If you've never heard of UHomeLoan, Athena, Nano, Yard, tic:toc, Bluestone, Well Home Loans or Heritage Bank then you're not alone.  They are among the plethora of new lenders that have sprung up in the Australian home loan market in the past few years.

Digitally based, with low overheads and few employees, these new lenders are taking it up to the big four in the competitive owner/occupier and investor markets.

Others like Judo Bank, which recently floated on the Australian Stock Exchange, are servicing Australia's Small to Medium Enterprises which are also turning away from the big four (Westpac, Commonwealth, ANZ and NAB) in search of more competitive deals and better service.

Director of KR Peters Peter Nicolls says the big banks are making it "a nightmare" for developers and builders to access finance and he's not surprised new lenders are rapidly capturing market share. He believes that small lenders will take up 30% of the market in five years.

"These new lenders have certainly captured a corner of the home loan market and traditional lenders like Westpac are seeing their share of the market diminish to new lenders like Athena," Mr Nicolls said.

"It is incredible what is happening out there. These lenders have no overhead costs like offices and they are digitally geared in a way we haven't seen before."

And when it comes to matters of trust, Mr Nicolls poses a simple question: have they got your money or do you have their money?

"It is a changing of the guard and these small lenders are certainly here to stay," he said.

It is an opinion shared by mortgage broker Robert Krol, who is a  20 year veteran of the broking industry.

Mr Krol has seen the broking industry go from strength to strength, so much so that nearly 60 per cent of all loans written in Australia today are facilitated by a broker.

Changes to banking regulations and the digital revolution have opened the market to a flood of new micro lenders.

"In the last two or three years I have certainly seen more digital online lenders, the likes of Youbank and Volt, come into the market. Their pitch is that everything is digital. Customers deal with them solely online. There may be no or very little human interaction," Mr Krol said.

He described some of new players as mortgage managers, such as Athena and Mortgage Mart, who source funds from finance wholesalers who do not have a retail presence.

Aussie Home Loans, one of the first disruptors in the Australian market in the 1990s, started as a mortgage manager with just one product underwritten by Macquarie.

"Mortgage managers take all the information you would normally supply to a bank, such as application information, credit searches, property valuations etc and gives it to the wholesaler who makes the final decision. They are essentially performing the function of the bank branch."

Mr Krol said the injection of competition was a win for consumers.

"Greater competition is the bottom line. Aussie Home Loans was the first disruptor offering customers savings of around 3 per cent per annum. They spawned Wizard and RAMS. There are now countless lenders in this space."

Mr Krol said advances in technology had allowed smaller lenders to spring up in response to changing consumer demand, especially that driven by Millennials who are comfortable transacting online.

He said consumers can have trust in the myriad of new lenders as they are governed by the same laws pertaining to the bigger, better known financial brands.