MPA Top Commercial Brokers-Son Pham MPA Top Commercial Brokers-Son Pham

Profile

"West Oak’s success has come from always putting our clients’ best interests first and always finding ways to improve and add more value to them"

Andrew mcquiston, west oak family office, wellington-altus private wealth

Rethink Financing director Son Pham likes cracking the tough nuts. If a client is turned away from a bunch of other brokers with a gnarly loan request that has been turned down all over town, Pham takes notice. “That really drives me to see if I can do something with it,” he says. “In some cases, I can’t. But it’s really rewarding when I know that they’ve tried all these different brokers who can’t do it, but then I’ve been able to do it.” The can-do attitude and the ability to think outside the box has served the firm well over the last year. It doubled its business in the 12 months to December 2021 in commercial loans settled, while staff numbers have grown from three brokers and one support staff to nine brokers and two support to now four. A tie-up had blossomed and is funnelling a lot of business his way, but the pandemic had also been a tailwind for the mainly commercial loan-focused firm, he says. Clients had not been affected by lockdowns. “If anything, they probably had more money than ever.” Various trades and sectors, such as IT, are solid sources of business and there is also money floating around from government stimulus that would normally have been spent on travel and new cars, he says. Business had been so good that some repo firms Pham knew were despondent about how healthy the economy was. With interest rates at an all-time low, Pham says it had been a “perfect storm” for the mortgage industry. As the economy goes back to a more even keel, the prospect of withdrawal symptoms from all the easy money that had been available was a possibility. Banks have already increased interest rates and there is much more to follow. But Pham says that numbers at Rethink have held up so far and there was not much evidence of any slowdown for him yet. Many of the firm’s clients are highly experienced and take such cyclical factors in their stride as long-term churn that would eventually even out. High inflation was also not a concern. Commercial property leases generally have CPI increases built in. Each year, the yield would also increase, which would mean that Rethink would eventually get back to the 7%–9% yields it had in the past. “Our clients aren’t too focused on rate.” He points out that even if property prices were to drop 10% in the next year, his clients would still be in the black because he had been telling them at the beginning of the pandemic to invest in some of the bargains available based on sound fundamentals. He says some people had mistaken COVID for an economic crisis rather than the health crisis that it was. The challenge now is keeping up with the amount of work that is still available. Pham says trying to find adequate staff in the current environment is quite tough and taking longer than it used to, especially considering that much of the work is specialised. “We do a lot of SMSF, trust companies, commercial property – so it’s a bit different and not all [residential] brokers can do that.” But as long as he can continue supplying funds to clients as needed, he is not worried about any downturn. “We’re focused on our clients and just doing the right thing for them, and the rest will come right,” he says. “They’re coming to us because they want something from us: our knowledge and expertise.”

Son Pham

Director and Principal Broker Rethink Financing

Read on

Special Report

Home

Bio

Milestones

rethinkfinancing.com.au

au.linkedin.com/in/son-pham-6b765626

son@rethinkfinancing.com.au

0466604072

4/403 Hume Highway, Liverpool NSW 2170

2019–present

2018–present

2016–present

2020–present

2008–2021

2019–present

Insurance Business Magazine | Key Media

Commenced at The Knox School in Victoria, 2019 Mentor, 2019–2020 Senior School Lead Mentor, 2021 Interim Head of House, 2021 Head of Languages, 2022

2019–present