The Rent-to-Own Concept by TapHomes Allows User to Rent While Making Down Payment

The low rate of house ownership becomes one of TapHomes' reasons to run the proptech startup. Victor Ramli Kwan as co-founder revealed to DailySocial, there are currently people who have lost the opportunity of house ownership. And he finds it as a problem that affects many people in Indonesia.

TapHomes applies the "rent-to-own" concept as a bridge to help customers get houses. It allows users to pay rent while saving for the house's down-payment.

Victor said, most of TapHomes' customers are new homeowners who cannot obtain traditional home mortgages; most of the issues are due to incapability to pay a down payment or pay a mortgage loan of at least 15-20% of the price of the house.

Through the application, prospective buyers can simply pay a deposit of 2%, then TapHomes will buy the desired house. The customer will then start to inhabit the house and pay monthly rent starting from 1.2 million Rupiah. The cost is allocated 70% for rent and 30% for savings on home ownership.

Regarding the type of house, the TapHomes team will conduct an analysis according to the ability of prospective buyers. Because it has been purchased, the rental process can be modified or renovated according to residents' wishes.

The rental period is 3-5 years; and at the end of the lease, the customer will have a savings with a total equivalent value of a 15% deposit for the purchase of a home. They can continue to buy the house in cash or through mortgages.

When the customer cannot continue the house purchase plan at the end of the program, TapHomes and the customer will sell the house to a third party. Proceeds from the sale of the house will be divided according to the proportion of home ownership between TapHomes and customers.

"We make it easier for new families to buy their homes with affordable down payment and the development of regular home ownership, that in 3 years later our customers can apply for mortgages in banks," said Victor.

Technology Development

TapHomes is said to have processed around more than 2 thousand potential customer submissions. Later on will be curated process of customers who are entitled to get services.

Regarding technology, TapHomes is developing an Automated Valuation Engine that makes it easier for the platform to evaluate the value of house prices more efficiently.

TapHomes currently has some objectives, including expanding to major cities in Indonesia. To date, TapHomes' focus is still on the Greater Jakarta area, especially in Bekasi, Tangerang and Depok.

"We have received seed funding from VC and previously bootstrapping. TapHomes is now involved in batch 3 Accelerator Program from SYNRGY by the BCA group in and batch 7 Plug & Play Accelerator," Victor said.

– Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian