Do your clients ask you about solar for their homes and their geysers? Standard Bank and ooba Solar have some good news you can share with them.
Toni Anderson – Standard Bank. Images supplied by Convey Communications
The rate of solar adoption in South Africa is increasing, but accessing financing to fund solar systems and panel installations remains a challenge. With this in mind, Standard Bank has partnered with ooba Solar (a subsidiary of ooba Group) so that homes across South Africa can get access to affordable solar solutions.
The next time your client turns to you for guidance on how to get off-grid with solar, you can tell them that Standard Bank has launched a residential offering which is based on the government’s Energy Bounce Bank Loan Guarantee Scheme.
“Developing flexible financing solutions is essential to making home solar solutions accessible and affordable to more South African households,” says Toni Anderson, Head of Home Services at Standard Bank. “So, when the opportunity came to partner-up on making solar financing more accessible and affordable to households, it was an easy decision to make.”
Making it easy to finance solar via your home loan
This partnership with ooba Solar is focused on developing finance options to assist new and existing homeowners with moving to solar. “New home loan customers can now benefit from an automatic assessment on new loan applications that allows homeowners to access an additional 20% registration amount, for use on acknowledged home improvement projects such as solar installations,” says Anderson.
Head of ooba Solar, Dominique dHotman, adds that existing home loan customers can also benefit by considering finance options that may allow them to move to solar using access bonds, re-advances and further loans.
“Many homeowners are eager to make the switch to solar but find the installation process complex and the start-up costs daunting,” he says.
Solar Loans offer households flexibility and savings
Financing terms to households start at a low of Prime +1% up to a maximum of Prime +2.5%, which is a huge discount on the average Prime +7% offered on personal loans. The Solar Loan offering is available to the general market, so you don’t need to be a Standard Bank customer to apply.
Understanding that households have different needs and applications, the Solar Loan provides for values ranging from R3 000 to R300 000. “This ensures we can assist households with a whole range of solar aspirations – whether it’s adding to an existing solar installation, providing for the majority of your family’s powers needs or taking your home completely off the grid,” says Anderson.
The Solar Loan offers flexible repayment terms from 12 months to 5 years, with no penalties for early settlement.
