“Invest now, pay later”: Lakeba’s BRICKLET launches world-first BNPL for property ownership
Fragmented property ownership platform and Lakeba’s FinanceIQ venture, BRICKLET is launching the world’s first buy now, pay later (BNPL) offering for on-title property ownership.
The new BNPL offering allows Australians to purchase selected property fragments, or “bricklets”, on its platform at zero per cent interest.
This world-first, interest-free form of property ownership provides even greater access to investment property in the Australian market. With BRICKLET already reducing the entry and ownership costs of property, the BNPL approach makes it even easier for aspiring property owners to take advantage of property investment opportunities.
“With the power of the BRICKLET platform, we have already ripped up the old property ownership model by making investment property affordable through property fragmentation,” says Darren Younger, CEO of BRICKLET.
“Now, the platform is powering a transformation of property investment even further by allowing Australians to invest through manageable ongoing payments over time through the popular BNPL model.
“For too long, investment property has been out of reach for many and reserved for an exclusive club who can afford the significant entry costs. Today, it’s been made even easier to buy, sell, and own investment property in Australia.”
BRICKLET currently holds over 1,000 ‘bricklets’, priced between $15,000 and $38,000 each, with a collective value of $48 million.
The launch of the new BNPL interest-free purchase model is expected to bring even more property-hungry investors to the BRICKLET platform, which has already broken the record for the most people registered directly on a land title, and sold over 400 bricklets with a total value of $11.5 million to date.
Using the BNPL model, Australians wanting to invest now and pay later can repay the cost of their bricklet over 18 months instead of handing over the entire amount upfront, with repayments structured as predictable and simple monthly instalments.
There are no fees charged for additional repayments (including repaying the total amount outstanding) and no late fees. The only potential fees customers could be charged occur if the bricklet is sold following three months of payment defaults.
BRICKLET is one of Lakeba’s “FinanceIQ” portfolio of ventures, which are dedicated to eliminating frictions from financial interactions through intelligent and secure digital technologies, and which will be a key area of focus for Lakeba in 2021.
“By creating a world-first frictionless fintech offering to benefit all Australians, BRICKLET embodies exactly what we seek to achieve with Lakeba’s FinanceIQ portfolio,” says CEO, Giuseppe Porcelli.
“Prophetico, our AI neural network, scans software developer chat groups and troubleshooting forums to find business problems we can solve with new products. This was how we identified financial services as a key growth area brimming with potential.
“Open banking, the digital demands of Australians, and the need for frictionless financial products will now see us focus our efforts on conceiving, creating, and commercialising a whole range of new fintech solutions over the coming years.”
Lakeba’s FinanceIQ portfolio currently consists of four commercialised ventures, however it is in the process of co-creating a series of new portfolio ventures both internally and with partners.
