Solving Housing Affordability - James Bowe, OwnHome

By Dexter Cousins on 05/08/2025

Dexter Cousins is joined by James Bowe, CEO and co-founder of OwnHome to discuss the urgent challenges of housing access and affordability in Australia.

About Ownhome

James shares how OwnHome aims to innovate the home buying journey by funding deposits and providing advocacy support to aspiring homeowners. Up for discussion is the importance of credit risk management, and the need for innovative business models in the current economic landscape.

Dexter also chats to James about his leadership journey and the successes of OwnHome, building a culture centred on resilience and a growth mindset and hiring talent with "batteries included"

Key Insights From James Bowe

  • Housing access is a pressing social challenge in Australia.
  • Young Australians face a decade-long struggle to save for a deposit.
  • OwnHome funds deposits to help families buy homes sooner.
  • The property market requires more than just financial support; confidence is key.
  • Lenders mortgage insurance is a significant profit pool for banks.
  • Credit risk assessment should consider more than just deposit size.

Find out more - https://ownhome.com/

Article written by Dexter Cousins
Founder of Tier One People and host of the Fintech Chatter Podcast.

Latest Episodes

10/08/2026
World first bank migration: Move Bank on Constantinople.

Move Bank has become the first bank in the world to shift its entire operation, technology, product, operations and compliance, onto Constantinople's platform. Dexter Cousins sits down with Move Bank CEO Mike Currie and Constantinople co-CEOs Macgregor Duncan and Di Challenor to unpack a migration that cut cost to income by around 30 percent and […]

28/07/2026
Sam Everington - Engine by Starling: Why banks are renting Starling's core instead of building their own.

In 2016, Sam Everington joined Starling Bank as one of its first twenty employees. Starling did not have a banking licence yet. It had no product, no brand, and no customers. What it had was a room full of engineers who believed a bank could be built from the customer support desk backwards, rather than […]

17/07/2026
Peter Jones - Nimo Industries: Breaking Into Mutual Banks.

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 […]

14/07/2026
Andy Taylor - Stakk: The ten year overnight success.

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 […]

Find your Favourite episode

"Dex does a great job at bringing FinTech founders and thought leaders onto the podcast while providing valuable insights into the industry. An informal atmosphere allows genuine chats."
Wagner Camarao
"My No1 go-to podcast to get access to an amazing roll call of Founders and Fintech leaders. Dexter does a great job getting his interviewees to share frank points of view and great insights."
Alt Bankin for all
"What I love about this show is the breadth of people and their experience that Dexter is able to tap into. Not so long ago people paid to hear for this kind of advice- now you can get it for free!"
Rob Hoxton
"The definitive Fintech podcast in Australia. Top insights and always current on the challenges and thinking in the Fintech industry. Subscribe for anyone interested in tech and entrepreneurialism."
Boscoe Tan
cross