Tell us about OneDome
OneDome is a service designed to redefine the traditional home buying process. Rather than wading through a complex and fractured infrastructure, for a fixed fee, buyers can use our HomeBuyingService to handle every element of the process, from securing a mortgage to completion, and every other legal step in between. The aim is to not only simplify the entire process, but to expedite it, and make it considerably more cost effective. Sellers are not kept waiting, and buyers are freed from the complications and delays typically associated with working with multiple third parties.
The service is operated through our award-winning digital home buying platform, which was again devised to deliver complete simplicity. Proving project management, step-by-step guidance from professionally trained property moving assistants, and connecting all parties involved in the transaction, it brings cohesion to the home buying process.
What do you think makes OneDome unique?
There are multiple answers to this question. Our primary USP is that we simplify the home buying process. And we do this through digitisation. While it’s no secret that home buying is deeply complex and convoluted, no one else has found a way to disrupt the status quo. But OneDome has created a seamless, end-to-end solution that enables buyers to avoid the established norm of navigating multiple, disconnected, service providers.
But on top of that, there’s also our approach to pricing. Most people go into home buying blind to the additional fees associated with their purchase. Especially first-time buyers. We wanted to help address that uncertainty and provide buyers with a fixed price that they could budget around. And because of the interconnected nature of our service, we’re able to do that in a way that will save buyers significant money on the fees they would otherwise have faced when using individual service providers.
We’re also distinguished by our use of technology to improve the customer experience. Of course, tech is everywhere these days, but no one else is using it in the way we are to enhance the home buying experience.
How has OneDome evolved?
When launched officially in 2019, it was a property search website. And the company did really well, attracting nearly 400,000 property listings from over 6,500 estate agency offices across the UK in very little time. But personal experience of the frustrations and stress of the established home buying process made me want to do more. And the ultimate goal was to create an ecosystem of interconnected services that to streamline the property purchasing process and beyond.
We started by integrating all essential services required to purchase a property, inspired by the simplicity and efficiency of eCommerce checkout flows. By 2022, OneDome was ready to introduce its flagship product, the HomeBuyer Service, changing the home buying journey beyond recognition.
Since then, we’ve continued to add to our ecosystem, adding surveys, insurance products, and financial planning, and our services will continue to grow as the business becomes more established.
What can we see from OneDome in the future?
Apart from the onboarding of additional services to suit the needs of our customers, our focus is to service 120,000 homebuying transactions per year by 2030. That figure would represent approximately 10% of all property transactions in the UK. Which sounds ambitious on paper. But there’s a drive right now for simplicity, consumers are no longer willing to fit in with the way of doing things just because it’s the way that things have always been done.
They don’t want to wait and they don’t want to pay more than they have to – because who can afford to do that in the current economic climate? There’s a real appetite for change in the property market, so while 10% is ambitious, we’re confident that we can achieve it.
