Homenet, South Africa's biggest independent estate agency group has entered into a joint venture agreement with leading mortgage originator Bond Choice.
In terms of this deal, Bond Choice will become the exclusive supplier of mortgage origination services to all 145 Homenet offices around the country.
Homenet chairman Robert Ketjen says the group's decision to form the alliance with Bond Choice follows both South African and international consumer trends. "Home buyers are increasingly demanding sound advice and a range of options when making what is potentially the biggest financial decision of their lives and applying for a home loan - and we believe Bond Choice is best placed to deliver to our home buyer clients on both counts."
Bond Choice, launched last year, has national representation and originates on behalf of ABSA, FNB HomeLoans, Nedcor, Standard Bank, and the BoE Private Bank. Its "best advice" platform has struck a strong chord among consumers and fuelled strong growth that has made the company one of the leading generators of new home loan business for the financial institutions.
The joint venture with Homenet will no doubt provide further impetus. In the past 24 months, Homenet offices have sold more than 18 000 homes, worth a total of R6-billion.
Meanwhile, says Ketjen, the agreement will also put Homenet in a position to meet new bank criteria in mortgage origination. "Supplying a simple lead to a bank is no longer enough. To qualify for the full benefits associated with origination, we must add value by handling more of the 'front-end' processing of each application.
"These requirements will be much easier for us to fulfil in partnership with Bond Choice, with its large national distribution network, 100 bank-trained home loan consultants and its access to huge IT resources."
Bond Choice MD Mark Beckett notes that technology is playing an increasingly important role in the home loan application process, especially in the credit scoring and property evaluation stages. This is why the company has placed such emphasis on creating a high-capacity IT infrastructure.
"We are also very proud of the fact that Bond Choice enjoys the lowest "loans not taken up" (NTU) factor in the mortgage origination industry. This factor is a key measure used by the Banks to measure an originator's processing efficiency and we believe our success is due in large part to our commitment to the best-advice concept.
"This of course complements the function of Homenet's national training academy in ensuring that the group's home seller clients receive a superior level of advice and service, and we believe that together we will now provide the complete and professional real estate experience expected by today's consumers."
homenet.co.za website
News from Homenet
Leave a comment: