Ooba Home Loan Calculator App

The Brief

Ooba approached Realm Digital to create a companion mobile application that would help estate agents and potential homeowners by giving its users access to various tools necessary when deciding whether to purchase a property. 

To begin, Realm Digital conducted a series of workshops to build a ‘personal’ ecosystem that would meet all their buyer persona’s needs and requirements. During the discovery phase, Realm identified that in addition to a desktop solution, a companion mobile application would need to be built to allow access to these calculators anytime, anywhere. Realm kept the following challenges top of mind when exploring a possible solution:

• Aspiring homeowners didn’t know what they qualified for
• Ooba wanted to arm them with this information quickly and easily
• However, users would often be driving on a Sunday and needing answers on-the-go

The Solution

Together we created a useful mobile application that allows both agents and potential buyers to do retail research on the go. The design focused on simplicity and functionality, ensuring users can effectively get the information they need. 

Supported by both iOS and Android, the application is filled with useful tools, including calculators that can calculate bond affordability, bond repayments, transfer costs, home loan amortisation, and more. The app also provides free expert advice and enables users to apply for bond prequalification.

“One thing that simply has to weave its way through everything in a mobile app is user experience. It’s an integral consideration in any digital offering. So that was our focus with Ooba’s mobile app development project.”

Simon Bestbier – CEO at Realm Digital

Ooba has received exceptional growth since the application launch, with over 50 000 downloads. The app has gained rave reviews and notable traction, with reviewers calling it ‘convenient and user friendly’, a tool they would ‘recommend to anyone in the industry’ as ‘the perfect free app to simplify home finance’. However, the value was not just recognised by aspiring homeowners but by the industry specialists helping them find their homes: The Real Estate Agents who wanted these answers too. So, they downloaded the app to help them provide a one-stop, quick and efficient service for their clients who were on the go. As a result, not only were user expectations exceeded, but Ooba’s app installs KPIs were vastly exceeded too.

The mobile app Realm developed contains multiple useful tools, including the below six calculators, news, free expert advice, a comprehensive FAQ section, and the ability to apply for bond prequalification.

• Bond calculator: Calculate the home loan you qualify for
• Repayment calculator: Calculate your monthly repayment
• Transfer cost calculator: Calculate your registration and transfer costs
• Extra Payments calculator: Calculate how much you can save on your home loan
• Deposit Savings calculator: Calculate how much you need to save for the deposit
• Amortisation calculator: Calculate how your payment is structured

Customer feedback

“Convenient and user friendly!”

“I would recommend this mobile app to anyone in the industry.”

“Easy access at anytime, anywhere, and easy to use.”

“Best app for home buyers! I love this handy app.”

“I was recently house hunting and wish I’d had this at the time.”

“This app is amazing for first time buyers that are unsure as to what to do or how to do it.”

“Answers all questions, educates us, and quick and effective answers. Great one Ooba!”

“User friendly, easy to navigate and gives explanations… awesome.”

“Easy enough for consumers yet powerful and handy enough for real estate agents.”

“The information under FAQ & news sections are really helpful too.”