PropertyGuru launches 'PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval' on 5 April 2019 taking forward its commitment to address loan rejection and home ownership issues in the country under its ongoing 'Own Your Home Programme'. Home loan approvals remain a challenge for many home buyers, with rejection rates still high. This comes despite 92% of Malaysians expressing their interest in purchasing properties, according to research by PropertyGuru.

Home loan rejection rates stood at nearly 60% 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 3Q2018.

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% 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.

Sheldon Fernandez Country Manager, PropertyGuru Malaysia 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% 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."

Own Your Home with PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval - Step by Step Process:

1. Find out your qualified amount: By logging on to the PropertyGuru Malaysia website, home buyers will be able to start their journey with PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval. It extracts the home buyers' credit score and rating from Credit Bureau Malaysia to assess their credit history and financial health against benchmarks from multiple sources. These include Bank Negara Malaysia's eCCRIS (e-Central Credit Reference Information System). Next, it calculates their accurate Debt Service Ratio (DSR) to deliver the loan amount the home buyer can be approved for by the banks. This is done with 99.9% accuracy and in less than 5 minutes.

2. Be matched with homes you desire and can afford: PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval then matches the home buyers' qualified loan amount to more than 450,000 properties on PropertyGuru catering for every budget and preference. This allows home buyers to choose from a range of homes they know they can afford. They can also see their chances of securing a home loan for properties they search for outside the recommended price range.

3. Confidently apply for your home loan instantly: With the qualified loan amount for their shortlisted house, home buyers can instantly apply for a home loan with the PropertyGuru panel of bank partners. These include RHB Bank, Alliance Bank and Hong Leong Bank, who will offer preferential rates and services to all those who come with PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval. "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," said Vivek Kumar, Director, Product (Consumer) Technology, PropertyGuru Group.

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 2018-2025, 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."

The 'Own Your Home Programme' is the PropertyGuru long-term commitment to: ● Help Malaysians better understand their unique home affordability challenges, and ● Provide innovative solutions that empower Malaysians to #BeatTheOdds and own a home.

It does this by guiding Malaysians through the entire home-buying process, showing them what to expect stage-by-stage to better prepare themselves for property purchases.

The launch of PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval is being held in conjunction with the PropertyGuru 'Own Your Home Weekend Fiesta'. The fiesta is a first-of-its-kind event located at IPC Shopping Centre, Mutiara Damansara from 5 April to 7 April. It aims to guide consumers end-to-end through the 'Own Your Home' journey, from loan eligibility to preferential rates from panel banks.

The event seeks to engage over 3,500 registered participants, including first-time home buyers, potential owner-occupiers, working professionals and families of all ages. Its line-up includes a face-to-face PropertyGuru Home Loan Pre-Approval showcase and walkthrough. Visitors will also find fun activities such as a human claw machine, spin and win opportunities and prizes up to RM50,000, including a cash prize of RM10,000.