The mortgage dilemma 🏠

Also, this week:

  • 🏦 Sbanken by DNB

  • 👨‍💻 Uncreative video conferencing

  • 📱 What do designers do?

  • 🧮 Excel half full

🏚 The mortgage dilemma

Since 2010 the price of apartments in Norway has increased by 79% (compared to 22% KPI). This naturally excludes many from the housing market. So how can this be fixed? Obos has been trying rent-to-own solutions, but the big threshold for many is still the mandatory 15% needed in equity. The new startup Adress is trying to fix this by providing up to 10% in co-ownership. In return, they require 25% of the gains when you sell, so you better not use much money to refurbish later on!

The interesting part about Adress is how they are structured. They are not a bank but an investment fund that exposes life and pension insurance funds for the housing market. It's an interesting concept, but there is a reason we have the 15% equity rule. Without it, the housing market can run completely bananas. Ironically Adress could make the housing market more expensive to break into by making mortgages achievable with only 5% equity. It will be exciting to see if this concept triggers new regulatory changes in the years to come...

🏦 Sbanken by DNB

Last week Sbanken celebrated 22 years and announced that its brand, app, and online banking experience will continue to exist after being acquired by DNB. In Norway, a bank can't own another bank, so we'll probably see "Sbanken by DNB" or similar in the year to come.

Speaking of DNB: DNB delivered a profit of NOK 7.5 billion in the first quarter of the year. To put that in perspective, DNB bought Sbanken for NOK 11.6 billion. That means that they could finance 63% of Sbanken for the profit of just one quarter.

👨‍💻 Uncreative video conferencing

COVID-19 accelerated a decade-long shift to remote work by normalizing working from home worldwide. In a survey of US employees, 75% reported a personal preference for working remotely at least one day per week. But what are the second-order consequences of a change like this? Some scientists have examined how this shift away from in-person interaction affects innovation:

"We find that videoconferencing groups generate fewer creative ideas than in-person groups due to narrowed visual focus, but we find no evidence that videoconferencing groups are less effective when it comes to idea selection."

📱 What do designers do?

Designers share a problem with politicians and business consultants: nobody knows what they are actually doing. In this article Ralph Ammer sheds light on how designers shape our daily environment and why we have CX-, UX-, UI-, Product- designers. But we all have something in common:

[Designers] shape our daily environment using contemporary tools and ideas to make our environment functional and meaningful. Their process is rooted in craft, expanded through reflection and offers value to others.

🧮 Excel half full

That's it for this week 👋

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Marius Hauken, partner Stacc X