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For half the homebuyers in PRYPCO Mortgage’s data who were assessed by more than one lender, the gap between their lowest and highest approval was AED 100,000 or more. For a quarter of them, it exceeded AED 500,000. The company’s new self-service homebuyer platform enables buyers to compare affordability across multiple banks before they begin their property search.
DUBAI, UAE -August 2026 – PRYPCO Mortgage, the home-financing arm of PRYPCO, the leading fintech platform in the region, today launched a new self-service platform for homebuyers, alongside findings from its own lending data showing that the amount a UAE buyer can borrow depends heavily on which bank assesses the file.
Analysis of mortgage applications processed through PRYPCO Mortgage found that, among buyers assessed by more than one banking partner, the median difference between the lowest and highest approved loan amount was approximately AED 100,000, or around 7% of the total loan value. Half of applicants received approval amounts that differed by at least AED 100,000, a quarter saw variations exceeding AED 500,000, and around one in ten experienced a difference of more than AED 1 million.
In most cases, these approvals were issued within weeks of each other, meaning the buyer’s income, employment and financial circumstances remained unchanged. The difference came down to one factor – which bank reviewed the application.
The variation is most significant for buyers at the lower end of the market, where affordability margins are tighter and many first-time homebuyers have limited flexibility if they receive a lower-than-expected approval.
Why the same file gets different answers:
Banks in the UAE apply their own credit policy to the same application. They differ on how much of a variable salary, commission or bonus they count as income, which employers they treat as lower risk, how they weigh existing card and loan commitments, and where they set loan-to-value limits by property type and buyer profile. An application that looks marginal under one bank’s policy can clear comfortably under another’s.
The practical consequence for a buyer is that there is no single answer to “how much can I borrow.” There is a range. Most buyers start by asking the bank that holds their salary account, take the figure it returns, and search for a home against that one number.
Most buyers treat their borrowing capacity as a fixed number. It is closer to an opinion,” said Essa Ibrahim, Co-founder and President, PRYPCO. “In our data, half of the applicants who approached more than one lender found a gap of at least AED 100,000 between them. For some it ran past a million. That gap decides which homes are on the table and which are not. Different banks will naturally assess the same buyer differently. The problem is that buyers commit to a property long before they ever see the disagreement.
What the new platform does about it:
PRYPCO Mortgage’s new platform brings affordability checks, matched offers, digital KYC, document collection and application tracking into a single self-service journey. Buyers receive a personalised affordability estimate before creating an account or uploading a document.
Rather than returning one figure, the platform surfaces the offers a buyer qualifies for across PRYPCO Mortgage’s network of more than 20 banking partners and explains why each one was matched to their profile. Eligible salaried UAE residents and nationals purchasing individually can complete digital KYC and receive an instant pre-approval through InstaMortgage, PRYPCO Mortgage’s instant pre-approval product, delivered through its partnership with Appro. Buyers who do not yet qualify receive specific next steps toward eligibility rather than a rejection.
“We built the platform so that the full range is where a buyer starts, not something they have to ask for,” Essa added. “You should know what the market will lend you before you fall in love with a home. Not after.”
Methodology:
Findings are drawn from pre-approvals issued through PRYPCO Mortgage between September 2023 and August 2026. The comparison covers thousands of applicants who received a recorded pre-approval amount from more than one of the company’s banking partners, comparing each applicant’s lowest and highest approved amount. Medians are reported in preference to averages, as a small number of very large differences skews the average upward. Individual banks are not identified and no bank-level approval data is disclosed.
PRYPCO Mortgage has facilitated more than AED 22 billion in home financing since launching in 2023, working with more than 20 banking partners across the UAE.
