(From left) Vivek, Sprengers, and Sheldon pose for a group photo during the launch of ‘PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval’.
KUALA LUMPUR: PropertyGuru is moving forward its commitment to address loan rejection and home ownership issues in the country under its ongoing ‘Own Your Home Programme’ with the launch of ‘PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval’ fintech.
PropertyGuru Malaysia country manager Sheldon Fernandez in a statement, said: “Stepping in to address this gap, PropertyGuru has brought together key industry players, while drawing on its core expertise as an innovative property technology company, its proprietary data and localised property knowledge, to launch PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval.
“A powerful fintech solution with benefits for property buyers, developers and agents alike, PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval enables Malaysians to improve their chances of securing a home loan, in line with the national housing agenda.
“It does this by delivering 99.9 per cent accuracy with a Pre-Approval of their qualified home loan amount. It then instantly offers them a suite of home loan options from our bank partnerships.
“This entire process takes less than five minutes – and best of all, it’s free.”
PropertyGuru Group Product (Consumer) Technology director,Vivek Kumar added: “PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval is the first of its kind. It gives Malaysian home buyers the power to make a financially educated and confident home-buying decision without facing loan rejection and any adverse impact on their credit score as well.”
Home loan approvals remain a challenge for many home buyers, with rejection rates still high. This comes despite 92 per cent of Malaysians expressing their interest in purchasing properties, according to a research by PropertyGuru.
Home loan rejection rates stood at nearly 60 per cent by value last year according to Bank Negara Malaysia. This affects many Malaysians’ property aspirations. It also impacts developers and real estate agents across the board, with an estimated 43,219 residential units worth RM29 billion unsold nationwide as of 3Q18.
In the same quarter, four out of five of the country’s top developers by capitalisation posted lower year-on-year earnings. These ranged from marginal decreases to 93.17 per cent declines. In addition, transaction volumes were reported at 311,824 in 2017 according to the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents, down from 430,400 in 2011.
Lack of knowledge about loan eligibility among home buyers is often cited as a primary concern among banks and financial institutions when asked for prime reasons behind home loan rejections.
In effect, PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval benefits all stakeholders of the Malaysian property industry. It enhances efficiency in the home buying-selling process, while being a solution to reduce unsold properties. Focusing on home buyers with PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval, PropertyGuru bank partners will fine-tune their service. It will also enable real estate agents and developers to better support prospective buyers.
“Alliance Bank is proud to partner with PropertyGuru on the launch of its Home Loan Pre-Approval platform. This fast, simple, and innovative platform helps Malaysians fulfil their aspirations of owning a home as it provides a realistic assessment of the intended home loan eligibility,” said Edwin Lee Wee Gee, head of Consumer Asset, Alliance Bank.
PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval also strongly resonates with the National Housing Policy 2018 to 2025, which seeks to address current market issues, including the demand/supply mismatch.
PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval follows in the footsteps of ‘PropertyGuru Mortgage Pre-Qualifier’, launched in August last year as a tool to estimate mortgage amounts ahead of time for home buyers. PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval improves on this with an end-to-end ecosystem of complementary features that support home buyers throughout their home buying process.
Bjorn Sprengers, chief marketing officer and head of FinTech, PropertyGuru Group shared, “There’s actually quite some powerful technology under the hood of PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval. But it’s not the Fintech alone that does the trick.
“For the first time, key real estate industry players have come together to rethink the mortgage process across party lines. I firmly believe that such partnerships infused with innovation are the right path forward to truly solve one of the biggest roadblocks Malaysians face during their home-buying journey.”