How Peach Works So how do we keep our costs down and  how are we able to pay rebates  back to our clients?
Senator Natasha Stott Despoja with  Dr Nicholas Gruen Adelaide 2005		Peach is a virtual organisation. We all work from home, which provides us with unparalleled flexibility and efficiency.  No outdated procedures, no high rise office rental, no sponsorship of football teams or stadiums.

This decentralised structure is part of the reason Peach is able to offer cash rebates on loans. Lower overheads translate to a better deal for customers.

We've had to work out new ways of doing things and the internet has been central to the way we have done so. 

Our CEO, Dr. Nicholas Gruen is situated in Port Melbourne while our general manager lives near Bellingen in northern NSW and like everyone else in Peach they work from their own high tech home offices.

Senator Natasha Stott Despoja once humorously described Dr Gruen as “your classic underachiever. He has a PhD from ANU, he's an economist, lawyer, historian, occasional media commentator and author. He has worked at the Business Council of Australia; is a former Presiding Commissioner of the Productivity Commission; and has been an influential adviser to Government Ministers, probably most well known as a central architect of the Button car plan”. 

Dr. Gruen realised that a lateral approach to the mortgage market was needed. As late as the early 1990s, consumers had little choice when it came to mortgages. The mortgage market was dominated by the Big Banks offering loans and mortgages with similar interest rates and contract provisions. 

Without competition and innovation the market remained stagnant and consumers paid the price. 

In the years following deregulation, a new generation of lenders and brokers, often smaller and independent emerged, but given the complexity of the property market, and the endless range of loans, rates and conditions, it became critical that consumers had access to well informed and more impartial information and advice. 

Peach Home Loans differs from many of the other mortgage brokering services in its commitment to providing the very best deal for its customers from its panel of over 40 lenders. Unchained to any one bank or lender, Peach is able to match the needs of individual clients to the loans best suited to their circumstances and capacities. 

By embracing the Internet, Peach recognised the growing importance of the online interface. Most people don't have 45 minutes to spend listening to muzak and being told “your call is important to us and has progressed in the queue”. The value of being able to access information and advice at times and in places that are convenient cannot be underestimated. Feedback on the Peach website attests to the value customers and potential customers place on this feature. 

Quite simply we are at the forefront of the 21st century virtual economy. This is a textbook case of the new economy at work, with benefits flowing to all concerned. 

But we are not virtual for its own sake. We go out of our way to make sure that we communicate with our clients in the way they want. Whether we're helping a 20 year old computer geek get his first home loan or someone in their retirement who doesn't know what e-mail is. 

And while we pioneered ‘virtual loan and brokers services, our brokers are also on the ground around the country. If visiting our clients in their homes is what they want, then we do it. 

So that’s how we work and as you can see - it’s almost as if we’re next door.