UK end-to-end challenger OneDome has bought CMME Mortgage and Protection Limited from CMME Group for an undisclosed amount, with CEO Babek Ismavil aspiring to service 10% of UK property transactions by 2028.
The acquisition, which also includes the immersion of CMME Mortgage's 65-person team into OneDome, will allow OneDome to significantly increase its mortgage brokerage capability and service its website clients.
CMME Mortgage and Protection Limited is a specialist contractor mortgage broker that handles upwards of £800M loans value per year. The acquisition also includes CMME's wealth management unit, which handles assets worth an estimated £130M.
OneDome will now be able to expand its mortgage offerings through its end-to-end platform.
This is the second acquisition by OneDome since its inception in 2019. The challenger bought nethouseprices.com—the UK’s first website to make land registry transaction data easily accessible to UK consumers—in 2019 as the challenger sought market share upon launch.
Babek Ismayil, CEO at OneDome, said:
"The property market is one of the few areas which has experienced limited impact from technology. The homebuying journey isn’t fit for purpose and has had little breakthrough innovation since the launch of classifieds like Rightmove in the early 2000s. Our goal is to make homebuying a faster, simpler and more enjoyable experience for everyone.
"We believe that our eHomebuying platform will change how we buy properties in the same way that e-commerce platforms changed how we shop forever. This is only our first acquisition of a mortgage brokerage, and we are in discussion with several other target firms. Our five-year goal is to service 10% of all property purchase and sales in the UK."
OneDome operates as an end-to-end home-searching, buying and selling service. Users follow a step-by-step process including mortgages, conveyancing to complete transactions faster and more efficiently.
The firm has invested heavily in its infrastructure in the past 12 months, including big-name hires with backgrounds in mortgages and finance, the launch of a multi-layered buyer passport product that allows customers to register their interest in properties while also pre-qualifying them for agents, and a new platform that lets agents monitor and manage referrals made through its portal.
OneDome is clearly not mentioned alongside the likes of Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket—but the challenger has marked a clear path that differentiates itself from the mainstream portals. Online Marketplaces spoke to CEO Babek Ismayil about his business in November 2020—watch the full video below: