Buying a home can be a very emotional experience. You’ve found the home of your dreams and imagined yourself living there, and then you take the financial leap of committing yourself to a home loan and years of repayments.

Yet the home loan application and transfer can be a cumbersome and prolonged process, adding to your anxiety.

Developments in technology should eventually lead to this becoming a seamless process. Unfortunately, it seems that it will take time before technology like blockchain can be used to improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of dealing with the deeds office.

However, banks are working on improving the home loan application process. Most banks now offer a pre-bond approval so that you can make an offer on a property with the confidence that the bank will approve the home loan.

Capitec, South Africa’s largest digital bank, recently announced that it has partnered with SA Home Loans to launch its first full home loan offering.

According to Capitec, the product has one of the fastest application processes in the country, allowing consumers to initiate an application in under five minutes.

The bank is offering home loans up to R5 million with competitive interest rates starting from 6%. Government employees who apply for a new home loan or switch their existing bonds could qualify for a discounted interest rate.

Strong demand for digital option

Francois Viviers, Executive of Marketing and Communications at Capitec, says the offering was developed in response to strong demand for a simple and efficient, digitally-led home loan option.

“We’ve continually received requests from both clients and the public asking us to challenge the norms of home loans as we have done with banking.”

Viviers says the bank has simplified the home loan process by offering potential clients an easy four-step online application that takes less than five minutes to complete.

You don’t need to have any documents on hand and the questions are easily answered through multiple choice or simple entries such as name, surname and income.

“We’ve also made it easy for clients to track the progress of their application in real time through our online portal. We found that most application tracking is vague or uses terms that are not easily understood by someone who is unfamiliar with the process.

“Our tracking is comprised of six easy-to-follow steps, with clear communication describing the details of each step and if anything is required from the client.”

Capitec is also offering a discount of up to 50% on lawyer fees through SA Home Loans’ National Panel of Attorneys.

Application process

Applications can be done on Capitec’s online home loan portal.

After the application has been submitted, it can be tracked in real time on the home loan portal. Simplified into six steps, the portal shows exactly where you are in the process, what the next step is and if anything is required.

Alongside the portal, clients are also assigned a home loan consultant, should they require further assistance through personalised human interaction.

This article first appeared in City Press.