a real estate finance company launched to expedite home ownership in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – recently hosted an Iftar gathering with eSimsar, the country's leading property finder tool in the online space. Among other things discussed at the gathering, Bidaya Home Finance pledged greater support for its digital presence to reach customers and complete the home financing process by availing all options for the consumer on bidaya.com.sa. Since its official launch in January of 2016, one of the first steps taken by the company in this direction was the integration of eSimsar on its website dashboard, enabling consumers seeking home finance to search for a suitable property that matches their housing finance limits. Mohamed Ismail Badat, Chief Commercial Officer of Bidaya Home Finance, addressed the eSimsar members and reflected on the young company's digital journey. "Since the launch, we recognized that our digital presence would be the driving force in making home finance easily accessible. Along with our partners, we built an efficient and dynamic online portal that is now a one-stop solution for all home finance and ownership needs. We have reduced the otherwise long process down to just three simple steps on the website, making home financing a more efficient and intuitive experience," he said. Its early success in creating a robust digital presence is demonstrated by an award received from the Global Finance Magazine in the Innovators 2016 – Islamic Finance listing. "The digital age is transforming all industries, and the housing sector too will have to adapt to the evolving ways in which customers use the internet. The digital medium will be instrumental in making processes efficient, and empowering people of the kingdom with easy access to home finance that materializes into home ownership. However, throughout this journey, meaningful collaborations like the one with eSimsar will be critical to success," Badat added. — SG
