We are a non-bank lender based in Sydney CBD established in 2018 by three mortgage industry executives, who together have over 50 years industry
experience. Although the mortgage industry is a very competitive and crowded one, we felt we could make a difference by doing things a little differently.
Granite exclusively distributes products through aggregators and brokers and has a particular focus on delivering innovative and niche loan solutions.
Starting out, we focussed on high quality tertiary educated professional borrowers by backing them to buy their own home sooner through an innovative 100% LVR home loan solution. We knew that the key barrier to achieving home ownership is saving a deposit, and that the ideal solution is not relying on the bank of Mum and Dad to qualify. We understood there’s a large demographic of credit worthy, tertiary educated professionals who may not have a full deposit, but based on job security and a future strong income have a strong confidence in repaying a mortgage.
With unprecedented times resulting from Covid, we paused our offering for our 100% LVR product for professionals and instead shifted our focus to offering a range of products and innovative loan solutions. We now offer a broad range of mortgage products for owner occupiers and investors with full product features and ultra-competitive rates and have expanded our distribution footprint. We have a specific focus on SMSF loans by both residential and commercial property and are a market leader in this field.
Our loan products are currently offered by over 6100 brokers, 13 Aggregators across the country, and we plan to keep growing!
Products available:
- SMSF Purchase and Refinance
- Lender Paid LMI – Professional and Essential workers
- NDIS / Co-Living Construction and Established
- Easy Refinance across SMSF, Owner Occ, Investment and Commercial products
Our parent company
ColCap Financial Limited (ColCap) ACN 119 531 252 (Australian Financial Services Licence and Australian Credit Licence 337 303) was established in 2006 and is privately controlled by Australian shareholders.
ColCap is a major non-bank lender in Australia. ColCap offers primarily Australian residential mortgage loans to prime borrowers through wholesale, retail, and broker distribution channels. ColCap has a loan portfolio in excess of A$14 billion and employs over 300 staff in Australia, the UK and the Philippines, with its head office in Sydney.
Our founders
Bridget Sakr
Director and Co-Founder
Bridget is a passionate, respected and trusted senior business leader with over 25 years’ financial services experience. A senior executive with experience in directing business growth, elevating brand awareness, increasing revenue, profitability and market share in the highly competitive and regulated mortgage and associated Lenders Mortgage Insurance market.
Bridget’s career commenced in 1991 at Commonwealth Bank of Australia on a graduate trainee program. She joined Genworth in 1994, (formerly HLIC and GE Mortgage Insurance), an ASX Listed company and leading provider of Lenders Mortgage Insurance, her career spanning over 22 years. She covered many roles from Credit, Operations, Securitisation, Sales and Commercial. Bridget was appointed as the National Sales Leader in 2004, where she first joined the senior leadership team reporting to the CEO. During her time in this role, she expanded the sales team from 18 to 28 and exceeded revenue targets by 25% year on year. In 2010, Bridget was appointed as the Chief Commercial Officer where she led, developed and inspired high performing cross-functional team of 40, including Partnership and Distribution, Marketing and Communications, Product Management and Corporate development teams.
Bridget holds a Bachelor of Arts, Economics Major, University of Sydney and a Graduate Certificate in Humans Resource Management, UTS. Bridget is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and has attended the Foundations of Directorship course, (AICD).
Yianni Socratous
General Manager
yianni.soc@granitehomeloans.com.au
0404 078 258
Yianni has a wide range of experience in Finance, eCommerce and Digital Marketing. A jack-of-all-trades with a specific focus towards sales and business development, systems integration and process improvement. He has a unique blend of skills allowing him to fulfil almost any mortgage finance role along the acquisition, credit, operations, admin and processing pipeline.
Yianni joined Genworth in 2011 as a Corporate Relationship Manager in the Commercial team Major Bank segment. During his time at Genworth, he managed and supported customers such as NAB, Westpac (including St George, BT LMI, RAMS) and CBA. He was responsible for systems integration projects, oversaw application pipelines and managed key stakeholders within these organisations.
Prior to joining Genworth, Yianni worked for 9 years with a boutique lender that acted as a mortgage manager for Adelaide Bank and also utilised private, investor and portfolio funding to provide non-regulated mortgage loans to businesses and investors. Yianni was responsible for Application processing, credit approval and business development. During the GFC the company shifted focus and Yianni was responsible for collections, arrears management and property repossessions.
More recently Yianni co-Founded an eCommerce business specialising in procurement and supply of Mobile Tech equipment to Government agencies, businesses and consumers. Having sold this business mid-2017, Yianni started consulting for other businesses providing solutions for process improvement and increasing online presence and conversions.
Craig Mackenzie
Non-Executive Director and Co-Founder
Craig is an experienced financial services executive with a focus on the mortgage and property segments. He has a unique blend of commercial and legal/regulatory skills and experience developed across several roles including General Counsel (including responsibility for managing APRA relationship and Government Relations program), EGM Commercial, EGM Banking & Finance (Segment Lead) and EGM Product & Solutions roles at CoreLogic over seven years. Craig joined CoreLogic in 2011 as General Counsel, after 10 years in a similar role at Genworth, Australia’s largest mortgage insurance company.
At CoreLogic, Craig was responsible for over 90% of the product and solution suite across a range of segments including real estate, banking, mortgage broking, valuation, construction, wealth and government.
Prior to joining Genworth (previously part of General Electric) in 2001, Craig spent three years in London working at leading UK law firm, Herbert Smith having previously spent five years in Sydney at Dunhill Madden Butler (now PwC Legal).
With 20 years of experience in the residential mortgage industry, Craig has developed a deep understanding of the various component elements of the mortgage ecosystem, specifically best practice usage of property data and analytics, the valuation industry and the overarching regulatory environment for mortgage finance.
Craig has a Bachelor of Commerce (Finance Major) and Bachelor of Law degrees from the University of New South Wales.
