The broker revolution is here – where speed meets scale

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While it won’t make you a cappuccino, ScotPac’s Partner Portal makes helping commercial clients so fast and easy brokers will wonder how they did without it

IF SOMEONE had set a target two years ago for Bluestone Home Loans to get its loan processing times down from two weeks to three days, they might have been dismissed as wildly optimistic. Bluestone not only achieved this milestone but also doubled its loan volumes each year over that time and is now eyeing same-day approvals as a benchmark for 2026. For brokers, it’s one thing for a lender to boast about numbers. It’s another to convince them that growth is sustainable and beneficial for their own businesses.

Homeownership is a fundamental part of the Australian dream. However, the path can be challenging, especially as traditional lending can be strict and unforgiving. We’re here to change that. Since 2000, Bluestone Home Loans has been helping borrowers with complex or unique financial situations access the market with confidence – offering them a chance to purchase property, when others won’t, by providing tailored lending solutions. We empower brokers to serve a broader range of clients, from self-employed professionals to borrowers with past credit issues or those seeking niche lending options. With a 25-year legacy, Bluestone Home Loans has become a trusted leader in the Australian lending market, known for delivering innovative, flexible and straightforward solutions that break the mould of traditional lending.

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TONY MACRAE, BLUESTONE home loans

The transformation began with honest self-assessment. Two years ago, MacRae acknowledges the company was “complex and difficult to deal with”. The response has been a systematic elimination of unnecessary complexity that was hindering broker relationships and slowing deal flow. “We embarked on an exercise to eliminate what’s not needed. We asked ourselves, what do we really need to make good-quality credit decisions?” MacRae says. The company removed multiple supporting documents and streamlined data capture processes, driving turnaround times from 10–11 days to just three days for unconditional approval by August this year.

Tony MacRae, Bluestone Home Loans

The next phase involves greater digitalisation and automation. MacRae explains the company is developing systems that use APIs and AI to automate manual verification processes, while exploring open banking data to replace physical document requirements. “We hope, relatively early in the new year, to actually be in a position to be able to give formal, same-day decisions for a large percentage of loans that are submitted to us,” he says. Yet technology remains a tool rather than the end goal. “Technology will be a facilitator to deliver better, quicker decisions. But at the heart of everything we do is ensuring that relationships are important and that we are spending time with brokers to help them find solutions for their customers,” MacRae says.

Operational improvements alone, without a significant investment in people, couldn’t have delivered the growth Bluestone achieved. “We’ve grown our BDM team by well over 50% over the last two years,” MacRae explains. This expansion goes beyond mere head-count increases, with the addition of specialist roles, including a head of non-standard lending to complement existing expertise in self-managed superannuation funds. MacRae sees this ground-level presence as essential for the type of lending Bluestone specialises in. “A lot of the stuff that happens in the non-prime or non-standard lending space does need a higher touch, and it needs more involvement from the BDM to be able to workshop and show the broker that there is a solution and a pathway forward,” he says. In terms of how brokers rate Bluestone, the results are impressive. Weekly satisfaction scores follow an upward arc that put Bluestone’s average NPS score at a stellar 85 in September, much higher than the 2024 industry B2B average for banking and financial services of -3 as measured by Evolved Thinking. This feedback has become central to how the company operates and evolves its offering, retaining a focus on the broker at all times.

Whether customers are self-employed, have experienced financial difficulties or seek to build wealth through superannuation, mainstream lenders have increasingly retreated from these segments. Bluestone’s response has been to develop comprehensive solutions across alternative documentation, self-managed superannuation and specialist lending categories. Moving beyond these core products, the company recently launched an expatriate product allowing Australian citizens living abroad to invest back into the domestic market. Two additional products – alternative-documentation construction and small-ticket commercial – are currently in live testing with selected brokers, with a full market launch expected before year-end. “Our goal is to be the preferred partner for brokers for non-standard lending in the marketplace,” MacRae says. The addition of commercial and construction products for alternative-documentation customers will represent new arrows in Bluestone’s product quiver, while plans to expand beyond the current $5 million loan limit are being developed for the new year.

“At the heart of everything we do is ensuring that relationships are important and that we are spending time with brokers to help them find solutions for their customers”

“Our goal is to be the preferred partner for brokers for non-standard lending in the marketplace”

By slashing turnaround times, expanding its team and launching specialist products, Bluestone Home Loans is proving growth and broker value can go hand in hand

While it won’t make you a cappuccino, ScotPac’s Partner Portal makes helping commercial clients so fast and easy brokers will wonder how they did without it

Bluestone’s focus on complex lending scenarios reflects both its heritage and current market opportunities. “Twenty-five years ago, Bluestone was founded to help customers that didn’t fit the mainstream lenders, and we still stand by this purpose today,” MacRae explains. What has changed is the way Bluestone helps these clients with more technology, an improved product suite and ever-expanding flexible lending options.

2023

AVERAGE LOAN TURNAROUND TIMEAT BLUESTONE

As spring approaches, MacRae observes strengthening demand despite ongoing supply constraints in the property market. “We’re seeing a real pick-up in demand, which is really positive,” he says. This environment plays to Bluestone’s strengths in looking beyond traditional credit assessment approaches. “Where Bluestone really comes into its own is looking beyond just credit scores and pure numbers but understanding the customer’s circumstances and the story that sits behind them,” MacRae explains. This approach enables brokers to assist customers who might previously have been considered too difficult to help or had to wait longer before qualifying for loans. The company’s market position reflects broader changes in how Australians earn income and build wealth. Traditional employment patterns continue to shift, creating opportunities for lenders willing to assess applications based on circumstances rather than standard criteria alone. More Australians are contemplating side hustles, and the self-employed are now 15% of the workforce. Government statistics show that the number of independent contractors grew by 10% from August 2023 to August 2024.

Simplifying the complex

Putting boots on the ground

Meeting market gaps

Published 20 Oct 2025

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Beyond product development and operational improvements, Bluestone maintains an extensive education program for brokers. Regular webinars, roadshows and professional development sessions help brokers understand how to position customers who might not obviously fit traditional lending criteria. “Education is at the core of what we do, showing brokers that there’s ways to look after customers that they may not necessarily have thought were able to be positioned,” MacRae says. The company takes its quarterly webinars on the road, with a live Brisbane event planned featuring property analyst Tim Lawless. MacRae recalls a Western Australian broker who had never written an SMSF loan 18 months ago but, after direct support from Bluestone specialists, became the company’s top SMSF writer nationally. “It revolutionised their business,” he says of the transformation possible when brokers embrace complex lending with proper support.

MacRae’s message to brokers centres on maintaining curiosity about possible solutions. “We always ask brokers to be curious, ask questions, because rarely the answer is no,” he says. This philosophy extends throughout the organisation, from BDMs working with brokers to underwriters assessing applications. “Being curious normally finds solutions,” MacRae says. The company positions itself as existing specifically to find these solutions, welcoming feedback that helps identify new market opportunities and product development priorities. The brand refresh celebrating Bluestone’s 25th anniversary earlier this year captured this balance between experience and forward thinking. “We’ve been around for 25 years, and we’ve got a strong, stable organisation, but [the rebrand is also] a real nod to the future that we want to be today’s lender – forward-thinking and tech-first, but not losing sight of the fact that at the heart it we’re a relationship business,” MacRae says.

A GROWING INDUSTRY REPUTATION

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At Bluestone, the promise of scale and speed is tied to something less measurable but arguably more powerful: a belief that every complex client deserves a solution. Chief commercial officer Tony MacRae says the non-bank has been deliberate about redefining itself from “just another option” to a true broker partner. That’s meant putting more boots on the ground, stripping away red tape that once slowed applications, and designing products for borrowers that mainstream lenders increasingly overlook. By pairing technology upgrades with an insistence on high-touch broker support, Bluestone has positioned itself not just as a lender that can grow, but as one helping brokers to expand the possibilities for their clients.

Bluestone's broker NPS score

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