What is CBA's market share of Australian home loans?

CBA holds approximately 25.4% of the Australian residential mortgage market as at FY25 disclosures — the largest single share by any individual lender. Including the Bankwest brand (CBA-owned, written-down 2024), the group share is roughly 27%. Westpac is second around 21%, NAB and ANZ each around 14-15%.

Why is CBA so big in home lending?

Three reinforcing factors: the largest proprietary distribution network (more branches, the country's most-used banking app, and the largest direct-to-customer sales force); FHB-segment dominance (CommBank's FHB processing pipeline has been the broker market's reference for over a decade); and the transactional-account stickiness flywheel (most Australian salaries are paid into a CommBank account, which makes the loan refinance friction higher than at sister lenders).

What is CBA's cheapest home loan rate?

5.99% variable on the Wealth Package OO P&I sub-60% LVR as at May 2026. Across all 240+ CBA home-loan products on our panel the average rate is 6.41%. CBA sits at the more conservative pricing end of the Big 4 — the proposition is scale and reliability rather than rate-card sharpness.

Does CBA offer a $500,000 offset cap?

No — CBA's MAV (Mortgage Advantage Variable) loan has no offset cap. The product allows unlimited offset balance, in line with most major bank standard variable products. The structural advantage is that the offset feature pairs with a transactional account most CommBank customers already use day-to-day.

How long does CBA take to approve a home loan?

~9 days submission to unconditional on a clean PAYG broker file as at Q1 2026. NAB is fastest at ~7 days, Westpac 8, ANZ 10. CBA's processing scale means consistency is the win — fewer file-by-file surprises than the Big 4 average, even if not the fastest.

A lender profile · May 2026 · Big 4 · 22nd format

CBA — if four of your friends have a mortgage, statistically one is at CBA. The 1-in-4 question.

Item: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Rating: 4.0
Author: Richard Esteb

CBA holds roughly 25% of Australia's residential mortgage market — the largest single-lender share in the country, by a clear margin. This page doesn't pitch the rate. It deconstructs the 25%: where the share actually comes from, what CBA delivers to earn it, and the file types where the dominance translates into a tangible borrower advantage versus the file types where it doesn't.

May 2026 · Commonwealth Bank of Australia · ABN 48 123 123 124 · AFSL 234945 · APRA-regulated D-SIB

The Australian home-loan market — May 2026 share

CBA 25.4%

Westpac 21.0%

NAB 14.8%

ANZ 13.9%

All other lenders 24.9%

Source: APRA monthly ADI residential mortgage statistics, latest release. Group share including Bankwest (CBA-owned) brings CBA group to ~27%. The "all other lenders" segment covers Macquarie, Bendigo, Bankwest, ING, Suncorp, and 50+ non-banks combined.

The 25% deconstructed · three structural pillars

Where the 25% actually comes from.

Market share isn't a single thing — it's a stack of structural advantages compounding over decades. CBA's stack has three load-bearing pieces. Each delivers a real broker-channel benefit on specific file types; each has a counterweight on others.

Pillar 01 of 03

~45%

Distribution — the country's biggest proprietary channel

CBA has around 700+ retail branches, the largest mobile-banker direct sales force, and the country's most-used banking app (~9 million active monthly users). Roughly 45% of CBA's home-loan flow comes through proprietary channels, not brokers — the only Big 4 where proprietary out-volumes broker. The CommBank app's "Home Loan in Minutes" pre-approval flow is the single highest-converting digital home-loan funnel in the country.

For brokers, this matters because roughly 55% of CBA's flow IS still broker-channel — the proprietary channel doesn't crowd the broker out. CBA's broker proposition is built on credibility (the brand the customer trusts) plus scale (their processing teams have seen every edge case).

Translation: if a borrower says "I want to go with CBA", they're often partly responding to brand familiarity from the CommBank app they use every day. The 45% proprietary channel makes brand recognition the dominant CBA pitch.

Pillar 02 of 03

~30%

First-home-buyer segment — the FHB processing reference

CBA's FHB share materially exceeds its overall market share. Roughly 30% of new Australian first-home-buyer loans are written at CBA — the FHB segment is the largest single contributor to CBA's overall lead. The reasons: full FHBG (First Home Guarantee Scheme) accreditation, dedicated FHB processing pipeline, and the consumer-facing FHB-friendly product set (CommBank's "Property" feature in the app does suburb research that no other Big 4 matches at the app level).

On a typical FHBG file the CBA process is structurally the lowest-friction — the FHB processing team treats FHBG submissions as core flow, not an exception. NAB also handles FHBG well; ANZ and Westpac process it but with more friction.

Translation: if the file is an FHBG / 5% deposit first-home submission, CBA is structurally the default — not because the rate is best, but because the processing pathway is fastest.

Pillar 03 of 03

structural

Transactional-account stickiness flywheel

Most Australian salaries are paid into a CommBank account. That account holds the customer's everyday banking, BPAY history, direct debits, and increasingly the offset balance for their CBA mortgage. The structural effect: refinance friction is materially higher at CBA than at sister lenders — moving the home loan also means moving the daily-banking relationship most customers don't want to disturb.

The MAV (Mortgage Advantage Variable) loan compounds this. MAV has no offset cap — the offset balance is uncapped, paired with the customer's everyday CBA transactional account. For a customer holding $50k-$200k working capital in the CBA transactional account anyway, the offset utility is automatic.

Translation: CBA's stickiness isn't accidental — it's a product of the transactional account being where most Australian salaries land. If a refinance to a sharper non-bank rate is on the table, the broker walks the customer through the move-the-everyday-banking question first.

At a glance · May 2026

CBA's broker-channel reference data.

5.99%

Cheapest variable

6.41%

Average rate

8.99%

Assessment rate

7.0×

DTI cap

95%

Max investor LVR

95%

Max OO LVR

9 days

Broker turnaround

240+

Active products

Where the 25% earns nothing — files where CBA's scale doesn't translate

Self-employed alt-doc. CBA Choice handles SE files but isn't where the broker reaches first. Macquarie and the non-banks (Liberty, La Trobe, Pepper) have sharper SE products and faster SE turnarounds. CBA's scale doesn't translate into specialist-segment depth.

SMSF residential. CBA exited SMSF residential lending in 2018 alongside ANZ. The Macquarie / Liberty / La Trobe specialist trio writes SMSF files now. CBA's brand is structurally absent from this segment.

Rate-driven refinance plays. CBA's 5.99% headline is the most conservative of the Big 4. For a refinance file driven by absolute rate, the sharper non-bank rates (5.49-5.74% on equivalent OO P&I sub-60% LVR) deliver materially more over the loan life. The transactional-stickiness pillar (#3 above) is the friction CBA relies on to keep these files.

See where CBA lands for your file vs the panel.

The borrowing-capacity calculator quotes CBA's assessment alongside every other lender — you see the 1-in-4 outcome alongside the alternatives.

Run the calculator

Written by Richard Esteb · ASIC Credit Rep #574071 · Esteb & Co (CR #574070) · authorised under Connective (ACL #389328). General information only — Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a domestic systemically-important bank (D-SIB) under APRA prudential standards. Pricing and policy as published, accurate at time of writing. Market-share figures from APRA monthly ADI mortgage statistics. Confirm at file time.