In Episode 191 of the Fintech Chatter Podcast, Dexter Cousins is joined by Tim Buskens CEO of Hope Housing a not-for-profit initiative assisting Essential Service Workers. Dexter and Tim chat about the very real issue of home ownership in Australia for essential workers, as they battle to afford housing closer to where they work.
About Hope Housing
Tim has witnessed first-hand the issues faced by our essential workers in their fight to afford home ownership. He was struck by the stress many of our essential workers face on a daily basis. Observing how they are often forced to move away from their community in order to buy a home, resulting in long journeys to get to work.
Mainstream banks view essential workers as too high risk for the traditional mortgage route and Tim felt there could be a better way.
From this Hope Housing materialised. An innovative way for people to finance their home purchase through alternative investment, not just the bank route. Now in its 4th year, they are working with great partners who are helping make this happen.
They've assembled an experienced team of financial and technology experts, culminating in a group of people who continue to innovate the solution and deliver the mission to help Australia's unsung heroes buy a home.
About Tim Buskens
Tim is Chief Executive Officer and a Founding Director of HOPE Housing. Tim brings over 25 years’ experience in financial services across both private and public sectors to the role at Hope Housing.
Most recently as COO of the Australian Superannuation Funds Association, Tim has also held executive positions in Link Group, Oasis Asset Management and ASIC.
Tim has a Bachelor of Business from Victoria University and a Masters of Applied Finance from Macquarie University.
Peter Jones used to be the CEO he now sells to. It's helped him bootstrap a core banking platform that now holds 20% market share in Australia's mutual banking sector, without a dollar of outside capital. We are celebrating the World Credit Union Conference coming to Sydney. Dexter Cousins will be bringing you interviews from […]
Andy Taylor is Co-Founder of Stakk an embedded finance infrastructure solution. On 6 July 2026, ASX-listed Stakk Limited signed a definitive agreement to acquire US document intelligence firm ParaScript for US$63 million. I've interviewed Andy more than once over the past decade, way back when he was just starting to build Douugh out of Tank […]
When QED Investors, Blackbird, Square Peg and Airtree all back the same early-stage Australian AI startup, the funding round is news. What matters more for anyone hiring or being hired in fintech right now is why they all said yes, and what the founder behind it says about building and hiring in an AI native […]
Looking to scale your fintech leadership team? Start at tieronepeople.com Clayton Howes is the co-founder and CEO of MONEYME (ASX: MME), a Sydney-based non-bank lender that has originated over $5 billion in consumer credit since 2013 and manages a $1.9 billion loan book today. In this conversation, Clayton covers the full arc: bootstrapping without external […]
