Ep 12. Creative Couplings with Daisy Ashworth - Mortgage Mates
On today’s show we have guest speaker Daisy Ashworth, founder of the property investment matchmaking site, Mortgage Mates. Michelle and Daisy go into the details about how Mortgage Mates started and how it can help home buyers gain entry into otherwise inaccessible property markets.
Here’s what you’ll learn from today’s episode:
Who is Daisy Ashworth?
What is Mortgage Mates?
How can Mortgage Mates help you?
How does Mortgage Mates work?
Speakers in today’s episode:
Michelle May - Michelle May Buyers Agents
Daisy Ashworth - Mortgage Mates
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Please note that any views or opinions presented in this podcast are solely those of the speakers, and do not necessarily represent those of any business. These views and opinions are general in nature, and do not take account of your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. Please consider whether it applies in your circumstances and seek professional advice wherever appropriate.
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VIEW TRANSCRIPT
Michelle: Hi and welcome to another episode of Buy Your Side, the Property Podcast that will help you, hopefully, buy better. My name is Michelle and I'm a Buyers Agent based in Sydney. Now in my quest to uncover all the things that are possible to get buyers into the market, I've been looking at creative couplings, as in, brothers and sisters buying together, perhaps getting the help of Mum and Dad. And in my wanderings I came across something called the Tinder of the property market, something called Mortgage Mates. And today I wanted to have a little bit of a chat with the founder of Mortgage Mates. Her name is Daisy Ashworth, and I'm very delighted to have her on the podcast today. Daisy, how are you?
Daisy: I'm good, thank you. Thank you so much for having me, I'm really excited to be here.
Michelle: Oh, it's my pleasure. It's always exciting to see new things happening in the property market. Sometimes it does feel like we're stuck in the 50s still. So to come across your offering to potential buyers in the market made me really excited, so I think it would be best if you explain to our listeners what is Mortgage Mates and why do we need it?
Daisy: Yeah, absolutely. So Mortgage Mates, as you just touched on, is like the dating app for home ownership. So we match two or more users based on housing need. So where they're looking to buy, the type of property they want to live in, how much they want to spend, and their house-mate preferences. So who they would like to live with if they're going to live in the property, and we then help them to buy a home together. So effectively, we are the Tinder or the Bumble of homeownership because we're matching people to be able to then go on and double their buying power by pooling resources and owning a home, we say in half the time. And the reason that we created Mortgage Mates is because of the affordability issue in Australia with housing. I think everybody knows the statistics that are out there that Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world to own in. All of the cities in Australia are considered severely unaffordable, and the likelihood of a new home buyer or returning home buyer being able to enter the market independently is effectively now non-existent. And so Mortgage Mates, bridges that gap, and pairs them up so that they can own a home together.
Michelle: Absolutely. I mean, you just touched on it, Sydney and the major cities of Australia are severely unaffordable. We were doing some pricing research only this week on certain suburbs within the inner west of Sydney, and we found that one particular suburb just south of the Cooks River, the median house price actually went up 31% in the last year alone. It's quite shocking. So something like Mortgage Mates is definitely something that people should consider in terms of creative couplings to try and get your foot on the property ladder whilst you still can. Tell me how did you come to create Mortgage Mates?
Daisy: Yes, so my background is actually housing and homelessness. So as you might hear from the twinge in my voice, I originate from the UK and my background there was Law, Welfare Law in particular. So working in that sphere of housing affordability in the UK, moved over to Australia about 9 and a half years ago and began working in homelessness here in Western Australia. And it became really apparent to me that there were just so few options for people to be able to enter the home ownership market, that we should be doing something to rectify that. And sometimes people ask me, "You work in homelessness? Why are you focusing on the home ownership side and why not look at rentals and those kinds of things?" But we actually see the housing market as a continuum, and we need to be positively impacting every sector of that continuum to have affordable housing across the spectrum. And so by supporting people into home ownership, we actually make a freer market for everybody. So when it becomes more affordable, there becomes more available properties. So we actually support everybody to be able to choose the property that they want to live in and the method in which they want to live in that property as well.
Michelle: So Mortgage Mates is there for homeowners, not so much investors, because there's other options for them out there. Is that right?
Daisy: Yeah, absolutely. So you can use mortgage money to co-invest with a person or you can do a hybrid model whereby one of you invests and the other person effectively lives in the property as a co-investor. So that gives some opportunity for investors to help individuals priced out of the market to enter, and it can mean that individuals can buy perhaps in locations that they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford, whilst perhaps continuing to live at home or with their partner or whatever that may look like for them. But actually, yes, Mortgage Mates has been created to support those individuals that want to live in the property that they're buying. There are lots of fractional ownership properties out there that do some amazing things. You can buy anything from one brick wall or one bricklet through to 50% of a property for investment purposes. And we really wanted to bridge that gap, which was looking for an option for people to actually live in the home that they were purchasing.
Michelle: I think this is a really great opportunity, particularly, when we were talking previously prior to this interview, we touched on the huge increase on single households, single people, but also particularly women over 50 who are really struggling with homelessness, whether it's just home ownership because, you know, they've been raising a family, potentially getting divorced and are out there on their own. This would be a great opportunity for them to potentially find a like-minded person who they could share a property with and have that stability and security.
Daisy: Yeah, absolutely. So what we've also found is a lot of the opportunities out there are targeted at the millennial homebuyer. And again, that's absolutely someone that we can support into co-ownership with Mortgage Mates. But one of the growing demographics into homelessness is older adults and particularly women. We know that over 55 is the highest impact for that demographic, and so actually, we can solve a number of potential problems by co-owning together. So for older adults, we're not just looking at the stability of providing a house, which is obviously really, really important and being able to age in the property that you live in is fundamental for people's well-being. But we're also looking at the social element of co-ownership as well. So we know that 1 in 4 Australians will experience loneliness due to limited social connection. And actually, by living with a mate, you can impact your social connection as well as your housing affordability. So we're actually ticking multiple wellbeing impacts by sharing those housing options with each other.
Michelle: Absolutely, and look, I think the last 18 months has certainly shown that, how quickly you can become isolated and you know that there was a need for bubble buddies and all that kind of stuff. But also, I'm just thinking that, for single older people being able to stay in their property longer because there is someone else there, your housemate, would mean potentially that you don't need to go into assisted living or, retirement villages, as early as you would now because you have that other person who's not a life partner, but a social partner in effect. So I think that there is a ripple effect on what you guys are doing, which is fantastic. But of course, this is a business. So I'm just interested in how people get started and are there any costs involved for people who are interested in finding a mortgage mate? Tell me about that.
Daisy: One of the things that was really important to us when we created Mortgage Mates was that we had no barrier to entry. So we are a free service. You won't pay when you sign up to the platform. You won't pay when you match. Potentially, you won't pay anything when you go on to buy a home. The fees that we receive actually come from the agencies that we've partnered with. So the real estate agents, the brokers and the lawyers that we have relationships with. So the cost to the user is zero, and that was really important for us because our motivator primarily is to support people into housing, and we know that even a minimal cost could potentially impact that in the short term. So, like I say, it's completely free for individuals to use. For us as a business, you're absolutely right, we want to be profitable and be able to continue supporting people in the long term, and that's why we've developed the relationships with the third parties that we have and have referral processes attached to those relationships. For us, it's really important that our users have the choice of who they can actually contact once they've matched with their mate. So again, for some of the other providers that are out there, once you've signed up to their platform, you actually then have to go through and use their particular co-ownership agreement, their mortgage brokers, their real estate agents, and that's wonderful if that's what you're looking for. But actually, we wanted our mates to have as normal a home journey as possible and so they can use an array of providers that are available on our website to make the choices that sit right for them.
Michelle: Right. Ok, that sounds fair and reasonable. Now are there any particular success stories that come to mind that you'd like to share? Just to give our listeners some more of a hands-on experience?
Daisy: Yeah, definitely. So just to give an example of some of the uses that we have matching at the moment. As we've touched on already, we have an older lady who's currently in the eastern states, and her tagline is that she wants to meet like minded nanna’s to own a home with it and I think that's phenomenal. I think that just sums up exactly what we're trying to do in one line, and so she's currently matching with people to buy a house to live in at the moment. And equally amazingly, we have a lone parent that's on the website at the moment, and she's also actively meeting with her matches because she's looking to buy with somebody else who is a lone parent as well. So again, touching on that social connection element that we talked about a little while ago, it's a really important factor for some of our users. And if you're currently caring for children independently and could benefit from the social connection of living with somebody doing the same thing, Mortgage Mates also gives you that opportunity as well. So they're two of our mates that are proactively meeting their matches right now, and we really hope that they get to purchase their home in the near future. Being based on the eastern states, unfortunately, everything has taken a little bit longer, but now we're edging ever closer to Freedom Day, we're really hopeful that we're going to make some real impact for those individuals and all our mates that are on the website.
Michelle: So you're based in Perth, but obviously Mortgage Mates is available to everyone in Australia?
Daisy: Yes.
Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. So obviously, we've just had our Freedom Day last Monday and the real estate market is going gangbusters. And with spring now here and more and more properties coming on the market I think this would be a great time to investigate whether this is the right option for you because there's lots of different ways to do this. And if this is another avenue for you to get into the property market, check it out, look at the pros and cons. Obviously, always do your due diligence and make sure that whoever you're getting into, I was going to say get into bed with, but that's not the right word; get into the property market with. Just, you know, make sure that you're both on the same page, get the right paperwork drawn up and go from there. I think it's worth checking out, for sure. And look, if you're a single parent with a bunch of kids and you've got another parent who's willing to share the washing up and laundry load with you, I think I'm all for that. So thank you so much, Daisy, it was really interesting talking to you. Now, how and where can interested buyers find you?
Daisy: So our website is www.mortgagemates.com.au. If they go through to the website, there's lots of information on there about how to co-own a home together and how to do it safely and securely as you've just touched on. We have an information centre that actually has a co-ownership manual on there that's again free for people to download and use and it talks you through the steps of co-owning your home with your mate. If anyone has any questions or they'd like to ask any questions of myself, my email address is daisy@mortgagemates.com.au. and I would welcome any emails. I'm very passionate about helping people to find the right path for them to own their own home. And again, as you've touched on, if Mortgage Mates can support somebody with that, then we would love to be able to do so.
Michelle: That's fantastic, Daisy. And you are also on social media, right?
Daisy: We are, yes.
Michelle: Instagram, Facebook. So hit them up. Check them out. I think it's a wonderful initiative. Thank you again so much for your time, Daisy. I hope lots of people will look into this and take the opportunity to get creative about getting the property market because it is tough out there and the more options you've got available to you, the better it is. So thanks again, Daisy. Thank you so much for being my guest today.
Daisy: Thank you so much.
Michelle: And thank you so much for listening, everyone. If you've got any questions, please drop me a line at hello@buyyourside.com.au. Thanks for listening.