Newcastle Permanent punching above its weight

Mozo Experts Choice winner, Newcastle Permanent Building Society have posted higher home loan and customer deposit growth rates than any top four bank, according to its 2017 Annual Report.

The Hunter-based lender posted bumper profits of $38.9 million, recording an 8.5% growth in home loans. This exceeded the average industry growth rate of 6.6% and drove Newcastle Permanent’s total loans to $8.7 billion.

“Our customer deposits also grew by an impressive 11.1%, propelling total funding to $9.9 billion, and helping to make us the second largest customer-owned banking organisation in Australia,” said Newcastle Permanent Chair, Jeff Eather.

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Eather said that, after posting these sorts of numbers, the Building Society is now outpacing the major four banks in those two categories.

"In our 114th year of operation, we continue to punch well above our weight growing faster than the four major banks in both home loans and customer deposits,” he said.

One reason for Newcastle Permanent’s recent growth can be put down to the competitive interest rates it offers on a range of home loan products.

The building society offers a competitive 3.64% variable interest rate on its Discounted Variable Home Loan Premium Plus Package, while Mozo data shows that the average big four variable rate sits more than a percent higher at 4.66%.

Using Mozo’s Home Loan Repayments Calculator, customers switching from the average big four bank variable rate to Newcastle Permanent’s headline variable rate of 3.64% would save a staggering $284 a month, paying just $2,541 in monthly repayments on a 25 year loan worth $500,000.

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But Newcastle Permanent CEO Terry Millett, said that customer satisfaction has been key to the company’s recent success.

“Customer satisfaction is vital in any business, and this year we have achieved an impressive result of 93% – significantly higher than any of the four major banks. Plus we were recognised as a leader in customer satisfaction in the prestigious Mozo’s People’s Choice Awards for 2017,” he said.

Newcastle Permanent came out on top in the Outstanding Customer Satisfaction, Highly Trusted, Staff Friendliness and Most Recommended categories during Mozo’s 2017 People’s Choice awards for banking.

If you’d like to find out what your mortgage could look like with Newcastle Permanent, check out Mozo’s dedicated provider page to view a range of products. Or if you want to check out a bunch of different home loan options, check out Mozo’s home loan comparison tables.