Habito has launched a new intermediary portal that allows selected brokers to access its buy-to-let product range and lending criteria.
Online mortgage company Habito has launched a new intermediary portal that allows selected brokers to access its buy-to-let product range and lending criteria.
The hub has been designed and built following customer and broker research conducted via Habito’s internal distribution network, alongside input from specialist mortgage service provider Connect for Intermediaries.
The portal also provides the ability to submit a full mortgage application directly, as well as access Habito’s instant decision generator.
This allows a broker to check clients’ information against its full credit and affordability policy, run an automated valuation, soft credit check and ‘know your customer’ (KYC) check simultaneously.
Habito’s instant decision generator aims to give customers more certainty than the industry’s decision in principle (DIP), which checks only a subset of criteria, and nothing on the property.
Using this, the company aims to provide mortgage offers within 10 days, rather than the industry average of 21.
The new portal also provides advisers with automated feedback when a customer does not fit into Habito’s policy, so that an alternative can be found.
For portfolio landlords, Habto provides a downloadable ‘portfolio checker’ to help cut down on the time spent on paperwork.
Post-submission onboarded brokers can use the intermediary portal to manage multiple applications in one place via a personal dashboard.
This is aided by a list of required customer documents, which reduces back-and-forth post-submission; this addresses a particular paint point uncovered in Habito’s customer research.
Martijn van der Heijden, chief strategy officer at Habito, said: “Being a tech-led mortgage broker and lender, automation and innovative improvements are in our DNA.
“We’re on a mission to make mortgages easier for all and our origination platform and portal are testament to this.
“For us, the key to making meaningful improvements is extensive customer research and user testing.
“With this in mind, we made the decision to extend our offer beyond our own brokerage and speak to a network of like-minded brokers to see how automation and innovation could help them better serve their clients.
“Connect for Intermediaries [was] the first to come on board in January 2020 and [has] been an invaluable partner, helping us design and shape an intermediary portal we feel is a game-changer for the industry.
“Using Connect’s extensive broker network and deep insights, we’ve been able to take real-life pain points and solve them with seamless connectivity and easy-to-use functionality”.
Liz Syms, CEO at Connect for Intermediaries, added: “Right now is an excellent time for Habito to be launching such an innovative solution.
“The ability to streamline the application process and use automatic valuations is very much welcome in the current market.
“The team at Connect were pleased to be part of helping Habito to develop the system and look forward to assisting with the launch of Habito’s offering to our advisers and clients.”
