REA-NAB launch homes and loans tie-up service

Home buyers can now search for property and get a home loan in a single process.

REA Group boss Tracey Fellows: ‘This could be a real game changer’. David Geraghty

A world-first tech partnership between realestate.com.au and National Australia Bank will mean home buyers can look for property and get a home loan in a single process, starting today.

The integration, which has been in testing for weeks but launches today, means buyers can apply for online conditional approval from NAB and view their relevant finance information as they search for property.

Though NAB is powering the technology, customers aren’t limited only to NAB home loans — users can access more than 30 other lenders through real­estate.com.au’s brokerage team.

REA Group boss Tracey Fellows told The Australian applying for home loans was often an overwhelming process, and this partnership was about simplifying it.

“We have a view this could be a real game changer,” she said. “We think we’ve created something that’s unique in the world. If it’s the first time you’re taking out a home loan, or maybe you haven’t done it in 10 years, this will lay out the charges upfront and the impact on your life and lifestyle.”

She said REA’s website now had an integrated calculator for all individual property pages, including an estimated calculation of upfront costs, like stamp duty, and ongoing home loan repayments, as well as a transparent “value guide”, allowing home buyers to gauge how their planned purchase price compares to recent sales of similar properties in that suburb.

The platform is offering conditional approval for home loans, meaning a lender has approved the home loan in principle but will want to see more documentation.

Ms Fellows doubts whether Domain’s announcement to team up with mortgage vendor Lendi would be as integrated as REA’s partnership with NAB.

“We’ve done deep planning and work, and it takes time to do,” she said. “We have a good understanding of the value proposition here and what consumers want and how they behave. The benefit of us having such a leading position is we’ve been doing this a lot longer than our competitior.

“I have no doubt they’ll try and do parts of this, but this really integrated value proposition, with the combination of our own brokers, the call centre … it’s not just nice words and loose relationships, it takes real commitment and time.”

NAB chief operating officer Antony Cahill told The Australian rapid advances in technology meant consumers now want to interact with their bank any time of the day and faster than before, and that includes when buying a home.

REA Group’s major stakeholder is News Corp, publisher of The Australian.