Top Commercial Broker - 2010

Last year’s victor came in second this year, meaning Danny Masri, GM of Mortgage One Australia, has occupied each different top-four berth since the list’s inception four years ago. He was one of only two commercial brokers to break the nine-figure ceiling this year, settling over $118m of business in 2009/10.

Although his impressive figures might suggest otherwise, Masri says things have not been easy. “At the moment there seems to be too many deals and not enough appetite, and the biggest problem is capital requirements for lenders. They don’t have the access to cash and it is easier for them to lend on home loans, even though the quality of commercial deals is usually higher.”

Despite this caution, Masri has still seen a lot of demand for development and business finance deals, but has noticed a difference in the size of deals being accepted. “The market under $10m has certainly improved over the last 12 months, whereas getting the bigger deals over the line is tough,” he says.

For any residential brokers looking to make the leap into commercial, Masri warns it is not an easy transition and suggests it is best to work with someone already well versed in the sector under a mentoring arrangement.

Although Masri just handles commercial business himself, Mortgage One Australia took the shrewd decision to diversify into areas such as general insurance a couple of years ago. “This means that if the wheels fall off any sector, we can take up the slack elsewhere,” he explains.

Masri’s continued involvement in our list suggests that Mortgage One won’t be needing to do that any time soon