Can home loans be approved in 22 minutes?

South Australia-based fintech firm Tic:Toc recently launched the world’s first complete online home loan platform. It will be the first online home loan platform to offer customers home loan approval in 22 minutes, as opposed to the customary 22 days.  

Aside from expediting the loan approval process, Tic:Toc will also pass on the cost savings of digitisation to their customers via competitive interest rates, as well as no application, settlement, or valuation fees.

Backed by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, this new fintech venture promises to bring new jobs and investment to South Australia. Moreover, the Weatherill government has approved a $900,000 grant to Tic:Toc via Investment Attraction South Australia’s (IASA) Economic Investment Fund.

By delivering the first genuinely online and fully automated home loan process, Tic:Toc hopes to redefine the way customers secure finance for owner-occupier and property investment, as well as disrupt the home finance landscape.

We spoke to Anthony Baum, founder and CEO of Tic:Toc Home Loans, to find out more about the new platform.  

1. Is the online home loan platform mainly geared towards homeowners, or are you actively targeting investors as well?

Tic:Toc is for homeowners and investors; we offer home loans for live-in and investment purposes, and are a great option for customers looking to refinance their existing home loan to get a better rate, via the convenience of a 22-minute online process.

We don’t offer interest-only loans at this stage but may do so for investors in the future, which along with our digitised process, is one of the reasons our investor rate is so competitive (currently 3.99%).

2. What percentage of your loans go to investors?

Whilst we have only been in the market for a few weeks, around 25% of our customers are either purchasing an investment property or refinancing their investment property. We expect this to grow as more people become aware of our offering, as our investment property rates are among the best (if not the best) in the market.

3. How does your 22-minute turnaround work in practice? Can investors legitimately get a loan in less than half an hour?

Yes, Tic:Toc can legitimately approve a home loan for investors (or any of our customers) in 22 minutes! We speed up the approval process by automating many of the manual steps in the traditional process.

So while a customer completes an application, there is a digital assessment happening in real-time, in the background. These real-time calculations include property valuation, borrowing capacity, credit and identification checks, and even validation of the customer’s financial information.

At the end of this 22-minute process, the customer could be approved on the spot, and their loan documents sent to them via email within half an hour (depending on which state they’re in).

Even if the customer chooses manual validation (opting to upload their financial documents) or is self-employed (which requires an underwriter to review the application), the nature of our technology platform means we will, in most instances, complete the assessment within one day of application.

Our first customer settled their home loan just 30 days from launch (that’s full loan approval and settlement within 30 days). Unfortunately, whilst we can make the application to approval process real-time, we can’t speed up the settlement process just yet, as this is an industry issue. But we are fully supportive and committed to being part of the digitalisation of the entire process as soon as possible.

We also pride ourselves in being able to assist our customers throughout the settlement process, providing SMS and email updates on their progress, and we will contact them about anything we need to ensure settlement takes place on time. We haven’t missed one yet!

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