Housing Fintech Trellis Raises Funding to Expand Across Pakistan

Trellis Housing Finance Limited (Trellis), an SECP licensed Housing Finance Company based in Karachi, has raised an investment round led by local and international investors including Fatima Gobi Ventures,  Insitor Partners, Zayn Capital, TPL Properties & Taarah Ventures along with angel investors. With this funding, Trellis will expand operations across the country, to further its mission to enable all Pakistanis to realize their dream of homeownership. 

As urbanization in Pakistan rapidly rises, with the population in towns and cities expected to double in the next decade, the home financing sector is extremely undersupplied with credit. According to the World Bank, there is a shortfall of 10 million homes and less than 100,000 housing loans outstanding in a country of 220 million people. 

Founded in 2020, Trellis set out to give every Pakistani access to affordable housing by establishing a world-class housing finance institution. To date, Trellis has processed over PKR 1 billion (US$ 5.77 million) worth of housing finance inquiries, with numbers growing exponentially daily. In addition to its own home finance offerings, Trellis has also partnered with some of Pakistan’s leading financing institutions, such as HabibMetro Bank, JS Bank, and U  Microfinance Bank. By adopting Trellis’ proprietary, fully-digital mortgage origination platform, these partners can accelerate their housing finance deployments to get more families into homes faster.

Jamshed H. Meherhomji, Co-founder and CEO of Trellis, said:

“Our job is to navigate through the complexities of the real estate market and give clients what they deserve. In addition to our financial products, we are building the Trellis Network, a  rapidly growing ecosystem of real estate, finance, and associated industry partners connecting the dots across the supply  chain to further optimize and streamline the home buying experience for everyone.” 

Existing home financing solutions in the market typically require two to four months to complete due to manual, paper-based processing. Harnessing technology, Trellis is saving aspiring homeowners time and money. With this platform, Trellis and its partners are offering the ‘Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar’ product, which is a government-subsidized financing scheme.  Additionally, Trellis offers its own Shariah Compliant ‘GharHo’ product, which is a more comprehensive financing solution for purchasing, constructing, or renovating homes. There is also an industry-first suite of financing services for builders and developers; aligning buyers, builders, and financial institutions, through the financing of cost-effective high-rise developments. 

Thomas Tsao, General Partner of Fatima Gobi Ventures, said:

“FGV’s strong commitment to ESG investing aligns with Trellis,  which leverages technology to improve real estate access to underserved communities and drive social impact. We are excited  to join Jamshed and his team on their mission to make home ownership universally attainable in Pakistan.” 

Hammad Umer, Country Manager for Insitor, the Singapore-based impact investment firm, states: “Pakistan is experiencing an unprecedented urban housing crisis. Unplanned densification and low-income urban settlements are causing significant social and environmental challenges. Providing low-income consumers access to affordable housing is the first step towards  sustainable development, and we’re very excited to work alongside the Trellis team to bridge this financing gap.” 

As Pakistan continues to develop, there is significant potential for impact. According to the latest figures released by the State  Bank of Pakistan, PKR 200 Billion (US$ 1.15 Billion) worth of applications for financing has been received for the Mera  Pakistan Mera Ghar (the Government’s low-cost financing scheme) since the inception of the program. Against these applications, only PKR 18 Billion (US$ 104 Million) of financing has been disbursed, highlighting the need for the housing and finance industry to work together to ensure greater progress is made to solve the housing crisis. 

Meherhomji states:

“Thanks to this new round of investment, we look forward to scaling up our activities and enabling  more Pakistanis to realize their dream of home ownership over the coming years, as we continue to learn and innovate  to develop this growing industry.”