We interviewed Germán Rueda, vice president of Habicredit, who told us details about this new line of business. If you are interested in finding out what Habicredit is, what its benefits are, and how it has been received in the market, we invite you to read their responses.
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What is Habicredit? Habicredit is a service with which we are transforming the way in which people can find financing for their home, whether from the Habi catalog or not, through banking entities. Germán Rueda, our VP, explained that:
Through technology we are betting on providing a safe, agile, and transparent experience throughout the process of buying a home.— German Rueda, VP Habicredit
Today we have six partner banks: AV Villas, Banco de Bogotá, Bancolombia, BBVA, ITAÚ and Scotiabank-Colpatria. We are working with them on a Banking-As-A-Service model that allows us to provide the best possible experience and help people find the financial solution that best suits their needs.
How is Habicredit integrated with the rest of Habi’s business lines? Habicredit is part of our vision as a company to continue transforming the home buying and selling experience, where many challenges still exist today. In this sense, it integrates clearly and coherently with our other lines of business.
At Habicredit we work hand in hand with the team of purchase advisors and real estate brokers, who are in charge of helping clients interested in acquiring properties from our inventory or the open market to find their ideal property
When these clients need financing options, our advisors, experts in the field, come in to provide support and through the Habicredit platform, in just a few minutes, can provide a complete overview of the different financing options available and can even obtain a pre-approval of your credits. Additionally, we help them to know which of the options is best suited to their needs according to interest rates, general terms, approved amounts and/or comfort in the installments offered by the different banks.
On the other hand, Habicredit has allowed us to promote the realization of “Business 360”. What does this mean? Germán Rueda explained that:
There are clients who come to us to sell their home with the desire to acquire another. In these cases, through Habicredit we also support them in a very agile way to obtain financing, when required.
What are the benefits offered by Habicredit?
At Habi we know how important the time to receive financing for a new home is, for this reason we have designed an agile, safe and transparent process, which brings advantages both for the end customer and for our real estate partners. Germán Rueda summarized the benefits of using Habicredit:
For the end customer, Habicredit becomes the only point of contact where customers can find out, with six of the main banking entities in the country, what financing options they have available and what are the benefits that each of these offers.
Habicredit provides support with expert advisors throughout the process, from the moment its confirmed iswhether there is credit viability until the disbursement is made. This represents an important advantage since clients are not alone in such an important decision.
For the team of real estate brokers, Habicredit puts at their disposal a very powerful tool that: i) is connected to risk centers to have a better understanding of the client, ii) helps them to follow up on their clients, iii) integrates information of the banks on the status of the credits, and iv) allows them to provide a better experience and support to their customers.
How has Habicredit been received within the fintech market?
The growth of the fintech market in Colombia has established itself as one of the most important in Latin America, which has allowed not only to attract large investment capital to this segment, but also a greater opening by banking entities to new business models, among them Banking As A Service, through which different players offer banking products tailored to the client and through the web. Germán Rueda, commented that:
At Habicredit, we are taking advantage of this transformation of the ecosystem towards this Banking-As-A-Service model, which is allowing us to be the face of the customer experience, with the support of the largest financial institutions in the country.
Regarding our participation in the market, Rueda indicated that other entities that are betting on this market have set high expectations about what we are going to do at Habicredit and how we are going to contribute to this transformation process. In response to this, Habicredit seeks to take a process that would traditionally generate stress and fear for many people, to be a simple, safe, and a fast process.
Finally, he spoke about his perception of the landscape of access to housing in the country, explaining that although at this moment there are great challenges for people seeking to acquire housing, this continues to be the best way to protect assets and the best investment vehicle. For its part, Habicredit is working to reduce the barriers that may arise in the purchase and financing processes, and in this way contributing to Habi’s vision of becoming everyone’s trusted partner.