Penny Finance founder jogs a path less travelled
The fitness-to-development finance pipeline is not exactly a well-worn path, but that hasn’t stopped Morgan Owen (pictured), owner of Victoria-based brokerage Penny Finance, from doing it anyway.
A quick peek at Penny’s website gives you the first clue that Owen is out to do things differently. Five sharply dressed women bask in moody lighting while a distinctly millennial company slogan marquees across the screen. Penny, apparently, is in the business of ‘Really, Really Good Finance’.
Bubbling away below these aesthetics lives a brokerage that is growing at a rapid pace. The Penny team has gone from handling $0 to $200 million in just four years, though for Owen “it’s not just about volume – it’s about impact”.
In these four years, Penny has expanded from residential to commercial and development finance, the latter being Owen’s specialty.
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Looking back at her previous career in the fitness world, Owen says she “started feeling stuck. My entrepreneurial side was kicking in, and I wanted a career where my efforts were rewarded financially – without losing the core of what I loved: helping people”.
Which is not to say Owen hasn’t brought a piece of the fitness world into the broking space. “My background in fitness still influences how I work today,” she says. “The skills I had – sales, marketing, customer service – were all transferable.
“More than that, I learned that when you genuinely put clients at the centre of what you do, success follows. And that’s what I’m here for: not just to write loans but to change the face of finance.”
But why mortgage broking? There are, after all, countless client-centric careers to get into.
Finding your niche
“Property and finance had always been a natural interest of mine. I bought property young, and I knew first-hand how overwhelming it could be to navigate the system without the right guidance.
“I wanted to be the person I needed at that time. It was actually a mentor of mine who first suggested mortgage broking. That was 10 years ago, and they were absolutely right.”
In order to pursue this new professional direction, Owen started out working in a brokerage as an employee. “It was like a duck to water,” she says of that experience. “Except for the part where I had no idea how to write a loan!”
Nonetheless, she knew she could sell, build relationships and adapt to changes quickly. This allowed Owen to move into a business as a partner after just 18 months, though it was short-lived.
“That didn’t work out, and I found myself starting over again,” Owen says. “That’s when I founded Penny.”
Shaking things up
Penny, according to Owen, was built to challenge the status quo.
“The finance industry had been doing things the same way for decades – old-school, transactional and full of jargon,” she says. “I wanted to create something different: a brokerage that wasn’t just about securing loans but about strategy, education and building wealth in a way that made sense for real people.”
And befitting her atypical career trajectory, Owen has developed a unique specialism in the field of development finance. As a development finance broker, she works with developers to get the cash flow they need to bring projects to life. This can be a complex process involving feasibility studies, risk assessments and multiple stakeholders.
“As a broker, my role is to help developers secure the right funding for their projects, whether that’s a residential townhouse development, a commercial build or a large-scale subdivision,” Owen says.
“I connect them with lenders who understand their vision and structure deals that work with their cash flow and timelines. It’s about making sure they have the right finance in place to keep things moving and ultimately deliver a successful, profitable project.”
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A recent highlight involved securing funding for the Tennyson House project in the affluent Melbourne suburb of Elwood.
“When I met this developer, they'd been put through the ringer by their previous broker and finance 'partner' – they'd suffered every setback possible, and they were in danger of losing the site. I helped them to refinance and restructure to save the project,” Owen says.
As for what’s next for Penny, Owen wants to continue “shaking up the broker offering”. This will include the rollout of a new model for brokers to join Penny, either as partners or affiliate brokers.
“We’ve built a business that thrives on innovation, and now, we’re taking that same approach to how brokers can work with us,” says Owen.
Strategic finance on the up
Touching on market trends, Owen says she expects more private and non-bank lenders to enter the development finance fray in the year ahead. Rising costs, meanwhile, will drive more strategic borrowing, leading to more sophisticated borrowers and deals.
Through it all, speed and certainty will be essential.
“We’re positioning ourselves to take advantage of these shifts. We know how to structure complex deals, and we have strong relationships with lenders who can actually get them funded ... Penny is ready to lead the charge.”
