Flint’s $10B vision: Building a national boutique brokerage
Australia’s mortgage-broking market is booming – but the model hasn’t evolved. Flint is building a national boutique brokerage that pairs genuine broker ownership with national scale, media-driven distribution and a target of $10 billion in annual loan settlements.
BRANDVOICE – PARTNER CONTENT
Named best residential broker in Australia five times, Christian Stevens is co-founder and CEO of Flint – a new breed of brokerage with a single, clear aim: reach $10 billion in annual loan settlements by rethinking how brokers own, scale and brand themselves.
“What we’re building doesn’t follow the traditional playbook,” Stevens says. “But that’s exactly the point.”
Launched less than two years ago, Flint targets the middle ground between national networks and sole operators.
The idea is simple – and deliberate: a third model that blends the ownership and autonomy of independent brokers with the infrastructure, brand and scale of a national platform.
Ownership, not servitude
Ambitious brokers want ownership but going it alone is lonely and operationally brutal, he says. Compliance, credit complexity and rising regulation make solo growth slow and risky. Flint’s structural response is straightforward: give brokers genuine ownership of their trail, clients, and partner relationships, while supplying the commercial engine they need to scale.
“We built a structure that lets brokers keep equity in their business while tapping into marketing, compliance, credit and mentorship,” Stevens says. “You get ownership without the isolation.”
Flint is a full-service brokerage, with private broking, commercial and residential lending, development funding and asset and business finance – designed to deepen client relationships and reduce reliance on the residential cycle. The strategy is to recruit and develop specialists in each niche – brokers who are the best at what they do.
Results that land
The model isn’t a theory. Flint has built a billion-dollar brokerage in its first year and increased its headcount by over 1,000%. Much of that growth came through targeted partnerships and mergers with seasoned brokerages. “People joining Flint are great operators who want to build long-term businesses, not just write loans,” Stevens says. “Combine serious entrepreneurs with a well-supported platform and momentum builds quickly.”
Modernising broking
Flint positions itself as the home of the modern broker – a place to learn, scale and build. An internal team of more than 70 specialists handles complex credit, strategy, loan processing, post-settlement and compliance so brokers can focus on client work, niche expertise and growth.
Flint prioritises quality over quantity. The firm believes that high-quality brokers deliver superior client outcomes and more sustainable growth.
This is more than operational convenience – it’s a response to an industry made harder by evolving credit frameworks and technology. Flint’s platform lets brokers maintain their identity and control while benefiting from a national brand and systems that genuinely help them compete.
“AI will automate a large part of the transaction. But it won’t replace brokers who build relationships, brand and trust. The future belongs to specialists.” – Christian Stevens
Stevens is blunt about the impact of technology. “AI will automate a large part of the transaction,” he says. “But it won’t replace brokers who build relationships, brand and trust. The future belongs to specialists.”
That belief drives Flint’s emphasis on depth rather than breadth – training brokers to become niche experts who add value well beyond the loan application. Specialisation, Stevens argues, is the best hedge against commoditisation.
Training the next generation
To support that shift, Flint launched the Broker Institute of Australia (BIA) in March 2026, a national platform to train, mentor and elevate the industry. In the first 48 hours, more than 200 brokers joined the waitlist, underscoring the industry’s hunger for high-quality mentorship and development. Internally, TheAcademy teaches credit, strategy, marketing and branding. FlintDirector and FlintTeam – the ownership models – help brokers build while leveraging Flint infrastructure.
Perhaps Flint’s most distinguishing advantage is its media-first approach. “We’re not just a brokerage – we’re a media-driven business,” Stevens says. “Attention is the new distribution. If no one knows who you are, it doesn’t matter how good you are.”
SheInvests is a core part of that strategy, led by the senior team of women in the business. Focused on empowering professional women with education, events and content, SheInvests has been well-received and complements Flint’s media and community approach by building trust with female clients and supporting niche expertise across the business.
Flint treats content as a strategic asset: full-time videographers, editors, creators and podcast studios sit alongside credit and compliance teams. Stevens’ Beyond the Numbers podcast reached one million views on Instagram in its first eight weeks, which he says is proof that long-form content builds authority and generates leads at scale.
Looking ahead
As Flint expands nationally, Stevens says his goal remains consistent: to help high-performing brokers own their businesses, deliver better outcomes for clients, and help more Australians reach their property dreams. The prescription is simple: ownership, excellence and scale. Stevens’s play is to fuse them into a brokerage model designed to reach $10 billion in annual loan settlements and built for the fintech era.
For enquiries: cs@flintgroup.au
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.