricing policies across the nation, they clearly appear to vary in how their products are delivered in the different markets,” he said.
Property investors borrowing from one of the Big Four rated their satisfaction with their investment mortgage (average of 7.1 out of 10) similar to non-Big Four banks (average of 7.2 out of 10). While there was not much difference among the Big Four overall, there was wide variation in the ratings among the non-Big Four banks and non-bank lenders.
Ratings were quite diverse across the states. In New South Wales, ING was rated the best (8.2), whilst Bendigo and Adelaide Bank was rated the highest in Victoria (8.1). Heritage Bank scored the best in Queensland (8.2), and in South Australia, both Westpac and ANZ shared first position (7.5). CBA received the top rating in Western Australia (7.3).
Among the Big Four, there were inconsistencies in the investor property customer ratings across the states. Westpac attracted the most polarised views across Australia, with its South Australian customers being the most satisfied (7.5), and its customers in Victoria being the least satisfied (6.4). CBA received the most consistent ratings across five states, with Victorian customers giving the highest rating (7.5) and NSW customers giving the lowest rating (7.0).
Lender ratings also varied widely among customers in metro or non-metro areas. Customers in non-metropolitan areas rated Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (+1.0), Bank of Queensland (+0.8), NAB (+0.7), and Westpac (+0.5) significantly higher than investor borrowers living in metropolitan areas.
“The differences reflected, in part … the different strengths of the sales and service activities among the competitors,” Gupta said.
“Overall, the results from customer ratings are telling us that the providers of mortgages for investment properties vary widely in what they offer and there is no one that is consistently top rated across all the markets they serve,” he added. “It should therefore pay to shop around especially among the lenders that are well regarded in each market.”
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