Leading broker Mortgage Choice is pinning its hopes for a stronger second half on sharpening competition in the home loan market, and the increased borrower activity this is likely to generate.Mortgage Choice's chief executive, Michael Russell, said yesterday that, in addition to offers to pay other lenders' exit fees, deeper package discounts and fee waivers, lenders were competing for business by offering higher loan-to-valuation ratios."Most lenders are getting back to maximum LVRs of 95 per cent," Russell said.Westpac, through its St George and BankSA brands, is the latest lender to lift the LVR cap.The mortgage war may also result in the reversal of cuts to broker commissions.Russell pointed to changes by Westpac's St George division, which last year said it would suspend trail commission once a loan was 30 days in arrears. Previously, St George suspended the trail when a loan was 60 days in arrears - this week the bank reversed that decision."We have not seen any other changes to commission rates yet."Mortgage Choice reported a small increase in commission income but a fall in loan approvals, and net profit, for the six months to December.Russell said the company's brokers had "scrapped for business" in a weak market and picked up some market share.The company made a net profit of A$8.8 million for the half - down 10.2 per cent on the previous corresponding period. On its "preferred cash basis", which involves a different calculation of the net present value of trailing commission, earnings were up 12.8 per cent.Loan approvals fell 5.6 per cent, from A$5.4 billion to A$5.1 billion. The group's loan book increased seven per cent, to A$41.2 billion, which gave it a small increase in market share.Commission income was up four per cent to $24.3 million. After the changes to commission rates in 2009, rates have settled down - the average upfront commission rate was consistently above 60 basis points throughout 2010.The group's broker network numbers have also settled down after taking a big cut in 2009. Franchises number stood at 354 in December - up from 349 in June and the same number in December 2009.