HouseME, founded in 2016, is a digital platform that has disrupted the property industry. By connecting prospective tenants to landlords in a new way, the industry is seeing a shift occur. While South Africa’s rental prices have been dropping dramatically in the past year, HouseME offers a fair, affordable and transparent rental pricing model. In addition to this innovative platform, HouseME has found a solution for independent landlords to stay abreast of the market value of their property in real time – PlaceMe.
HouseME as an innovative platform
HouseME is the brain child of two Capetonians, Ben Shaw and Kyle Bradley. The young entrepreneurs decided to use technology as a solution to overcome issues in the property industry. HouseME, which operates as a fully automated letting agency, helps tenants find the best rental price for their property. It is one of the most affordable solution for landlords looking to fill their property with responsible tenants.
PlaceME
PlaceME, the proprietary software tool, allows tenants to place an offer on a property at a certain price. Landlords are able to assess what people are potential tenants are willing to offer for his/her property at any given time. PlaceME introduces a competitive process whereby a tenant can offer below the landlord’s asking price. The landlord can then approve or reject the offer over the course of several days while assessing (for comparative purposes).
As a result of the recent influx of tenants on the renting scene, landlords are losing the luxury of charging high prices with a guaranteed tenant. Now, landlords are able to be more cognitive of the demand and process of pricing their property.
The future of HouseME
The HouseME platform and its tools, such as PlaceME, highlights the power that technology has to disrupt archaic business practices. While HouseME redefines the landlord-tenant relationship, they are setting themselves up to be leaders on the property front with improved trust, fairer pricing and effective property management.
In the meantime, HouseME continues to push the envelope across the rental spectrum. It is exciting to see what is next in store for the proptech startup.