EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Our proposal is geared to solving the real estate transaction inefficiencies by utilising the NEM blockchain on our existing proptech solution; MHub.
We are seeking 700,000 XEMs to complete the project and operate a standalone self-funded business by the end of 2018.
Achievements:
● MHub is a real estate transaction platform that started commercialising in Malaysia on early 2017.
● We have received angel investment funds of MYR 500,000 (USD 120,000).
● We have also secured a Malaysian government grant of MYR 500,000 (USD 120,000).
● We now have a team of 15 people – 4 co-founders, 9 programmers, 1 community manager and 1 growth hacker.
● To date, we have MYR 8 billion (USD 2 billion) worth of property inventory in our platform from 20 key enterprise clients with over 100 property projects.
● More than 3,500 properties have been transacted on our platform.
● Our community is made up of 1,500 users; which consist of property developers, realtors and mortgage bankers.
A SPECIAL NOTE TO NEMbers: MHub is live in the marketplace, we have officially launched MHub in Malaysia on August 2017. Our credentials and achievements should give the community comfort that we have the experience to deliver on this project. Blockchain adoption in real-estate transactions is definitely going to be the norm – MHub on NEM will bring blockchain adoption in property to the forefront.
Homepage: https://mhub.my
Telegram: https://t.me/NEMHub @NEMhub
INTRODUCTION
The NEM blockchain needs more real-world use cases to highlight its versatility as a business-focused smart asset platform. MHub aims to be the best real-estate platform in Asia with NEM blockchain at its backbone.
Our Vision:
Our vision is to become a one-stop platform for all property related industry stakeholders to communicate, network and trade within the ecosystem.
Our Mission:
- Accurately track property transactions: Double booking can be a pain, MHub will help developers to be more efficient in their workflow (use cases for using Apostille by NEM)
- Streamline communication between stakeholders: Properties get moved between stakeholders frequently, MHub will help all stakeholders be on the same page all the time (use cases for using Messaging by NEM)
- Be a smart asset platform: Providing visibility of all transactions in our platform as properties get moved between stakeholders (use cases for using Namespaces/Mosaics by NEM)
Our Goals:
- We aim for MHub to be a NEM-powered platform that can be launched quickly and be immediately accessible in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
- We also aspire to be a case study for global implementation.
- MHub will showcase how quickly applications can be built on the NEM blockchain.
- On the frontend, MHub will accept XEMs as digital fiat currency.
- On the backend, every property booking on MHub will utilize XEMs to facilitate transactions.
- MHub as a platform will contribute to increased demand for XEMs.
- We will contribute to the NEM community by increasing the number of transactions on the NEM blockchain.
The success of MHub’s use of XEMs by NEM will contribute to the ROI of every NEM supporter because of the increased visibility of the NEM blockchain as a business-focused smart asset using blockchain at its core.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Buying a property can be a rewarding experience. But it can also be a very tedious one with the many processes involved. A typical sales cycle can take up to 3 months, sometimes more.
Which is funny because all parties involved wants the same thing:
● property developers want to sell properties,
● banks want to give out loans (to those deserving) and;
● buyers want a roof over their heads.
This pain is especially felt by property developers. The longer it takes to sell, the more the cost for them. Time is money.
The reason why it takes a long time is because of the reasons below:
Double-booking (Unit availability and pricing)
● Unless the sales teams is physically at the show galleries, they won’t readily know the unit availability and price structure – this can cause double bookings and delays.
● In any new property launch, every property developer would want to sell all their properties as soon as possible
● Most of them employ multiple sales channel (above/below the line advertising & promotion), internal sales, social media, as well as sales agencies.
● As such, during busy periods of sales especially on weekends, incidences of double booking and also unit availability can be outdated easily as real-time data feed is unable to reach its users.
Loan application status
● Once a booking is made, developers won’t necessarily know which banks buyers are applying for and what the status is at any given time.
● This blind spot is a genuine pain.
Borrowing power (Buyer’s credit worthiness)
● While bookings can be done immediately by paying a booking fee, it takes a while before buyers know his or her loan eligibility – this translates to opportunity cost.
● At the same time, in many countries including Malaysia where we have launched, most property buyers are unable to get a visibility of their borrowing power unless they first speak to someone from Bank who will perform credit check on their behalf.
● It is our view that technology advancement should allow everyone to do a self inquiry on their creditworthiness without needing to first go to bank.
Manual tenancy agreements
● Property investors who lease out their property generally also sign manual tenancy agreements with tenants which MHub views to be an unreliable and archaic practice.
● Agreements that are physical can go missing and there is no way to verify if scanned copies are similar to the original ones unless an alternative universal e-tenancy on blockchain could be introduced.
Title transfer process
● In many developing countries, its land registry is also filled with legacy issues with inefficient title transfer process.
● Paper documents are still submitted to this registry and are manually stamped to transact the transfer of ownership and physical titles are still issued as proof of ownership.
● It is MHub’s vision that blockchain be widely adopted so that it can be a robust, transparent, accurate and verified land titles registry.
MHub SOLUTION
MHub is a platform that closes gaps in the property sales cycle. Unlike comparison sites, MHub directly connects property sales teams, real estate agents and bankers. Speed up, simplify and save cost with 3 key features:
● Showroom. Sales teams can sell easier by having a real time listing, show gallery in their pocket so they can sell anytime, anywhere
○ Problem solved: double booking
● Credit Check. This tool enables developers to get visibility on the buyer’s loan eligibility by getting their Credit Tip-Off Service (CTOS), Central Credit Reference Information System (CCRIS) and Debt Service Ratio (DSR) score within minutes.
○ Problem solved: Borrowing power (Buyer’s credit worthiness)
● Loan Tracker. Once a booking is made, buyers are referred to bankers immediately with MHub’s Loan Tracker.
○ Problem solved: loan application status
How it works:
● Bankers can then easily update loan status so everyone is on the same page.
● It only takes a few minutes to make a booking on a laptop, tablet or phone.
● Buyers can make payment on the spot to secure their bookings.
● Once buyers’ good credit score is confirmed, banks can make their offers immediately.
Advantages:
● This will significantly reduce the turnaround time for any property title transfer processes from current 3 - 4 weeks (some up to 3 - 4 months) to eventually less than 1 day.
● Stakeholders involved in a property transaction (Property Developers, Agents, Bankers, Lawyers) will highly benefit from savings in transaction costs.
● We envision that proof of property ownership can be verified while best offers from Sellers and Credit Providers can be reached in minutes resulting in a robust real estate marketplace.
BUSINESS MODEL
MHub has a few revenue models which could increase the usage of XEMs:-
Model 1 : Business to Business focused (B2B)
MHub Showroom is a web-based app for Property Developers and Real-Estate Agencies. MHub Showroom allows users to list, manage and trade their inventories (under-construction or completed properties) online. Subscribers pay a monthly or yearly subscription fee to use this service.
All the booking deposits and down payments made for the purchase of any property listed in MHub can be transacted electronically via MHub payment gateway which could later be transacted using XEM to increase the adoption of XEM as the cryptocurrency to buy and sell property within MHub Ecosystem.
Applications on NEM:
● We intend to build MHub Showroom version 3.0 using Apostille to prevent any double booking or fraudulent transactions.
● To use namespaces and mosaics for property transfer record keeping purpose which would eliminate the possibility of any fraudulent activities in transferring any property asset titles
● This will reduce the turnaround time for selling/buying a property to just 1-2 days in the future when we have the endorsement by the government entities in supporting the adoption of NEM blockchain for exchange of title.
● This will be our first step towards our ultimate goal in creating the world’s FIRST blockchain powered online real-estate trading platform.
MHub Credit Check was created to allow any property buyer to understand their creditworthiness to any credit providers instantly.
Benefits:
● Banks and non-bank credit providers can extend their credit lines almost instantly through MHub’s proprietary Debt-Service Ratio (DSR) Calculator in order to determine MHub’s unique Borrowing Power Indicator (BPI) which will be launched later using NEM’s Apostille and Messaging.
● MHub Credit Check will also be parked as a widget in various major real estate listing portals to allow more property buyers to understand their personal financing ability better in order to make a more informed decision.
MHub Loan Tracker is currently used by credit providers like banks to capture and manage their sales leads in real-time, 24/7.
Advantages:
● Productivity: Bank mortgage salespersons can utilise MHub to increase their sales productivity, enhance workflow efficiencies by working remotely at anywhere and anytime.
● Loan tracking: Property developers, real-estate agents as well as property buyers and sellers are able to track their loan application process in real-time.
Traction:
MHub managed to capture significant traction since official launched in August 2017.
Target Market Size:
● South East Asia is a 650 million populated region with a rapid growing young middle class population.
● 48.7% of the population (about 316 million) are staying in urban area.
● Southeast Asia’s urban population is forecasted to reach 507 million (about 63.7%) by year 2050.
● Demand for house ownership will continue to grow at high speed as the region continue its high GDP growth.
● Assuming only 0.5% of the region’s population are buying/selling a property with average value of USD 100,000 a year, we will see 1.58 million property transactions with a total value of USD 158 billion every year within the region.
Model 2 : Business to Consumer focused (B2C)
MHub Bank Bid is developed to help end-consumers find the best offer by financial institutions and non-bank lenders in real-time. It is also aimed at helping developers and sales agencies reduce the overall turnaround time required for a property transaction cycle.
Uses on NEM:
● MHub’s unique Borrowing Power Indicator (BPI) which uses Apostille and Messaging, aims to:
○ Provide a clearer picture on the consumer’s credit health.
○ Provides actionable recommendations such as banks that are giving them the best offer in terms of loan margin as well as interest rates.
● Qualified consumers: able to get the best deal from the respective banks or non-bank lenders
● Unqualified consumers: able to receive key information regarding why they are rejected and what they should be doing to improve their BPI such as debt restructuring exercise, etc.
MHub Tenancy is designed to promote adoption of property owners utilizing smart tenancy agreement for property management.
Benefits:
● This could be promoted jointly with real estate agents so that the authenticity and validity of agreements entered into would be indisputable.
● A wider reach will also be achieved via API integration with other cloud based property management CRM tools in the market in promoting smart tenancy agreement on blockchain.
Shelterzoom, a blockchain enabled offer and acceptance for property transaction is a great example of how Blockchain has a big part to play in the real estate industry which MHub is keen to emulate in NEM Blockchain.
Model 3: Business to Government focused (B2G)
MHub will work with governments to promote and introduce property titles and registry via NEM Blockchain creating a robust online property registry system.
Potential applications on NEM:
● This solution will be white-labelled and integrated with government platforms.
● Through this, MHub also aspires to help governments speed up transactions whenever a property ownership is exchanged thus speeding up government’s revenue (in land tax / duties).
● To this end, smart contracts via a digital property registry platform powered by NEM Blockchain can be deployed.
Target Customers
National land / property title registry organisations who would be educated to create awareness of this technology and working with those who want to adopt blockchain to secure their data.
Potential users may include but are not limited to the following:-
● National Land Agency - Indonesia
● Department Of Director General Of Land And Mines - Malaysia
● Singapore Land Authority - Singapore
● Department of Lands - Thailand
● General Department of Land Administration - Vietnam
● Lands Department - Brunei
● Land Registration Authority - Philippines
Part of the funds received from this proposal will be used to provide bounties to community members who successfully introduce businesses or government bodies that will adopt MHub’s solutions.
Collaboration Opportunity with Landstead
Landstead is another great example of NEM adoption in the real world. Both Landstead and MHub’s management team consist of experienced players in the Property Industry. We will be exploring collaboration opportunity with Landstead team to share knowledge in terms of promoting NEM blockchain adoption to the government bodies and enterprises, cross-border property transaction as well as to increase the market outreach of NEM blockchain globally.
MHub ECOSYSTEM AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN
We have broken down the development of MHub Ecosystem into 4 main phases:-
Phase 1 : Minimum Viable Product Development & Launching (Completed)
These modules development are completed:
- MHub Loan Tracker (Sep 16)
- MHub Showroom (April 17)
- MHub Credit Check (Aug 17)
- MHub Bank Bid (negotiation stage)
- In negotiation with Financial Institutions and Non-Bank Lenders.
Note: Global Banks like Citibank and HSBC are agreeable to participate.
Phase 2 : Product Enhancement & NEM Adoption (Q1 - Q4 2018)
Products/Modules will be developed:-
- Consumer App
a. Self-Check App/Widget
b. Seller Finds Agents (Sub-Sale) - MHub version 3.0 adopting NEM blockchain
a. No Double Booking (Apostille)
b. Progress Tracking (Messaging)
c. Record Keeping (Namespaces & Mosaics) - Dev-Agency Management Tool
a. Website/Microsite - Agency CRM Tool
a. Quick Multiple Listing on Major Property Listing Portals
(REA, PropertyGuru, etc)
b. Lead Management
c. Website/Microsite - Lawyer Directory and Lead Management
- Gamification/Rewards
- e-KYC (Know-Your-Customer)
Phase 3: Tenancy Management & Smart Contract (Q4 2018 - Q2/Q3 2019)
Our last phase of product development will involve heavily on the tenancy management and the first of Real-Estate Trading Board in the world:-
- Tenancy Management
- Smart Contract (NEM Blockchain)
- First Real-Estate Trading Board built on NEM Blockchain (Allow locally and cross border transaction)
Phase 4 : Regional Expansion & ASEAN Story (Q1 - Q4 2019)
Our regional growth plan will be predominantly focusing on the ASEAN story for a start due to few reasons:
- South East Asia (SEA) as one of the world’s fastest growing region according to The Diplomat and Bloomberg .
- Almost all countries in SEA are fast emerging markets… (except for Singapore)
- ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) Click here for more explanation on AFTA
- One Belt One Road Initiative Click here for more explanation on OBOR
TEAM
Soo Ann, YEOH
Advisor
A qualified accountant by profession, Yeoh started his career in Ernst and Young UK before he returned to Malaysia and joined another global consultancy firm. Subsequently he moved on to the corporate world and his business experience spans, across various industries such as plastics, industrial product manufacturing, property development as well as high growth technology companies.He has sat on the board of various public companies and remains a member of the Malaysian Institute of certified public Accountants and the Malaysian institute of Accountants since 1988.
Wee Siong, QUEK
CEO
Quek is a committee member of Malaysia’s Proptech Association and has been featured on The Edge, Focus M, Vulcan Post, Asian Property, Money Compass and Real Estate Malaysia. He has spoken at numerous events including Swhengtee Property expo, MyHome expo, Next Money-UOB FinTech Talk, etc.
Joshua Ong
Planner & Strategist
Soon after getting his Bachelor of Commerce (University of Melbourne), Joshua began his career with a global audit firm. Subsequently, he took up the role of business banking relationship manager of OCBC Bank. Passionate about F&B industry, in 2012 he took up the offer to co-found a F&B establishment in Australia. He also took interest in real estate has since been involved in various real-estate initiatives.
Jon Saw
CTO
Jon graduated with a Degree in Actuarial Science & Finance from Drake University in Iowa. The internet taught him to code 8-years ago. He is passionate about music and tech.
Jason Ding
CDO
Jason received his Bachelor’s Degree in Art, Design & Creative Multimedia from MMU in 2003. He was the Creative Lead in International House developing e-learning applications before moving to Astro in 2005 as Senior Art Director managing the web team there. Jason has won numerous awards including the Boh Cameronian Award, a KKM / RTM / FINAS award, and an FFM nomination.
Alan Wong
Legal Counsel
Partner at Zain, Megat & Murad (ZMM), a boutique law firm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His experience in both the litigation and corporate commercial practice spans industries such as property development, environmental services, manufacturing, commodities, media, banking and insurance as well as private equity. Alan is a graduate of the University of West England, Bristol and was called to the Malaysian Bar in 2005.
KEY MILESTONES AND TIMELINE
We request for your support in making MHub’s aspiration come true. We are asking for 700 thousand XEMs which will be utilized as follows:
Key Milestone 1
25% (175k XEMs) to be disbursed upon completion of the following:
● Complete a MHub’s NEM blockchain proof-of-concept model explaning NEM’s robust features and integration model with MHub’s existing ecosystem.
● An animation explainer video mentioning MHub and the areas MHub adopting NEM blockchain.
● Launch MHub new website to include NEM logo and explaining about how NEM could help to improve PropTech and FinTech stakeholders.
● Post a blog/article of MHub promoting NEM on the MHub website/blog (with link to NEM).
● Conduct a press conference to announce the adoption of NEM blockchain into MHub
Key Milestone 2
25% (175k XEMs) to be disbursed upon completion of the following:
● Complete Apostille, Namespace & Mosaic adoption onto MHub web platform (Beta Version).
● Successfully complete a transaction on mainnet.
● Post at least 3 blogs/posts on MHub progress and development on the NEM platform.
Key Milestone 3
35% (245k XEMs) to be disbursed upon completion of the following:
● Complete Pilot Project Testing with 1 enterprise client.
● Post additional 3 blogs/posts on MHub progress and development on the NEM platform.
● Conduct another press conference to announce the successful adoption of NEM blockchain into MHub together with NEM Foundation committee at NEM’s new blockchain centre in Malaysia.
Key Milestone 4
15% (175k XEMs) to be disbursed upon completion of the following:
● Successfully launch MHub Smart Contract with 2 enterprise clients (web app).
● Successfully tested MHub Smart Contract app for consumer (native app).
● Develop corporate and tutorial video to promote MHub Smart Contract app adopting NEM.
● Post additional 3 blogs/posts on MHub progress and development on the NEM platform.
MHub’S CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEM COMMUNITY
-
Increase transactions of XEMs
The backend system of MHub would be built on NEM blockchain which utilizing XEMs to facilitate the core transactions (such as mode of payment, MHub Digital Title Transfer, etc) within MHub Ecosystem. This will directly increasing the number of transactions on the NEM blockchain thus increasing the value of XEMs. -
Market exposure of NEM in PropTech & FinTech spaces
There is no doubt that PropTech and FinTech are two gigantic waves that are directly or indirectly affecting everyone’s lifestyle in this planet. Every blockchain is fighting for market share adoption in these two markets. MHub will directly increase the exposure of NEM in both PropTech and FinTech especially in South East Asia region where both property and financial industries are pretty much still operating in a very manual environment that are ripe for a major revamp. -
Potential adoption into other PropTech and FinTech segments
The PropTech and FinTech scenes are very vibrant and diverse which MHub alone can never be able to reach out to every stakeholders in the ecosystem. MHub will contribute by allowing other PropTech/FinTech users to transact data with or without MHub on NEM. We will use NEM as a standard to do cross platform communication within the ecosystem. -
Bringing in Multinational Corporate Users
MHub has a list of existing reputable multinational corporate users in the property development space that can enhance the usage of XEMs by a large margin as MHub is currently being used by these multinational corporate users for their day-to-day operational activities. -
Codes to be open sourced
All codes used by MHub Tech Team on NEM Blockchain will be open sourced in order to contribute to the increase of real-world blockchain use cases. All knowledge learned will also be published actively by our Tech Team on NEM Forum. We are also happy to receive constructive comments from other NEM users on the adoption of NEM into MHub. -
Enhance Gov to Gov and Gov to Business and Gov to Condumrt Support on NEM and Recognition of NEM.
Like it or not, one very key element towards the success in blockchain adoption has to be coming from the Government. There are more and more governments and government agencies incorporating blockchain into their IT infrastructure for facilitation of all communication and day-to-day mundane tasks. MHub can contribute to a higher NEM adoption rate by relevant government agencies in the property and financial industries.
PAST ACTIVITIES & MEDIA COVERAGE
2018
Talk: Fintech Sharing - Organized by property developer Ecoworld at Bukit Bintang City Centre (Jan)
Link: Ecoworld
Talk: NEM Blockchain Sharing - Multimedia University, Cyberjaya (Jan)
Link: Multimedia University
2017
Event: REHDA CEO Series - Real Estate & Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Nov)
Link: RehdaInstitute
With Rene Bernard and the team from Luxtag
Feature: “12 Hottest Fintech Startups In Malaysia”
Link: Fintechnews.sg
Program: Global Accelerator Program by MaGIC
Shortlisted from 947 applications from 47 countries.
| Link: e27.co
Program: Cyberview Living Lab - One of the 5 shortlisted for the program.
| Links: Cyberview Living Lab, digitalnewsasia, vecta.io, vulcanpost
Talk: “Tech - The 4th Industrial Revolution” - WORQ Glo Damansara (Sept)
| Link: Eventbrite
MHub’s Jason Ding sharing alongside other tech startups, including Rene Bernard of Luxtag
Event: Smart City & Future Commerce Hackathon - Selangor Smart City (Sept)
Link: SelangorSmartCity
Judging alongside Mumahad Nasir, CEO of Jom Parking
Feature: “Real Estate Disruptors” - Asian Property Review (Jul)
Link: AsianPropertyReview
Feature: “Proptech” - Real Estate Malaysia Magazine (Jul)
Link: remproperty
Talks: “Proptech Forum: Property Investment will never be the same” - Swhengtee Property Expo Midvalley (June)
Link: swhengtee, TheEdgeMalaysia
Event: Launch of Malaysia’s Proptech Association - MHub is a founding member of the association (June)
Link: Swhengtee
Talk: “Making Sense of Cents in Real Estate” Malaysia’s Property Finance Conference: (April) Istana Hotel Kuala Lumpur (Apri)
Link: RehdaInstitute
Quek sharing the latest fintech innovation to a room of property developers & policy makers
Event: “The Future of Fintech in Asia” Finnovasia - (20-21 March) Pullman City Center KL
Link: finnovaisa, e27.co, finnovasiayoutube
MHub is one of the key supporters of Finnovasia KL 2017
Event: MyRumah 2017 - (3-5 March) Balai Berita KL
Link: beritaharian , nst
MHub’s Quek on the panel on Fintech
Event: Economic & Business Outlook Conference - (March) Real Estate & Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia
Link: RehdaInstitute
With REHDA organizers
2016
Meeting: The Central Bank of Malaysa (Bank Negara Malaysia)
Feature: “Homegrown fintech startup MHub breaks new ground” - The Edge (March)
Link: Mhub.my, TheEdgeMalaysia
Feature: “Banks hedge their bets on fintech” - Focus M (23 Jan)
Program: Platcom Ventures High Impact Programme Grant
Link: Platcom Ventures
The team with Biruntha Mooruthi, Vice President, Technology Commercialisation
