Blend says fintech can play “key part” in solving the housing crisis
Blend Network has claimed the fintech sector can play a “key part” in solving the housing crisis and tackling the under supply of homes in the UK.
Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, chief strategy officer at peer-to-peer development finance lending platform Blend Network, argued that old challenges in the housing market require innovative solutions and “thinking out of the box”.
She said that even prior to Covid, housebuilding targets were behind and although it is often hard to put a finger on a single solution for such large challenges, she believes that a “big part of the solution” to tackling the housing crisis may lie in the fintech sector.
Mohammadian-Molina said this is because fintech has showed it can prove an effective solution to provide funding to small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) property developers when many struggle to access much-needed finance to build more housing.
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“The use of technological solutions by incumbent financial institutions and specialist non-bank lenders has proved able to deliver better, faster, and more effective financial outcomes to customers, especially SMEs,” she said.
“Fintech platform financing, although still small, is growing fast. According to the Bank for International Settlements, transaction volumes globally more than doubled from $145bn (£107bn) in 2015 to $304.5bn (£224.8bn) in 2018.
“I strongly believe that financial services, especially agile and nimble incumbents leveraging the power of technology and fintech have a critical role to play in helping tackle the housing crisis by helping deploy the financing that is needed to help build more much-needed homes.”
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