The news: UK neobank Monzo has agreed to acquire online mortgage broker Habito as it expands its homeownership features—including tracking and brokering home loans—in its app.

The company says the purchase will let it offer an entire homebuying journey and position its app as a hub for managing wide-ranging financial tasks.

Why it’s worth watching: This is not the first time that a major UK-based neobank has integrated mortgage brokerage, or Habito, into its app. Starling Bank offered a Habito product via its app starting in 2019 and subsequently acquired its own book of business in mortgage lending. It bought buy-to-let mortgage lender Fleet Mortgages in 2021.

Like Starling and UK-based competitor Revolut, Monzo is positioning itself as a super app that consumers can use for increasingly more diverse and complex financial services. Its offerings include savings accounts, investments, pensions, credit cards, consumer loans, and home insurance. It continues to roll out features at a rapid clip: This year, it introduced P2P feature Monzo Split, which is designed to increase engagement and extend its ecosystem to non-Monzo users.

Our take: UK neobanks have their work cut out for them in attracting and keeping target customers, given that they lack a key channel. Forty-five percent of UK Gen Zers plan to open a regular savings account within the next three months, while 32% said they planned to use in-branch banking in 2025, per Dentsu.

But neobank super apps create unique banking journeys that engage customers based on different needs as their financial lives progress. With an integrated mortgage broker, Monzo ties together its home insurance product and mortgage-tracking feature—and could debut a direct mortgage product in the future.