Wealthy entrepreneur Mark Bouris, who founded and then sold the Wizard Home Loans business for $500 million, is returning to the mortgage broking sector with his company Yellow Brick Road.
Yellow Brick Road, which was founded in 2007, has concentrated on financial advice, covering areas such as financial planning, superannuation, tax advice and accounting services.
But under a new deal announced on 13 December, the company will offer home loans product financed by Gateway Credit Union.
While Bouris was unavailable for comment prior to publication, he said in a statement that he was “delighted” to be back in the home loans business and keen to put pressure on the big banks.
Bouris argues the major banks have been able to raise interest rates by more than the RBA’s rate rises because of competition in the sector is weak. Bouris says new players are needed to “keep the big banks honest and ensure that there’s strong competition in the marketplace”.
“Increased competition will mean that the big banks will have to think twice about raising interest rates beyond the official rate or risk losing market share to us.”
Yellow Brick Road will launch with a standard variable mortgage rate of 6.34%, compared to Westpac’s standard variable rate of 6.76%.
Bouris, who recently starred in the Australian television series The Apprentice, last appeared on BRW’s Rich 200 with a fortune of $269 million.
Bouris sold Wizard Home Loans to US company GE Capital in 2004 for $500 million, before GE sold the business to Aussie Home Loans last year for just $26 million.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
