October 21 2026 17:45
Jonathan Novick, CEO of Vered Estates and Timothy Akinnusi, CEO of MortgageMarket
Residential estate agency Vered Estates and fintech mortgage originator MortgageMarket have formed a strategic partnership to make it simpler, faster and safer for South Africans to finance a home.
The partnership launches Red Property Finance, a technology-driven home loan platform. It gives buyers access to mortgage finance from South Africa’s major banks through a single application.
Red Property Finance is introduced under the Vered banner, but it is not limited to Vered’s own clients. Any property buyer can use it, whether or not they are buying through Vered Estates.
The two businesses bring different skills to the deal. Vered contributes residential property knowledge and client relationships built over many years. MortgageMarket brings mortgage origination expertise, direct relationships with the banks and its own application technology.
Finding the home is only half the job
Jonathan Novick, CEO of Vered Estates, said the partnership reflects how buyers’ expectations have changed.
“Buying a home is one of the most important financial and lifestyle decisions people make. Finding the right property is only part of the journey. Securing the right finance is equally important, and we believe our clients should have access to the best possible assistance in doing so,” he said.
“MortgageMarket brings sophisticated technology, specialist expertise and access to the country’s leading home loan providers. We bring our understanding of the property market and the relationships we’ve built over many years.”
“It’s a partnership that makes good commercial sense for both businesses, but more importantly, it makes financial sense for our clients,” Novick said.
That last point goes to the heart of the bond origination business. Buyers who apply to several banks at once often get competing offers, and the difference between one interest rate and another can add up to tens of thousands of rand over the life of a 20-year bond. Doing it alone, though, means filling in separate applications, gathering the same documents several times and following up with each bank individually. Most buyers either don’t have the time or don’t know where to start.
An originator does that legwork. It submits a single application to several lenders and negotiates on the buyer’s behalf. In South Africa, originators are typically paid by the banks rather than the buyer, so the service generally costs the buyer nothing.
MortgageMarket runs the show
Red Property Finance carries the Vered name, but it is powered, managed and operated entirely by MortgageMarket, which handles each application from start to finish.
MortgageMarket is no newcomer to home finance. The Woodmead-based company was co-founded in 2019 by Tim Akinnusi, a former home loans executive at both Nedbank and Absa. It raised R7m from its founders and private investors in its first year, followed by R10m from venture capital firm IDF Capital in 2021.
The business started as an online marketplace where buyers could compare home loan offers from South Africa’s major banks. It has since grown into a full mortgage originator. Last month Property Flash reported that MortgageMarket had become the first mortgage originator in 25 years to sign direct contracts with all of South Africa’s major banks.
Akinnusi said the partnership shows how established property businesses and fintech specialists can work together.
“Vered has built a respected brand through its knowledge of the property market and its commitment to client relationships. We see tremendous value in combining those strengths with our technology and mortgage origination expertise,” he said.
“Our role is to make the financing process as efficient, transparent and competitive as possible, giving buyers access to multiple lenders without the complexity traditionally associated with applying for a home loan.”
“Red Property Finance is an exciting example of what can be achieved when two businesses focus on their respective strengths and work towards a common objective,” Akinnusi said.
Two minutes instead of 40
The technology behind Red Property Finance is MortgageMarket’s ZeroCapture system, which Property Flash covered when it launched at the end of September.
MortgageMarket describes ZeroCapture as South Africa’s first AI agent for mortgage origination. Instead of typing their details into a long online form, buyers upload their supporting documents, such as payslips, bank statements and identity documents. The system then extracts the relevant information and fills in the application automatically.
Buyers check and confirm the details before anything is sent to the banks. According to MortgageMarket, they can start an application in under two minutes.
At the launch, the company said ZeroCapture cut data capture time from about 40 minutes to roughly two. That matters to buyers, but it matters even more to the originators and bank staff who would otherwise spend hours a day re-typing information already sitting in a document.
“ZeroCapture is the next step in how we intend to use technology to make the home loan journey faster and simpler,” Akinnusi said at the time.
Taking sensitive documents off WhatsApp
One of the biggest selling points of the new platform has less to do with speed than with security.
Anyone who has bought a home in South Africa will know the routine. The agent, the originator or the bank asks for three months of bank statements, recent payslips, a copy of an ID and proof of address. Too often these get sent by WhatsApp or ordinary email, copied to several people and left sitting on phones and laptops long after the deal is done.
That is a real risk. These documents hold everything a fraudster needs to impersonate someone, open accounts in their name or target them with convincing scams.
Red Property Finance is designed to avoid this. MortgageMarket’s platform is secure and aligned with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), and buyers upload documents directly into the system rather than passing them along a chain of intermediaries.
All financial documents and confidential information move only between the buyer, MortgageMarket and the relevant banks. Vered itself has no access to buyers’ financial documents.
That separation is deliberate. The estate agency keeps its role in the property transaction, and the sensitive financial side stays with a specialist that is set up to handle it securely. For agents, it also removes the responsibility of holding clients’ personal financial data, which carries growing compliance obligations under POPIA.
Why now?
The partnership comes at a time when financing a home is becoming harder again for many South Africans.
The South African Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.25% on 23 September, after a hike in May and a hold in July. Each increase pushes up bond repayments for existing homeowners and reduces how much new buyers can borrow.
Several property professionals have warned that higher rates could slow house sales. Jonathan Kohler, founder and CEO of Landsdowne Properties, told Property Flash after the September decision that the rate move could weigh on buyer demand.
In that environment, buyers have every reason to shop around for the best rate. A slightly lower margin on a home loan can make a real difference to monthly repayments, and it can be the difference between a bank approving or declining an application. Originators that submit to several banks at once give buyers the best chance of approval on the best available terms.
Agencies also have reason to want deals to go through smoothly. A sale that collapses because the buyer can’t get finance costs the agent time and commission, and it costs the seller months. The sooner a buyer knows what they can afford and has a bond approval in hand, the more likely the deal is to reach transfer.
Technology that supports, not replaces
Vered and MortgageMarket stress that Red Property Finance is not meant to take the human element out of buying a home.
They say the partnership reflects a broader shift in the industry, where technology is increasingly used to complement, rather than replace, the personal expertise and relationships at the heart of successful property transactions.
That is a sensible reading of where the market is going. Property portals, digital valuations, e-signatures and online bond applications have all changed how South Africans buy homes over the past decade. But buying a house is still a big, emotional and complicated decision, and most buyers still want someone they trust to guide them through it.
The partnership gives each business what it does best. Vered keeps doing the relationship work of finding properties, negotiating deals and guiding buyers through the sale. MortgageMarket takes on the heavy administration of financing, which technology handles well.
A model others may follow
The tie-up also points to where the estate agency business may be heading.
Estate agents have long referred buyers to bond originators, usually through informal arrangements or longstanding relationships with the big originators. What is different here is the depth of the integration: a branded finance service, carrying the agency’s name, built on the originator’s technology and open to the wider market.
For an agency, that kind of arrangement offers a way to add value for buyers beyond simply finding them a home. It keeps Vered in the conversation for the whole transaction, not just the viewing and the offer to purchase. And because the service is open to buyers who aren’t using Vered as their agent, it may also raise the brand’s profile with people who are earlier in their property search.
For MortgageMarket, a partner like Vered brings a steady flow of serious buyers at the point when they need finance. It also gives the company’s technology a well-known local brand to sit behind.
If the model works, other agencies are likely to look at similar arrangements, especially as fintech originators keep investing in tools that make applications quicker and more secure.
Making buying easier
For both businesses, the goal is simple: to make buying property easier, while giving buyers more choice and confidence when they arrange their finance.
For the buyer, that means one secure application instead of several, offers from multiple banks instead of one, and no need to send sensitive documents through WhatsApp.
With interest rates heading up again and affordability under pressure, any tool that helps buyers secure the best possible deal is likely to find a market.
Red Property Finance is open to all property buyers in South Africa, regardless of which estate agency they use. More information is available at www.mortgagemarket.co.za.
