About Esteb & Co

A Gold Coast mortgage brokerage. One broker, one panel, one calculation methodology applied consistently across every file — and made public so prospective clients can see exactly how their number was derived.

What we are

Esteb and Co Pty Ltd is the corporate Credit Representative; Richard Esteb is the licensed broker who provides credit assistance under that authorisation. Both representations sit beneath Australian Finance Group Ltd (AFG), one of Australia's largest mortgage aggregators and our Australian Credit Licensee.

What makes this practice different

Most brokers calculate borrowing capacity privately and present the answer. We publish the calculator. The methodology page documents every step of the calculation — assessment rate per lender, DTI cap, HEM benchmark, income shading by employment type and frequency, liability calculation by lender rule. That same methodology runs inside the practice, against the same panel, with the same data.

The point isn't transparency for its own sake. It's that the spread between the highest and lowest borrowable across the panel — typically 20-40% for the same borrower — is the real shape of the market and the real reason a broker is worth engaging. Showing that spread up front makes the conversation afterwards faster and more focused.

How the data works

Lender policy is imported from AFG's lender-information matrix, released roughly every 2-3 months. The matrix is the same source AFG's FLEX simulation runs on — so the panel data behind our calculator is the same panel data behind every AFG broker's tools, just rendered consumer-side instead of broker-side.

Between matrix releases, lender rates and policies do move. Every calculator result page shows the panel data refresh date so you know how fresh the figures are; deal-binding figures are confirmed against the lender's own servicing calculator at deal stage.

Where we work

Gold Coast and broader Queensland. Most files run remotely — phone, email, electronic document signing — so location doesn't constrain who we can work with. In-person on the Coast where it makes sense.