MHub Property Transactions Made Easy

By: Jotham Lim

To better understand MHub as a business model, it is important to understand what problem it is attempting to solve in the first place. For the better part of a century, property transactions have been made through pen and paper. From the booking process to loan disbursement, physical documents are reviewed, signed, archived, and delivered physically to all parties, making it a time-consuming and costly process.

There are several other issues plaguing the market in its current state. CCRIS provides outdated data dating back 30 days prior, which has opened a sub-industry of loan compressing, where investors overleverage to acquire multiple loans from multiple banks for multiple properties in one go. Coupled with the practice of overvaluing the Sales Purchase Agreement (SPA) price of properties in order to get cashback rebates, there are many loopholes in the current property transaction system subjected to abuse.

We need to skip past one generation and jump right into the fourth industrial revolution to automate the transaction process, making it faster, safer, more efficient, and importantly, transparent for all stakeholders to see.

MHub is a local Malaysian PropTech company that aims to solve this complex issue in a very simple way by building an all-in-one platform for stakeholders to use.

“We have different partners in different countries, and our solution is unique and actually valuable in the marketplace,” said Georg Chmiel, Chairman of the international property listing website Juwai.com.

The Solution

MHub is a people-powered property platform that gives stakeholders the necessary tools to enable their jobs to be done much more effectively. For developers and real estate agents, they are given the Lead & Showroom app to keep track of leads and process paperwork digitally to make bookings in real-time. There is also a Banker & Lawyer app that tailors to the parties’ respective needs. All stakeholders have access to the loan tracker tool to monitor the loan application process in real-time, enabling all parties to make quick and data-driven decisions on the fly, supposedly reducing the process from six months down to a single month. Loan approvals can even potentially be done instantly after the successful integration with Tongdun Technology Co Ltd’s facial recognition system.

Entrepreneur of the Month

Interview with Creators

With a special blend of property, and entrepreneurship-driven ideals, Entrepreneur Insight is excited to conduct an exclusive interview with the creators behind MHub, Jason Ding, Chief Experience Officer, and Quek Wee Siong, Chief Executive Officer.

How Did both of You Know Each Other?

Quek: There were only three of us during the early days of the company, including Joshua Ong, the chief strategic officer, who is not here today. Joshua and I are both classmates and have known each other for about 20 years now.

We knew about the problems in the property market, and in our minds, we thought of a few solutions that could potentially solve some of the problems. So Joshua, like The Avengers Movie, started assembling the whole team together.

Jason: When starting out as a tech startup, there are three key components that are important for the business. You have the hacker, someone who does all the coding; the designer, someone that builds up the company brand; and finally, the hustler.

So Quek is the hustler amongst us. He would stand in front of the audience, make phone calls in and out of the office. We started with a lean ragtag team, but we are proud to say that we are currently 25 people strong.

What is the Inspiration behind MHub?

Jason: Tracking and obtaining loans have always been a problem in this industry, and it is, in fact, one of the slowest processes in the transaction cycle. The process of linking the customer to the right banker, qualifying buyers, conducting interviews, and processing applications is slow. Every loan rejected takes up marketing costs, maintenance costs, and more importantly, opportunity costs. A much more creditworthy buyer may have come and gone just because a unit was stuck in limbo.

Quek: Hence, we developed the Loan Tracker app as part of our first module. In the early days, we got a PlatCom Ventures Grant from the government. That was when I quit my previous job to focus solely on building up MHub. We did a beta launch with a few developers and released the Loan Tracker into the market.

Does MHub Store Transactional Data? And how Do You Ensure that it is Secure?

Jason: Yes, we do store data and understand the concerns and worries the public might have. Rest assured, our platform complies with the requirements listed in the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, and we are also working towards ISO certification, which we are already currently practicing anyway.

Quek: We are constantly improving the security features of our platform. Hence, we work with companies such as Tongdun, which is already used in the Chinese market. With China being one of the growing leaders in the tech space, if it is good enough for them, it is good enough for Malaysia.

How Many Banks Are on Board on Your Platform Right Now?

Quek: Right now, we have four banks that have already signed agreements with us. We just signed RHB bank and are currently in contact with a few other local major banks. Banks are actively engaging with fintech companies like us to digitize their backend processes. Their two main goals are to either reduce operational costs or increase their revenue. By digitizing the loan application process, we have already reduced operational and transactional costs. Pre-qualifying leads through our credit check system will further accelerate the approval process. By using CCRIS and CTOS data and any future alternative data scores, we are able to give immediate loan approvals on the spot through the app itself.

The Buyer’s App, launching this year, will allow homebuyers to pull their CCRIS and CTOS Data via facial recognition and immediately know how qualified they are from each respective bank before they even start searching for a property.

Currently, we have the largest bankers’ community in Malaysia right now, with more than 1,000 mortgage officers using the banker app. They are able to update the status of loan applications via the app, and all stakeholders can see it. We believe it just makes sense for banks to use our platform, and with our rapidly growing user base, we hope that eventually, these banks will choose to sign onto our platform because this is where the users and target market are.

With Mortgage Officers Pre-selected and effective Interest Rates Openly Displayed, Will there even Be Competition amongst Banks?

Quek: There will always be competition amongst banks in terms of securing a home buyer’s loan application and getting it approved. Once a buyer places a booking, full information is passed to bankers A, B, and C. They pick the leads and contact the customers themselves. It is business as usual for them, but we develop tools to help bankers do a better job. Slow and lax bankers are left out of the loop, while there are bankers who are hungry and efficient, and we love to work with these people.

Jason: If you look at the banking industry as a whole, you can’t just look at interest rates alone. If that were the case, it would make sense for every buyer to seek the lowest possible interest rates. Each customer has a different profile, and banks have different risk appetites. Some banks are more lenient towards salaried workers with a certain income. Some target small families. Besides, another issue is that buyers are generally given a short two-week period to secure loan approval, or else they miss incentives and lose the booking fee. Banks that are slow, despite offering the best interest rates, still lose the opportunity as well. What MHub does is intelligent and smart matchmaking, bringing together the right customer with the right banker at the end of the day.

Any Chances of Integrating Non-traditional Financing Schemes such as Rent-To-Own, P2P, or Crowdfunding for Properties?

Quek: We do not restrict ourselves to working with conventional financial institutions. We are also looking into working with neobanks, which is exciting, according to Bank Negara Malaysia, which is issuing more neobank licenses by the end of the year.

Jason: If you notice, we specifically say lenders, not banks. Our framework is already in place for this role of financial provider. It is a simple matter of adding “alternative lenders” as an option in the app.

Employee Insights

As the conversation moved on, both Quek and Jason expressed the importance of having the right people on the team, especially in the case of a startup. Quek quickly notes, “Talented and driven coders nowadays aren’t cheap. You pay international rates, or else neighboring countries will poach them with a salary three times higher than the local rate. In addition to rewarding employees appropriately, you need to share the bigger picture of what MHub can offer in the marketplace in order to retain them.”

Jason added to the conversation, “I’m proud to say that our very first employee is still working with us since graduation. It’s been more than three years, and he was promoted to a senior position last month. We are happy to groom more talents as part of our team.”

Entrepreneur Insight actually reached out to Eeren Wong, the employee mentioned by Jason, to get his thoughts on MHub. This is what he had to say:

“What I value most about working at MHub is actually the teammates around me. They are very friendly and helpful, and they have created a nice working atmosphere here in the company. I am happy working here. We’re using some exciting cutting-edge technology to stay ahead of the game right now.”

Technology Integration

We also got in touch with Steven Ooi, Chief Operations Officer of DK Property Group, to get his thoughts on his experience using the services MHub provided:

“MHub has definitely helped grow our business. The software is easy to use and an efficient tool to improve overall sales delivery, saving time and cost. With more existing resources at our disposal, we have been able to take on projects that we normally wouldn’t,” said Steven.

After sharing the received comments, Quek puts a smile on his face, “I am happy to meet people who believe in our vision, people who can share the dream and rewards together. With new apps rolling out in the future, I hope to receive the same support then.” - JL