Moving house is said to be one of the most stressful experiences in life. A major part of that is undoubtedly the hassle of trying to get finance. Very few people can afford to buy their property outright, so need to get a mortgage bond to amortise the cost. Understandably, the banks or lending institutions require some effort by the borrower to prove their creditworthiness as part of the application process. But filling in applications for multiple lenders to get the best offer can be a tedious process.

MortgageMe, a subsidiary of e4 launched in 2019, focuses on taking the traditional paperbased bond origination process and digitising it. The bond origination market is dominated by two well-established players – Ooba and BetterBond. According to Andrea Tucker, director of MortgageMe, these two companies are closely affiliated with a number of estate agents, which, given the importance of estate agents in the house-buying process, has obvious benefits for them. However, their dominance is being challenged by more digitally- focused players, such as MortgageMe, WeApply and Leadhome (featured elsewhere in this edition), all looking to make the application process easier and less stressful.