Bluestone targets prime lending growth

Across the Tasman, Bluestone has revamped its product suite and officially launched a new loan product for prime Australian borrowers.

The Aussie product, the lender's first prime product in Australia, features fixed loans at 2.99%, alt-doc options, and no risk fees.

Campbell Smyth, chief executive officer of Bluestone said the move represented "the evolution of Bluestone as a lender”.

Smyth added: “We have been operating in the near prime space for a number of years and over this time we’ve seen an increase in clear credit borrowers thanks to the tightening lending criteria of the banks.

“Moving into prime means we now offer home loan solutions for the full spectrum of borrowers and increase our relevance in this changing market.”

It comes after Bluestone launched its Select white label range with NZFSG earlier this year. The Select range spans prime and near-prime products. 

There have been more than $250 million in applications since Select's launch, and the group hopes to win more customers turned away by the major banks. This week, Bluestone and NZFSG revealed they had gone live with straight-through processing to cut down turnaround times.

Peter Wood, managing director of Bluestone New Zealand, said the Australian announcement would not affect any products over here, but said the lender was keen to grab more customers unable to access the major banks. 

"There are a low of borrowers out there that look and feel like prime customers but do not meet bank criteria for whatever reason. We're also catering heavily for investors as we are not bound by RBNZ restrictions. A lot of them are coming back to the market and we're starting to see an uptick in that."