Incremental Housing Loans Manager

WENZ; Sandton; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,500,000; Full time

Job summary

WENZ is seeking an Incremental Housing Loans Manager to establish strategic direction, oversee risk, and drive growth of low- to middle-income housing loan portfolios. You will lead cross-functional teams, manage partnerships with NHFC and RFIs, and ensure regulatory compliance while optimizing digital loan processing systems for high-volume, low-value originations.

The role emphasizes portfolio growth, product strategy, and operational control across SA markets, with a focus on affordability,

Qualifications

• Grade 12/Senior Certificate required.
• BCom or equivalent degree/diploma required.
• 5+ years in financial services/lending and 3+ years in management/senior role.

Responsibilities

• Grow and manage incremental housing loan portfolio.
• Develop growth strategies across urban, peri-urban, rural SA.
• Build partnerships with NHFC, RFIs, builders, housing developers.

Skills

Proactive

Target driven

Leadership

Customer focus

Excellent communication

Decision making

Reporting

Financial acumen

Planning and organising

Adapting and responding to change

Strong people-management

Strong commercial and analytical

Education

Grade 12/Senior Certificate

BCom/Equivalent degree or national diploma

Tools

Excel

Power BI

ALLPS

Loan systems

Job description

INCREMENTAL HOUSING LOANS MANAGER

The successful applicant will require the following qualifications, experience and competencies:

Qualification:

• Grade 12/Senior Certificate
• BCom/Equivalent degree or national diploma

Experience:

• 5+ years' experience in financial services/lending.
• 3+ years' experience in a management/senior management position.
• Proven experience in incremental housing finance.
• Experience managing sales teams and lending operations.
• Strong understanding of credit, affordability, collections, and portfolio quality.
• Experience developing partnerships/channels to generate lending business.
• Good Excel/reporting capability and preferably Power BI/system experience.
• Working knowledge of NCA, FICA, POPIA and relevant financial-services legislation.
• Excellent Excel, Word and Outlook experience
• Systems (run a loan, ALLPS and Power BI (advantageous)) experience.
• Building-material finance experience advantageous.
• Hardware/merchant partnerships experience advantageous.
• Experience with payroll or alternative lending channels advantageous.

Competencies (skills, knowledge and attitudes):

• Proactive
• Target driven.
• Leadership
• Customer focus
• Excellent communication
• Decision making
• Reporting
• Financial acumen
• Planning and organising
• Adapting and responding to change
• Strong people-management skills.
• Strong commercial and analytical ability.

Establishing, providing overall strategic direction and risk management for, managing, growing, and overseeing low- to middle-income incremental housing loan portfolios. 2

Key result areas are as follows:

Portfolio Management:

• Grow the incremental housing loan book while managing performance and risk.
• Develop and execute targeted sales plans to grow the incremental housing loan book.
• Build and maintain relationships with key partners, including the National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC), Retail Finance Intermediaries (RFIs), building merchants, and affordable housing developers.

Product Strategy:

• Manage the full lifecycle of phased micro-loans and housing improvement credit products.
• Develop the growth strategy for the incremental housing portfolio across urban, peri-urban, and rural South Africa.
• Develop tailored financial products for specific housing needs, including pension-backed home loans, employer-assisted micro-housing schemes, building-material credit, and rural home loans.
• Expand market share while maintaining competitive pricing and sustainable profitability.
• Optimize digital loan processing systems to manage high-volume, low-value loan originations quickly and affordably.

Operational Control:

• Manage timely data collection and update operations metrics to achieve productivity targets, reduce costs, eliminate errors, and deliver excellent customer service.
• Partner with cross-functional support teams in improving tools and systems.
• Assist in developing and/or updating standard operating procedures for all business operational activities.
• Monitor and control expenses according to allotted budget.
• Maintain accurate and clear documentation for operational procedures and activities.
• Work in compliance with company policies and procedures, ensuring adherence to respective monitoring bodies and legislative requirements.
• Develop and implement policies/procedures as and when required.
• Ensure team follows standard operating procedures for all operational functions.
• Support operational maintenance, credit risk and audit processes for the purpose of preventive maintenance and risk management.
• Manage technical assessment teams (inspectors who verify building milestones before fund release).

Credit & Risk Oversight:

• Ensure alignment with the National Credit Act (NCA) and manage credit underwriting, scoring criteria, and default prevention for non-traditional collateral
• Establish credit risk parameters that balance financial inclusion with prudent lending practices appropriate for formal and informal income earners.
• Oversee collections and asset rehabilitation strategies for non-traditional, unsecured, or unique secured portfolios.
• Ensure compliance with the National Credit Act (NCA), Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act (FAIS), Financial Intelligence Centre Act (FICA) and South African Reserve Bank (SARB) regulations.
• Audit disbursement structures to confirm funds are utilized strictly for intended purposes.

Stakeholder Engagement:

• Partner with alternative builders, hardware supply networks, community savings groups, and housing developers.
• Establish wholesale or retail partnerships with Retail Finance Intermediaries (RFIs), employers (for payroll deductions), and builders' merchants.
• Collaborate with government agencies and public entities (e.g., NHFC, Department of Human Settlements) to align products with state subsidies like First Home Finance (FLISP).
• Manage vendor relationships with bond originators, aggregators, and alternative distribution channels.

Team Leadership:

• Lead, mentor, and build a high-performing department, within a time-sensitive and demanding environment, including reports and problem resolution.
• Provide operational support and guidance to staff.
• Manage work assignment and allocations for staff.
• Conduct performance review and provide performance feedback to staff.
• Conduct regular meetings with the teams (credit, auditors, maintenance) to discuss about issues, concerns, updates etc.