Real Estate Australia (REA) Group has announced it has successfully acquired Mortgage Choice Limited, following the initial announcement to the ASX on 29 March.
REA Group notes combining REA and Mortgage Choice will have a significant national broker footprint in Australia’s more than $400 billion annual home loan market, with more than 940 brokers, 720 franchises, 40 lending partners and a loan book over $84 billion.
REA Group Chief Executive Officer Owen Wilson was delighted to welcome the Mortgage Choice team to REA.
“We are excited to be bringing together our two strong businesses. The combination of our Smartline and Mortgage Choice businesses will allow REA to accelerate our financial services strategy,” Mr Wilson said.
“We see considerable growth opportunities that will deliver increased value to our Smartline and Mortgage Choice broker network, clients and business partners. We look forward to providing Australians with even greater choice and flexibility when it comes to catering for all their home-financing needs.”
Smartline Chief Executive Officer Sam Boer believes the acquisition will provide the perfect ingredients to create an even stronger value proposition and market leading position.
“Bringing Mortgage Choice into the REA family will provide us with greater national broker coverage and strengthens our ability to help more Australians finance their next property,” Mr Boer said.
Mortgage Choice Chief Executive Officer Susan Mitchell echoed the same sentiment.
“We are excited to be joining REA and the opportunity to leverage REA’s vast consumer audience who turn to realestate.com.au for all their property and home financing options. We look forward to evolving our combined service offerings to deliver superior value across all our stakeholder groups,” Ms Mitchell said.
Over the coming months REA and Mortgage Choice management teams will work to ensure a smooth transition and integration, while delivering the same levels of industry leading service and support to its franchisee network, brokers, clients and business partners.
