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2005
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2023
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Aussie is founded
1992
Aussie retail launches
2005
Aussie and Lendi merge to form Lendi Group
2021
1,000+ Aussie brokers go live on new platform
2023
Aussie mobile app launches
2024
Aussie property hub launches
2025
A digital makeover for property at Aussie
When Sebastian Watkins bought his first home, the paperwork was endless, the phone calls relentless, and each step felt like entering a new maze. Today, as co-founder and chief operating officer at Aussie’s parent company, Lendi Group, he’s set on making sure no one else has to do it that way again.
Aussie is reimagining what it means to buy a home in Australia by stitching together the entire property journey into one seamless experience. Through its integrated Aussie property hub, the company is transforming brokers into full-service property guides, introducing AI-enhanced tools and expanding into conveyancing, buyer advocacy and real estate partnerships. It’s a strategic shift that aims to turn fragmented transactions into a single, trusted journey − from search to settlement.
This transformation is driven by a vision of simplicity and empowerment for both customers and brokers.
“What we want to do is create a new way of engaging in your homebuying journey, and the only way that we’re going to get there is by being technologically led and by allowing customers to find, buy and own their property in the one experience,” says Watkins.
Traditionally, Australian property buyers have had to juggle multiple touchpoints: brokers, real estate agents, property portals, conveyancers, insurers.
“At the very least, there’s five different experiences, five different brands, and really it’s stitched together and cobbled together in a way that we didn’t feel was a great experience for the consumer,” says Watkins.
Aussie property hub, a centralised platform integrating mortgage broking, conveyancing, buyer advocacy and insurance, aims to reduce friction, eliminate duplicated steps and keep the customer within a single, trusted environment from pre-approval through to settlement.
This strategy was seeded by the 2021 merger between Aussie and digital disruptor Lendi. The union combined Aussie’s established brand and national distribution with Lendi’s digital-first DNA. It created a unique opportunity to build what Watkins calls “a forward-looking solution that is going to be digitally led”, without losing the value of human relationships.
The expansion began with controlled tests in South Australia before scaling nationally. Marketing was recalibrated, pilot groups were formed, and new service offerings were gradually introduced.
“What we saw was customers were very receptive to being able to have that whole experience in the one ecosystem,” Watkins explains. “They were really receptive to the Aussie brand bringing more to them than just broking.”
By March 2025, the vision had matured into a fully fledged platform launched across the network.
Spotlight
Aussie is one of Australia’s most iconic and trusted home loan brands, supporting customers at every stage of their property journey. Backed by a powerful AI-driven platform, a national network of over 1,300 brokers and 215 retail stores, Aussie offers end-to-end support to help Australians find, buy and own property with confidence. From property search and specialist buyers’ agents to expert mortgage broking and integrated conveyancing, Aussie delivers a seamless experience under one roof. With over 30 years of market leadership, Aussie continues to redefine what’s possible for homebuyers and brokers across the country.
Company Profile
1,300+
BROKERS SUPPORTING AUSSIE CUSTOMERS NATIONWIDE
215
AUSSIE RETAIL STORES ACROSS AUSTRALIA
100,000+
AUSSIE APP DOWNLOADS
$100bn+
LOAN BOOK VALUE
1.5 million+
CUSTOMERS SUPPORTED ALONG THEIR HOME LOAN JOURNEY SINCE 1992
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YEARS IN THE INDUSTRY
12
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
Bringing together the Aussie and Lendi brands and uniting Australia’s most iconic mortgage brand with industry-leading technology
Sebastian Watkins
Co-founder and chief operating officer, Lendi Group
A transformation is underway in the property experience, merging tech, people and services into one streamlined journey − from search to settlement − all under one trusted roof
Read on
SEBASTIAN WATKINS,
LENDI GROUP
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Milestones
2011
2012
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2016
2019
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2011
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2012
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2015
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2016
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2019
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2021
YeaRS IN THE INDUSTRY
12
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
Karen Adams
President and CEO at Fundserv
Before becoming CEO of Fundserv, Karen Adams held a variety of leadership roles around the world – and she learned that listening and understanding are key to both providing service and developing talent
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Central to this ecosystem is the mortgage broker − elevated from loan facilitator to holistic property guide. Watkins emphasises that the focus of Aussie’s strategy is not on displacing brokers with technology but on empowering them to deliver more comprehensive value.
“It’s not about saying that everything gets moved to an AI experience. It’s a tool that we use to serve our customers and brokers, and customers can lean in and out of that as much as they want.”
In the integrated model, brokers remain the primary relationship holders but now have access to a suite of interconnected tools and services. This shift transforms the episodic nature of broking into an ongoing partnership, positioning brokers to help clients navigate the entire “find, buy and own” life cycle.
“What we felt would be a good experience is if you could come to Aussie, get your pre-approval, do your conveyancing in one experience, identify yourself once, sign one set of documents,” Watkins says.
Operationally, this required a cultural reset across Aussie’s vast broker network. Standardising processes across thousands of brokers − each with their own habits and workflows − was a significant undertaking. But Watkins says it was essential for enabling a consistent and scalable customer experience.
“Once we’d done that, we started to look at what makes sense for our next phase, and for us, that was starting to stretch into what we’re calling find, buy and own.”
A key part of that phase has been expanding into adjacent services, beginning with Aussie Conveyancing, launched in late 2024. Adoption was swift.
“Almost half of the purchase applications that we’re lodging now have a conveyancing application attached to [them],” says Watkins. “Within six months, to have that sort of attachment rate is incredibly encouraging.”
This strong uptake not only validates the model but also highlights a latent customer need for simplicity.
“It speaks to the ease of the offering, but it also speaks to the unmet need by consumers,” Watkins adds.
Aussie is also helping Australians rethink the value of buyer advocacy, a service that, while commonplace in countries like the US and Canada, is underutilised locally.
“You look to Australia, and we’re probably more like 3−5% [using buyer agents],” says Watkins.
He attributes this to the widespread impression that buyer agents are reserved for wealthy buyers. Aussie aims to disrupt that narrative.
“There is this sort of misconception that buyer agents are for the rich and famous … and that’s actually not the case. What we’re bringing to the Australian consumer is a fixed-price-point proposition that does all the tricky stuff in buying a house.”
This includes off-market property searches, bid strategy and negotiations − areas where infrequent buyers often struggle.
“We’re already transacting 40 to 60 deals a month there, which puts us in the top five or six buyers’ agents in Australia,” Watkins says.
Following the official rollout of the conveyancing service in March, demand from Aussie franchisees quickly exceeded expectations.
“We were oversubscribed by as much as two times,” says Watkins.
While the integration offers clear benefits to consumers, Watkins insists it’s equally designed to bolster broker businesses.
“If we look at it through the customer lens, we will create a better experience. Now the brokers will benefit in some obvious ways − it will be an enhanced process. It will be easier.”
Having key services like conveyancing available on the same platform enables brokers to access information, share documents and manage timelines more efficiently.
But the deeper value, Watkins suggests, lies in helping brokers build stronger, longer-lasting customer relationships.
“You don’t have to bounce in and out of five different relationships just to get your home loan. Ultimately, we’re bringing an experience to the Australian consumer that helps our brokers find more customers, be more efficient and retain more customers.”
The net result: brokers move from being a point-in-time solution to a long-term property partner.
“We like to say that if we get this right, the experience should be so jarringly different to what it used to be that you’ll never want to use the alternative again.”
“Customers were very receptive to being able to have that whole experience in the one ecosystem. They were really receptive to the Aussie brand bringing more to them than just broking”
“We like to say that if we get this right, the experience should be so jarringly different to what it used to be that you’ll never want to use the alternative again”
Sydney
based in
1999
2003
2007
2015
2020
2021
Joins NAB as executive broker distribution
2021
Becomes head of private wealth north at Westpac
2020
Appointed head of asset finance at CBA
2015
Named captain of the Waratahs
2007
Named vice-captain of Australia's Rugby World Cup team
2003
Waugh debuts as a professional rugby player with the Waratahs; makes Test debut with the Wallabies
1999
Milestones
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Published 30 Jun 2025
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Brokers as the new property guides
Expanding into conveyancing and buyer advocacy
Aussie for Agents, another initiative reinforcing Aussie’s broker-first model, links brokers with real estate agents as part of the integrated ecosystem.
This platform leverages Aussie’s large buyer pipeline − tens of thousands of prospective borrowers each month − to build mutual value.
“We represent a significant percentage of buyers in Australia every month. We have thousands, tens of thousands of buyers every month looking for a property that we can push into [agents’] world,” says Watkins.
Crucially, Aussie isn’t using this as an advertising play. Unlike traditional property portals that monetise through vendor fees, Aussie’s search functionality is intended to enhance broker-led customer journeys.
“Making money out of advertising isn’t part of our plan,” Watkins says. “What [the platform] allows us to do is form a fierce alliance with real estate agents around the country.”
The platform also integrates property search with financial context, allowing users to explore homes aligned with their pre-approved borrowing capacity.
Connecting brokers with real estate agents
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Building an integrated property ecosystem
SEBASTIAN WATKINS,
LENDI GROUP
Creating tangible value for brokers
While integrated services form one pillar of Aussie’s future, artificial intelligence is the other. The company’s AI roadmap is reshaping both how brokers work and how customers engage.
“It isn’t just about automating things away and reducing costs to serve,” Watkins explains. “It’s actually about creating a whole new experience − real-time decisioning, infinite capacity, a knowledge base that extends way further than the human brain ever could contemplate.”
Aussie’s AI implementation spans both customer-facing and internal broker tools:
AI as a broker amplifier
After-hours call handling: AI agents now field after-hours customer calls, offering immediate assistance where previously only voicemail was available. “Over 70% chose to speak to an AI agent,” Watkins says, a level of engagement he calls “mind-blowing”.
Sales call coaching: AI analyses call transcripts to suggest improvements in real time. “ ‘You forgot to say that’, or ‘This is how you could have handled that objection’, ” Watkins says, describing the system’s feedback.
Knowledge support: AI draws on millions of customer records and tens of millions of interactions, allowing brokers to access insights far beyond manual capabilities.
“What we get with AI is elastic capacity − we get a knowledge base that will exist and extend beyond what we as humans could ever retain in our brains,” Watkins says.
For brokers, this means more time spent on high-value conversations and less on admin. Customers, in turn, benefit from instant, personalised support.
“Consumers are able to have an always-on experience. They’re able to get access to information and responses far more quickly than they can today,” Watkins explains. “As a result, our brokers will be infinitely more efficient.”
Ultimately, Watkins believes Aussie’s evolving platform and AI capabilities will transform the very nature of mortgage broking.
“It’s going to fundamentally change what it means to be a mortgage broker and what it means as a customer using a mortgage broker. The way that we’re used to transacting with the broker today will look nothing like it does six months from now − maybe even sooner.”
This vision is grounded not in replacing brokers with tech but in using technology to elevate brokers as trusted, tech-enabled advisers within a complete property ecosystem.
“We’ve made some great strides in that direction and will continue to do so in the coming months and years,” says Watkins. “It’s just the beginning for us, but early days are looking really encouraging.”
Reimagining the broker−customer relationship
Aussie for Agents, another initiative reinforcing Aussie’s broker-first model, links brokers with real estate agents as part of the integrated ecosystem.
This platform leverages Aussie’s large buyer pipeline − tens of thousands of prospective borrowers each month − to build mutual value.
“We represent a significant percentage of buyers in Australia every month. We have thousands, tens of thousands of buyers every month looking for a property that we can push into [agents’] world,” says Watkins.
Crucially, Aussie isn’t using this as an advertising play. Unlike traditional property portals that monetise through vendor fees, Aussie’s search functionality is intended to enhance broker-led customer journeys.
“Making money out of advertising isn’t part of our plan,” Watkins says. “What [the platform] allows us to do is form a fierce alliance with real estate agents around the country.”
The platform also integrates property search with financial context, allowing users to explore homes aligned with their pre-approved borrowing capacity.
Connecting brokers with real estate agents
While the integration offers clear benefits to consumers, Watkins insists it’s equally designed to bolster broker businesses.
“If we look at it through the customer lens, we will create a better experience. Now the brokers will benefit in some obvious ways − it will be an enhanced process. It will be easier.”
Having key services like conveyancing available on the same platform enables brokers to access information, share documents and manage timelines more efficiently.
But the deeper value, Watkins suggests, lies in helping brokers build stronger, longer-lasting customer relationships.
“You don’t have to bounce in and out of five different relationships just to get your home loan. Ultimately, we’re bringing an experience to the Australian consumer that helps our brokers find more customers, be more efficient and retain more customers.”
The net result: brokers move from being a point-in-time solution to a long-term property partner.
“We like to say that if we get this right, the experience should be so jarringly different to what it used to be that you’ll never want to use the alternative again.”
“You look to Australia, and we’re probably more like 3−5% [using buyer agents],” says Watkins.
He attributes this to the widespread impression that buyer agents are reserved for wealthy buyers. Aussie aims to disrupt that narrative.
“There is this sort of misconception that buyer agents are for the rich and famous … and that’s actually not the case. What we’re bringing to the Australian consumer is a fixed-price-point proposition that does all the tricky stuff in buying a house.”
This includes off-market property searches, bid strategy and negotiations − areas where infrequent buyers often struggle.
“We’re already transacting 40 to 60 deals a month there, which puts us in the top five or six buyers’ agents in Australia,” Watkins says.
Following the official rollout of the conveyancing service in March, demand from Aussie franchisees quickly exceeded expectations.
“We were oversubscribed by as much as two times,” says Watkins.
A key part of that phase has been expanding into adjacent services, beginning with Aussie Conveyancing, launched in late 2024. Adoption was swift.
“Almost half of the purchase applications that we’re lodging now have a conveyancing application attached to [them],” says Watkins. “Within six months, to have that sort of attachment rate is incredibly encouraging.”
This strong uptake not only validates the model but also highlights a latent customer need for simplicity.
“It speaks to the ease of the offering, but it also speaks to the unmet need by consumers,” Watkins adds.
Aussie is also helping Australians rethink the value of buyer advocacy, a service that, while commonplace in countries like the US and Canada, is underutilised locally.
Expanding into conveyancing and buyer advocacy
“We like to say that if we get this right, the experience should be so jarringly different to what it used to be that you’ll never want to use the alternative again”
Central to this ecosystem is the mortgage broker − elevated from loan facilitator to holistic property guide. Watkins emphasises that the focus of Aussie’s strategy is not on displacing brokers with technology but on empowering them to deliver more comprehensive value.
“It’s not about saying that everything gets moved to an AI experience. It’s a tool that we use to serve our customers and brokers, and customers can lean in and out of that as much as they want.”
In the integrated model, brokers remain the primary relationship holders but now have access to a suite of interconnected tools and services. This shift transforms the episodic nature of broking into an ongoing partnership, positioning brokers to help clients navigate the entire “find, buy and own” life cycle.
“What we felt would be a good experience is if you could come to Aussie, get your pre-approval, do your conveyancing in one experience, identify yourself once, sign one set of documents,” Watkins says.
Operationally, this required a cultural reset across Aussie’s vast broker network. Standardising processes across thousands of brokers − each with their own habits and workflows − was a significant undertaking. But Watkins says it was essential for enabling a consistent and scalable customer experience.
“Once we’d done that, we started to look at what makes sense for our next phase, and for us, that was starting to stretch into what we’re calling find, buy and own.”
Brokers as the new property guides
Traditionally, Australian property buyers have had to juggle multiple touchpoints: brokers, real estate agents, property portals, conveyancers, insurers.
“At the very least, there’s five different experiences, five different brands, and really it’s stitched together and cobbled together in a way that we didn’t feel was a great experience for the consumer,” says Watkins.
Aussie property hub, a centralised platform integrating mortgage broking, conveyancing, buyer advocacy and insurance, aims to reduce friction, eliminate duplicated steps and keep the customer within a single, trusted environment from pre-approval through to settlement.
This strategy was seeded by the 2021 merger between Aussie and digital disruptor Lendi. The union combined Aussie’s established brand and national distribution with Lendi’s digital-first DNA. It created a unique opportunity to build what Watkins calls “a forward-looking solution that is going to be digitally led”, without losing the value of human relationships.
The expansion began with controlled tests in South Australia before scaling nationally. Marketing was recalibrated, pilot groups were formed, and new service offerings were gradually introduced.
“What we saw was customers were very receptive to being able to have that whole experience in the one ecosystem,” Watkins explains. “They were really receptive to the Aussie brand bringing more to them than just broking.”
By March 2025, the vision had matured into a fully fledged platform launched across the network.
“Customers were very receptive to being able to have that whole experience in the one ecosystem. They were really receptive to the Aussie brand bringing more to them than just broking”
SEBASTIAN WATKINS,
LENDI GROUP
When Sebastian Watkins bought his first home, the paperwork was endless, the phone calls relentless, and each step felt like entering a new maze. Today, as co-founder and chief operating officer at Aussie’s parent company, Lendi Group, he’s set on making sure no one else has to do it that way again.
Aussie is reimagining what it means to buy a home in Australia by stitching together the entire property journey into one seamless experience. Through its integrated Aussie property hub, the company is transforming brokers into full-service property guides, introducing AI-enhanced tools and expanding into conveyancing, buyer advocacy and real estate partnerships. It’s a strategic shift that aims to turn fragmented transactions into a single, trusted journey − from search to settlement.
This transformation is driven by a vision of simplicity and empowerment for both customers and brokers.
“What we want to do is create a new way of engaging in your homebuying journey, and the only way that we’re going to get there is by being technologically led and by allowing customers to find, buy and own their property in the one experience,” says Watkins.
A digital makeover for property at Aussie
Spotlight
Published 30 Jun 2025