AXTON Finance is a Hawthorn-based Melbourne brokerage at 114 Auburn Road, founded by Clinton Waters on three stated values: trust, communication, and excellence. The team carries 100+ years combined experience in lending and has settled over $1.5 billion in Australian mortgages. They sit at 5.0 stars across 547 Google reviews and have a published 97% loan approval rate.
AXTON has 35 major bank and lender accreditations and operates a fee-free service for most borrowers (the lender pays on settlement). They've been recognised on 27+ industry awards including #20 Top Brokerage in Australia (Mortgage Professional Australia 2024), All Round Broker of the Year for Clinton Waters at the 2024 Connective Excellence Awards, and Best Boutique Office finalist at the 2023 and 2024 Adviser Better Business Awards. The team specialises across home, investment, SMSF, expat, construction and bridging loans.
AXTON Finance is led by founder Clinton Waters and runs as a boutique multi-broker team — six partner mortgage brokers (Clinton, Martin Ryan with 17 years' experience, Adam Piper with 15 years, Nicole Campbell with 20 years, Luke Rowland based in Essendon, David Pelligra), two senior mortgage brokers (Melanie Faoro with 10+ years, Joyce Cheng), plus a practice manager (Rosie Waters), two loan-processing specialists (Arika Shakya and Anne Lopez), a client success officer (Allison Arienda) and an AI & automation specialist (Yasindu Ariyarathna).
What clients say: Nicole Campbell features in roughly half of recent reviews — first-home buyers and 10-year repeat clients alike praise her clarity, responsiveness and advocacy through complex settlements. David Pelligra is heavily named for refinancing and post-settlement availability. Adam Piper for portfolio refinance. Joyce Cheng for multi-year repeat clients (10-year relationships are explicit in reviews). Melanie Faoro for clients who describe themselves as anxious or thorough. The pitch is "big enough to lever outcomes, small enough to treat your scenario like a friend's loan application." Strong fit for clients in Melbourne's east, refinancers, first-home buyers, expats, self-employed borrowers and SMSF lending. Less of a fit for clients wanting a national multi-state firm or a single-broker boutique.
The team
Click through for a fuller bio, specialties, and direct contact for each team member.
Director, Principal Mortgage Broker
Clinton Waters is one of Melbourne’s leading mortgage brokers. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to his role as the business founder and principal mortgage broker at AXTON Finance.
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Partner Mortgage Broker
Martin Ryan is one of Melbourne’s leading brokers with over 17 years of experience. He takes pride in offering a bespoke service tailored to your unique needs, delivering thoughtful and personalised solutions.
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Partner Mortgage Broker
Adam Piper is a Partner mortgage broker at Axton Finance who has over 15 years experience in the banking and finance industry across mortgage lending and client service roles.
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Partner Mortgage Broker
Nicole Campbell is a Partner Mortgage Broker at AXTON Finance with over 20 years of experience. Nicole has expert knowledge in lending and provides mortgage advice tailored to clients’ personal needs.
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Partner Mortgage Broker
Luke Rowland is an award winning Mortgage Broker based in Essendon. Luke is driven by a desire to empower his clients with the knowledge, resources and service to deliver results.
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Partner Mortgage Broker
David Pelligra is a Partner Mortgage Broker at AXTON Finance. He specialises in helping young professionals take their first step into the property market, whether that’s buying their first home or building their portfolios.
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Senior Mortgage Broker
Melanie Faoro is a Senior Mortgage Broker at AXTON Finance with over a decade of experience. This has provided her with a comprehensive and well-rounded understanding of diverse lending needs.
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Senior Mortgage Broker
Joyce Cheng is a highly experienced Senior Mortgage Broker at AXTON Finance. She reviews existing and potential lending options and develops tailored strategies to help clients achieve their financial goals.
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Practice Manager
Rosie is AXTON’s Practice Manager, thriving in a fast paced environment where she effortlessly juggles multiple responsibilities while ensuring the team of brokers receives exceptional support.
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Loan Processing Specialist
Arika is one of our superstar loan processing specialists at AXTON Finance. She works tirelessly in the background to help champion your loan approval.
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Loan Processing Specialist
Anne is a Loan Processing Specialist at AXTON Finance. She ensures that all client files are kept up-to-date and accurate, conducting annual rate reviews to maintain competitive loan terms across all client facilities.
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Client Success Officer
Allison is the driving force behind our commitment to client success at AXTON. From the moment a loan application begins, she ensures everything is submitted accurately, efficiently, and on time.
View profile →AI & Automation Specialist
Yasindu is a Computer Science graduate with a Bachelor’s degree, specialising in building and engineering processes and automations across AXTON Finance’s IT systems.
View profile →Recent verbatim reviews. See the firm's Google profile for the full set.
Fantastic experience and guidance with David Pelligra at Axton Finance. David went above and beyond with our refinancing, he kept things very simple and fought for the best deal for us. What truly makes David stand out is his kind and genuine nature towards helping people, and not trying to impress them with technical jargon. Even months after the refinance has been settled, David always picks up the phone.
We've been working with Martin and in particular Joyce for the past 10 years and wouldn't look anywhere else. We've refinanced twice and Joyce has been amazing through both applications. Joyce is happy to pick up the phone/email/txt/carrier pigeon at any time and provides clear and fast communication throughout.
I can't recommend Nicole at Axton Finance highly enough. She has been my mortgage broker for nearly 10 years, and throughout that time she has consistently gone above and beyond. Nicole has guided me every step of the way, always taking the time to explain things clearly and make sure I fully understand my options before moving forward.
Specific questions worth raising on your first call. Most apply to any mortgage broker; the firm-specific ones are tailored from this profile.
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Mortgage knowledge base
Plain-English answers to the most common Australian mortgage questions.
