The projection for this year will be driven by our expansion marketplace especially in Penang, says CEO

By SHAZNI ONG / Pic By Facebook

TRB Ventures Sdn Bhd is aiming to increase new bookings and transactions on its end-to-end property marketplace platform MHub by over 50% this year, with transaction value at more than RM8 billion.

This comes after the firm recorded 28,000 bookings and transacted more than 14,000 sales of new property launches in 2019, representing 26% of all new launches in the country.

“The projection for this year will be driven by our expansion marketplace especially in Penang. Other than that, we are looking at a few other places such as Johor, Pahang and Kuching.

“We have also raised close to RM4 million via equity crowdfunding to expand our team size and market reach,” TRB Ventures CEO Quek Wee Siong told reporters at a collaborative agreement signing ceremony with NewParadigm Capital Markets Sdn Bhd in Shah Alam yesterday.

Since its launch in 2016, the total property value available on the platform has grown to around RM65 billion, while transaction value amounted to RM8 billion in total so far, Quek noted.

“Most of our sales transaction targets this year will not just focus on the primary market. We are also venturing into the secondary market and auctions in the second half of this year by offering better solutions like the rent-to-own (RTO) scheme,” he said.

The agreement signed with NewParadigm Capital Markets, a corporate finance advisory firm, seeks to specifically assist the bottom 40% of households or lower-income group to procure homes.

It is also in step with MHub’s commitment to enabling homebuyers to use the intelligent matching platform to guide them on the best ways of procuring funds to purchase their desired property.

The agreement will go a long way towards addressing the financing woes faced by more than 50% of would-be homebuyers due to poor credit scores and ignorance of options available to them.

“(Hence), we are confident that MHub’s collaboration with NewParadigm Capital Markets could help at least 40% to 50% of rejected homebuyers overcome the hurdle of securing funding by utilising our intelligent data-driven platform,” Quek said.

The group is also aware of the acute property overhang in the market worth more than RM30 billion, he added.

“This is a tremendous burden to the government and other stakeholders, and thus we believe our intelligent data-driven solutions can solve some of these pain points.”

Quek said the firm will also collaborate with the national mortgage corporation, Cagamas SRP Bhd, to assist first-time homebuyers to obtain up to 110% financing to purchase their first home and support the ecosystem.

MHub is a property technology ecosystem focusing on intelligent solutions to speed up and simplify property transactions, as well as save cost.

MHub’s suite of apps is used by property developers, banks, lawyers, agents and buyers.

“Last year, residential overhang growth slowed down significantly. We are cautiously optimistic about the property market upside this year,” Quek added.

Meanwhile, NewParadigm Capital Markets MD Charanjeev Singh said the loan rejection rate in Malaysia stood at almost 60% last year.

“Most of the unsuccessful loan applications were due to poor or no credit history. Many applicants are eligible buyers, but they need more time to improve their credit repayment record and grow their income,” he said.