Financing Your Home Dream

At The Heart Of Homestart Finance Is Its Mission To Help People Achieve Their Dream Of Home Ownership, As CEO John Oliver Explains.

He may share a name with the famous comedian, but HomeStart Finance CEO John Oliver doesn’t get mistaken for him. “When you do a search of John Oliver, he comes up way before me,” John says, amused. He recalls an article he once read about the comedian’s return to television. “I thought, ‘Oh, there I am. I forgot I’m famous!’”

John has always been fascinated by finance, particularly the way in which financial organisations help their customers. A Novocastrian by birth, he moved to Sydney with his wife to pursue his financial career while working for the Commonwealth Bank. Then, after nearly 25 years with the company and a family move to Adelaide, he joined Adelaide Bank (now Bendigo Bank).

When a CEO opportunity presented itself at HomeStart, John jumped at it. “It was an opportunity to see if I had the wherewithal to run my own ship,” he says. “It was a bit like, ‘You never know if you never, ever go.’ I have a simpler view of that: ‘It’s better to try and fail than never try.’”

John describes HomeStart as a financial institution with a social conscience. “Our reason for being is to make home ownership a reality for more people in more ways,” he explains. “HomeStart isn’t here to compete with banks, we’re here to complement them.”

HomeStart is based in Adelaide and run by the South Australian Government. It was founded in 1989, around the time when interest rates in Australia were up to 18 per cent and housing affordability was very challenged, according to John, “That is basically why HomeStart was created; to help people into home ownership through lower upfront costs and reduced fees and charges,” he says.