In the next instalment of our new Mortgage Tech Series, we spoke to Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson at Yourkeys.
Mortgage Introducer has launched a new mortgage tech series where businesses hoping to revolutionise the property market discuss their journey thus far and plans for the future.
In this instalment, we spoke to Riccardo Iannucci-Dawson (pictured) at Yourkeys which is the first platform to offer a completely integrated solution to accelerate the time to exchange whilst giving every stakeholder theability to track the purchase process in real-time.
Tell us about Yourkeys.
What was your main reason for creating Yourkeys?
In the story about how Yourkeys was created, it suggests that you believed the process to buy a new home is "convoluted, confusing and with no transparency". Why do you think that is?
There are lots of people involved and lots of people need access to lots of information, with this not always being digitised and a different set of information being required by the different people, this creates delays, errors and duplication. As these people involved in each sale can be different every time, communication isn't great and often the buyers are left in the middle of this, left to coordinate a process that they are not familiar with. It's like someone buying a car and then being asked to coordinate the engineers to build the thing and with the engineers not talking to each other. Most people don't know where to start.
Do you believe same-day mortgages will be able to be achieved with the use of PropTech?
Yes, absolutely, we're working on this at the moment with some of the larger lenders. If lenders know the information about properties upfront and then receive buyer information, affordability, proofs, AML and transaction information instantlyas a deal is agreed, there is no reason why that cannot be submitted through a lender's decisioning engine to immediately return an FMA.
If you could describe Yourkeys in three words, what would they be?
Different, friendly, driven.
How important is the inclusion of open banking and automatic ID verification in the house buying process?
Incredibly important, anything that makes these key transactional stages faster and a better experience for buyers is key. The real benefit comes in these things being automated and then relied upon by all parties in the supply chain. We can achieve this by agreeing to an industry-wide standard and creating digital certificates that validate the results as reliable.
What are the main challenges you have faced since creating Yourkeys? Have those involved in the traditional house buying process welcomed the business?
The main challenges we've faced are around users trying new things. With the sector a little bit antiquated and the step forward being so large it can sometimes be daunting for users to jump on board something new. The scale of the step forward can sometimes be a challenge. After all, we're not moving into a space and asking them to drop their spreadsheets and move to online web forms. It's moving them from spreadsheets to biometric ID scans and open-banking, this can be daunting for some people, regardless of the efficiencies it brings.
What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?
What do you believe is the future of the property market?
The future of the property market is whatever the consumers want it to be. As new innovations come to the front of the consumer's mind and people realise that a traditionally daunting task can be done a lot more smoothly, the sellers that do not adapt will be left behind. So, with consumers being more and more familiar (and reliant) on technology, their patience for outdated, analogue processes is being diminished.
The ones who adapt to this and welcome new technology will ultimately be the ones who thrive. As you know, I'm not the first one to say this and ultimately every industry on earth has proven this to be the case. Either way, it's incredibly exciting and I'm very proud to be a part of this sector which has so much potential.
