AMP Bank has partnered with Australian proptech firm Bricklet in efforts to help Australians get on the property ladder sooner.
Bricklet enables prospective residential buyers to purchase homes with as little as $20,000 deposit, provided they have appropriate income to meet loan repayments.
Through the Bricklet platform, one or more investors contributes to the remainder of the deposit, receiving an equity stake in the property.
The buyer makes the mortgage repayments and pays an "occupancy fee" to the investor.
Operating on a full Microsoft technology stack, Bricklet also leverages its newly launched, blockchain-based Australian Property Co-Ownership Register (APCOR) to record co-ownership of property.
A small pilot amongst brokers was trialled across a four-month period leading to 15 approvals and 80 applications in the pre-approval stage, with a broader broker rollout now taking place.
The shared home ownership concept is the first of its kind for both players.
AMP Bank group executive Sean O’Malley said the partnership “is a really important way to bring innovative services to market”.
“Partnerships are really important to us and it's important we’re partnering with organisations of all different shapes, sizes and scales," he said.
O’Malley said AMP Bank will fund the mortgage with the new proposition put to “market via the broker channel, not our new direct channel [Nano]."
There’s no overlap between Bricklet and its digital mortgage partnership with Nano: "For the moment, the Nano partnership is at the simpler end of the mortgage spectrum," he said.
Nano is a digital platform intended to speed up home loan approvals.
O’Malley also said AMP Bank is continuing to explore “more opportunities to partner than build” when it comes to bringing targeted innovation into AMP.
He said the business will go live “shortly” with the first phase of real-time payments in partnership with Cuscal.
“We partner extensively, whether it's through brokers or through technology providers. I see more partnerships coming to the bank than we've got today.”
Bricklet CEO Darren Younger said the platform is already seeing “significant demand just from word of mouth” without any marketing behind the service.
He added the idea for Bricklet came about from looking at government equity programs and being approached by various people for the same concept but with private money.
