Business

Brazil-based fintech Melhortaxa reaches BRL 1 billion in real estate credit intermediation

The platform said on Tuesday that it brokered more than BRL 300 million in contracts signed this year so far

Photo: REUTERS/Rahel Patrasso
  • The fintech says it doubled its revenue this year and already expects to triple its revenue in 2021;
  • A dramatic drop in interest rates has sparked a mortgage boom in Brazil.

Brazil-based digital rate comparison and mortgage credit intermediation fintech Melhortaxa reached BRL 1 billion in real estate credit intermediation.

Created in 2014, the platform said on Tuesday that it brokered more than BRL 300 million in contracts signed this year so far, after receiving more than 60,000 online requests for financing, 160% more than in 2019.

With that, the company says it doubled its revenue this year and already expects to triple its revenue in 2021.

The startup, whose French partner Meilleurtaux had a slice of Goldman Sachs bought by the Silver Lake technology investment fund in October, had 150,000 unique users in the first 11 months of this year, 130% more than in the same period in 2019. Portability requests reached 30,000, seven times over a year earlier.

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The move comes amid the boom in civil construction in the country, which gained even more strength after the recession caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic led the Brazil’s Central Bank to reduce the Selic [Brazilian benchmark rate] at its lowest historical level, 2% per year.

Thus, for the first time in history, the average rate on real estate credit contracts in the 5 largest banks in the country fell below 7% per year + TR (Brazilian rate used as an ally of the financial market for making corrections to the installments of a mortgage loan), according to Melhortaxa. In October it reached 6.98% and in November, 6.96%.

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According to the Brazilian Association of Real Estate Credit and Savings Entities (Abecip, in Portuguese), 5% and 10% of the real estate credit concession in the country has prior intermediation, against 50% in France and 80% in the United States.

(Translated by LABS)

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