- In partnership with financial literacy platform Doshi, Yorkshire Building Society is offering online financial education to first-time prospective homebuyers.
- The new free tool, available on the YBS website to customers and non-customers alike, walks new homebuyers through the entire home-buying process.
- Doshi made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope in London.
Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has teamed up with gamified financial literacy platform Doshi to launch an online educational program for first-time prospective homeowners. The new tool is available in the mortgage section of Yorkshire Building Society’s website, and guides borrowers through the process of applying for a mortgage and buying their first home.
The program walks prospective homeowners through the entire home-buying journey, including how to prepare for buying a home, how to secure financing, understanding the various steps of the home-buying process, and the importance of maintaining their home once they’ve made their purchase. The program explains important concepts and potentially unfamiliar terms, and provides a timeline of the overall process. The tool is available free of charge to both YBS customers and non-customers.
“Partnering with Yorkshire Building Society to empower aspiring homeowners is a significant step toward making homeownership more accessible,” Doshi CEO Daniel Rose said. “Our program demystifies the mortgage process, providing engaging, bite-sized guidance every step of the way. We are excited to see the positive impact on first-time buyers.”
The new offering comes in the wake of research conducted by YBS that indicated that a lack of knowledge about the home-buying process was a major barrier for would-be homeowners. YBS noted that only 18% of those surveyed felt knowledgeable about the mortgage process, with even fewer respondents – 14% – saying that they knew what financial factors were key when applying for a mortgage. The survey further indicated that only 45% of respondents believed that a good credit score was an important factor in securing a mortgage. Only 34% stated that the ability to repay debts was important when it comes to obtaining the financing necessary to buy a home.
“We know from customer research that people feel more confident in their decision making when they are informed and know what to expect, which is why we are trialing this new learning tool, aimed at helping first-time buyers understand more about the home-buying process,” YBS senior manager for digital mortgage and enabling services Geddy Meguyer said.
The third-largest building society in the U.K., Yorkshire Building Society is a financial services mutual organization that offers savings, investing, insurance, and mortgage products. Headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, YBS had total assets of more than £60 billion as of December 2023. Along with its assets – the Chelsea Building Society, the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, Accord Mortgages, and savings business Egg – known as the Yorkshire Building Society Group, the group employs more than 3,000 and serves a membership of three million.
YBS’s partnership with Doshi is the latest effort by the building society to support first-time homeowners. This spring, YBS launched its £5k Deposit Mortgage product, which enabled first-time homebuyers to buy a property worth up to £500,000 with a deposit of only £5k, rather than the typical 5% down payment. The idea behind the £5k Deposit Mortgage was to deal with the biggest obstacle prospective homebuyers tend to face – raising the funds for a down payment.
Doshi made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in February. At the conference, the company demoed its white-label app, which leverages personalized learning journeys and community rewards to turn complex topics into engaging experiences. Doshi’s AI-powered financial assistant technology is built for banks, credit unions, and fintechs, and is available as an app, a plug-and-play web module, as well as via API.
Doshi was founded in 2021. The company is headquartered in London.
