Fintech BayaniPay, powered by BDO Unibank, wants a piece of the country's P1 trillion real estate investment market, BayaniPay CEO Winston Damarillo told reporters in a press conference on Wednesday, April 19.

“We see a huge potential in this highly untapped market, which is marked by several barriers for overseas Filipinos," he noted.

At present, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) snap up 40 percent of the P1 Trillion worth of properties in the country and half of these buyers are based in the US, which has the biggest number of OFWs.

According to the World Bank, OFWs allot 60 percent of their remittances to property investments in the Philippines.

"Some buy two properties at once, one for their families and one for themselves to reside in after 25 to 30 years of working in the US," Damarillo noted.

However, a gap in cross-border payments make it difficult for OFWs to purchase property in their own country and amortize for it while continuing to work abroad

Hence, "We want to make it easier for OFWs to invest in the Philippines," says the BayaniPay CEO.

"We are partnering with the top five local property developers, starting with SM Development Corp. (SMDC) and Ortigas Land Corp. to enable overseas Filipinos to pay their property investments in the country at zero transaction fees, with competitive exchange rates,” Damarillo explained.

The fintech today launched its global real estate payment service, BayaniPay’s Bills Pay, to enable Filipinos in the US to acquire and invest in homes and properties in the Philippines.

The service offers customers the benefits of monthly auto debit and paying using an eligible funding source so they no longer have to open a separate bank account in the Philippines.

With Bills Payment, BayaniPay lets real estate developers collect, automate, and reconcile payments with ease through a custom dashboard.

The fintech is also targeting OFWs in Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan for the service.

Eventually, the Bills Payment service will expand to cover purchases of automobiles and health insurance as well.