CIH Bank puts Yakeey-powered property search and mortgage requests inside its mobile app
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CIH Bank has integrated a Yakeey-built property search platform into its mobile app, letting Moroccan clients find a verified listing, estimate its value and open a mortgage request in a single digital journey.
CIH Bank has added a real estate search platform to its mobile application, built with Moroccan proptech firm Yakeey. The tool lets clients look for a property and then open a financing request online without leaving the app.
The two partners presented the service on Friday, 16 October, at a press conference in Casablanca held under the theme “Time to Keys”, with CIH Bank chief executive Lotfi Sekkat and Yakeey founder and chief executive Karim Beqqali.
CIH Bank, whose historical core business is real estate, framed the move as an attempt to enter the buying process earlier. Until now the bank intervened mainly at the financing stage, after a buyer had already found a home. “The bank always intervenes at the end. And we find that a shame,” Sekkat said, arguing that the interest rate is not necessarily the most important factor when the property does not fit the client’s project.
The service runs through four stages the partners label “Time to Find”, “Time to Yes”, “Time to Money” and “Time to Keys”, covering the search, the financing decision, the release of funds and the handover. Sekkat said the timelines are tracked daily, file by file, with real estate or financing experts stepping in when a delay appears. A joint team drawn from both companies accompanies clients from the first enquiry to closing.
Users can search listings, run financing simulations, estimate a home’s value and list a property for sale. Artificial intelligence underpins the set-up: CIH Bank plans a conversational agent that contacts interested users, with their consent, to clarify the type of home, preferred location and budget outside standard advisor hours, while Yakeey routes requests to advisors by zone and neighbourhood, summarises client exchanges and is developing automatic matching so buyers are alerted when a suitable property appears.
Founded in March 2023, Yakeey says it lists more than 5,000 verified properties, works with a network of over 1,000 independent advisors and employs more than 130 people. Its listings are described as verified, visited and held under mandate, and are removed once a property sells. The company counts the CDG group and the World Bank group among its backers.
CIH Bank has around 3 million clients, 40 to 50 per cent of them young, and wants to capture real estate projects earlier and convert more of them into credit operations while reorienting branches towards advice. To support the launch the partners produced an eight-episode prime-time programme, “Chkoun Yl9ali Dar”, on 2M; the first episode drew close to 3.9 million viewers.