The skills shift reshaping brokers
Grant Smith, Chief Lending Officer - ORDE Financial
Australians are better paid and more highly skilled than ever, and a growing share are running businesses or earning income in less traditional ways. Many of these borrowers are already in brokers’ books, yet they’re finding it harder to fit within traditional lending – reshaping how brokers can support them.
Alex had spent 15 years building a successful IT business. He had consistent cash flow, paid his
staff on time, and had considerable equity in his primary residence. Yet when he applied to his bank for
pre-approval on an investment property, he was knocked back. After making a few strategic hires to invest in business growth, his P&L statements showed a historical loss – and that was enough to make the bank say no.
Stories like Alex’s are increasingly common. Having spent over 15 years working in non-bank lending, I’ve seen an uptick in creditworthy borrowers turned away by the major banks. Not because they’re a higher risk – but because their income stories are complex.
Our traditional credit systems were built for PAYG employment. Yet a growing proportion of the Australian workforce no longer earn income that way. They’re self-employed, working as contractors for multiple employers, running side hustles, or working ad-hoc shifts. That doesn’t necessarily make them a credit risk – but it does change how their income needs to be assessed.
For many brokers, these aren’t new clients – they’re existing ones with evolving needs. And that’s what non- banks like ORDE Financial were built for: almost 80 per cent of our loans are with self- employed and business owner borrowers. No longer seen as a bank of last resort, non-banks offer the flexible lending pathways they need.
Australia’s great skills shift
This shift is already showing up in the data. Over the last 25 years, the number of Australians employed in professional occupations – like IT consultants, health practitioners, and engineers – has grown over 140 per cent, according to our Outlook Australia research with Bernard Salt*. Almost one in eight working Australians are owner- managers. Other professionals – such as nurses and aged or disabled carers (both among the fastest- growing jobs in the country) – tend to work with multiple employers or have irregular casual shifts.
The next biggest cohort of job roles? Tradies. The number of tradies is expanding at a rate of about 51,000 per year. More than 374,000 are tradie owner-managers, and their businesses are riding the wave of infrastructure investment across our major cities and regional areas.
These are the big demographic groups shaping lending demand – and they’re only getting bigger.
The PAYG paradox
In my experience, these borrowers are often the most motivated to sustain cash flow – precisely because they have staff depending on them. They may not earn a regular salary – but they’re the ones paying PAYG. They also have greater control over how much they earn and are less at risk of a company restructure or redundancy decision.
Yet this flexibility works against them when they want to buy a property or consolidate their debts because their income profile is deemed ‘non-traditional’.
When life and business collide, the stakes get even higher. Here’s a recent real-life example. When a restaurant owner was forced to split her assets during a divorce, she was determined to keep her business going and rebuild her financial security on her own terms. But she’d built that business with her husband, and their three commercial properties were secured by complicated loan structures.
We worked with her broker to untangle these debts with a full refinance that transferred property ownership into her name. This was not a simple box-ticking exercise – we needed to understand the underlying challenges, so we could be confident she could run the business as a sole operator. Then we structured the commercial loan and debt consolidation refinance, so she could move forward with confidence.
Smart strategic moves
These aren’t one-off scenarios – they reflect a broader shift taking place across Australia’s borrower base. Our demographic analysis suggests the traditional PAYG home loan is in decline. Australia’s 2.4 million-plus SME business owners are a clear example.
They’re running businesses, employing people, and backing their own growth – and they need lending that reflects how they actually earn.
That’s where brokers play a crucial role, with solutions structured around the borrower – not forced into a standard template.
Much of the opportunity is already in your book. It’s about recognising when existing clients may need broader lending support – whether that’s commercial, SMSF, or more tailored structuring.
As brokers know, SME lending isn’t one-size-fits-all. A developer securing a site or a retail operator managing seasonal cash flow often needs something different, and their income or structure doesn’t always fit standard lending models.
These borrowers are already part of your client base – from first home buyers who are also sole traders to professionals and tradies with multiple income streams. As the way Australians earn evolves, so too does the role brokers play in supporting them.
ORDE supporting brokers, as you support your clients
This shift is also changing the role of lenders. Non- banks, like ORDE Financial, are increasingly stepping in to support borrowers whose financials don’t fit standard models – taking a more flexible approach and focusing on the full story behind the income.
In this environment, what matters is having the right support around you: from lending partners that understand more complex scenarios, to the ability to step back and connect the dots across a client’s full financial position.
Australia’s workforce is changing faster than our credit system is keeping up. Brokers who understand that shift – and have the right lending partners behind them – are the ones who’ll build more resilient businesses in the decade ahead.
*Outlook Australia, our research with demographer Bernard Salt AM, maps the demographic forces
behind this shift.