Determined to simplify property acquisition in Nigeria, Old Mutual General Insurance Company Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of pan-African Insurance Company, has entered into a strategic partnership with Afreal Limited to launch an innovative property solution known as Newhomes.ng.
With the partnership, Old Mutual through the newhomes.ng platform will provide premium home insurance package to existing and potential property owners. The insurance benefits include building fire and peril, household goods and personal belonging, burglary, fire insurance, alternative accommodation cost in event of home loss, personal accident cover and personal liability cover.
Newhomes.ng is a digital property platform that seamlessly connects home buyers to mortgage lenders and real estate developers, by showcasing a robust list of verified properties for buyers to choose from.
The online platform also aggregates available mortgage lenders for property in question, and streamlines the process of mortgage application, thus making acquisition of real estate properties stress-free.
“Newhomes is a technologically superior search engine that is segmented by name, location, property type, bedroom numbers, budget range and status for real-time accessibility to information. A simple search by name, location or budget will pull similar information from both the house and serviced plots property pages for the searchers viewing,” explained Idris Etti, executive director at Afreal Limited
Newhomes platform, he said, comes with home finance tool created to make for ease of mortgage acquisition. It comes with affordability checker, which profiles and verifies a prospective applicant to ensure eligibility and affordability of a mortgage on the property indicated.
“Criteria to determine eligibility include property value, loan amount, monthly income and date of birth of the applicant. It promptly notifies the applicant of mortgage eligibility status. It also matches an applicant to credible mortgage lenders on the database, available to meet the home finance needs of such applicant and also informs the applicant of the expected monthly repayment, loan tenure & interest rate,” he added.
Etti disclosed that over 50 developers have signed-up to the platform while over 400 properties were already listed prior to the product launch, adding that the aim was to distribute new properties built by reputable developers while providing the necessary home finance and insurance needed to own a new home.
Chris Ogbechie, chairman, Afreal Limited, who spoke at the product launch in Lagos recently, described the solution, as a new approach to purchasing ones’ dream home in Nigeria.
“It is wonderful to see that Newhomes.ng has generated a lot of interest and will continue to generate much more in weeks to come by attracting guests from Lagos and other parts of the country because technology will enable the solution to spread all over the world,” Ogbechie said.
According to him, Nigeria real estate market which has over 17 million housing deficit is a big market that needs to be explored. “We need to begin to imagine the future by coming up with different ways of distributing property acquired from mortgages and insurance, thereby making it easier for people to own home”, he said.
Alero Ladipo, executive head, Marketing and Customer Experience at Old Mutual, explained that “this partnership signals our strong commitment to Nigeria and her growing industries such as the real estate market. As Nigerians invest their hard earned monies in bridging the huge supply gap in the provision of housing for the citizens, it is imperative to recognise the risks that threaten these investments and put a financial protection plan in place.”
Ladipo, who gave insights into the partnership, said Old Mutual entered into the partnership with Newhomes.ng to provide innovative technology-led solutions aimed to deliver the right insurance services to homeowners in Nigeria.
“Our partnership with Newhomes.ng provides customers (individuals, investors or corporates) access to an array of property and home insurance products at just a click from a mobile device or computer. In other words, from the Newhomes.ng platform, Nigerians would be able to calculate their premium in seconds, complete seamless transaction end to end, and obtain their policy certificate, all from the comfort of their homes or offices,” she added.
CHUKA UROKO
