Mortgage broker Aussie is on the expansion trail in Western Australia, running a recruitment drive off the back of 32 per cent annual growth in the provision of loans to first-home buyers, "next home buyers" and investors across the state. During October, Aussie lodged a record A$200 million worth of mortgages in WA, using a combination of mortgage brokers, retail stores and mortgage aggregation. The firm wants to increase the number of mortgage brokers and franchisees for its Aussie stores by more than 50 over the next two years. Aussie is opening three new outlets next week, to take its WA retail network to 16 stores, and is recruiting current and former real estate and finance executives. Wide Bay Australia has set an objective of having business loans account for 10 per cent of its balance sheet in 10 years. Martin Barrett, chief executive of Wide Bay, told yesterday's Annual General Meeting that his core target market, which is between Mackay and the Sunshine Coast, has 93,000 SMEs, but the broader opportunity was the 175,000 businesses operating in Queensland outside Brisbane. Another operational goal outlined yesterday is a target of doubling "volume" per full-time employee. Kiwibank has launched an application for computers and smartphones that will allow customers to seek a home loan pre-approval within 10 minutes and then go house hunting online. Kiwibank said "Home Hunter" would tell users which houses matched their loan pre-approval level, provide registered values, comparable house price sales and the number of sunshine hours a property received. The application can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play. It has its own website, www.homehunter.co.nz, and a Facebook page. Kiwibank developed the application in-house and claims it is an industry first.