The platform that allows students to avoid moving-stress
By Carolina Piras
Finding nice and reasonably-priced accommodation in London when you are a student might easily become an agonising process, where you can barely see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Well, if you are a fresher, good luck with that!
The most common issue that students encounter in London when they know they will have to move for studying, especially university students, is to find properties in advance that will be available after the summer, which is by the way the busiest time of the year in London.
Until now, any platform that has been created to rent properties in London, was built on the concept of immediate availability.
Karim Bennacer and Jerome Holderith, co-founders of the renting platform CocoonSync, changed the game.
CocoonSync has been created to give renters – students in particular – the possibility to search for properties listed in advance, showing the availability even months later.
“In my personal experience I had this issue when you are planning to move somewhere, you know you are not gonna renew a contract, but it’s impossible to know on different platforms the availability of the properties,” he explained.
He added that both he and his now business partner Holderith were experiencing a similar situation, so they decided to asked their personal network – friends and friends of friends – and did some quick interviews with students in London to gather some feedback.
“It’s a challenge for them,” he stated.
Bennacer highlighted that the way those platforms work just “might not fit your timeline” and not meet the students’ needs.
On average, students will know they are offered university place around March or April, so months in advance they already know they’ll have to look for somewhere to live in September.
“We want to give the students the possibility to plan ahead. We want to give them the possibility to see what will be available according to that timeline,” Bennacer noted.
He explained that on CocoonSync you can find properties that are only listed in that platform, as they know beforehand which properties will be available.
“We know in advance the future of the properties, as we work with private landlord and some agencies.”
“We need to give them the possibility to find something else a few months before, so they won’t have the stress to move out of the private hall, to find somewhere with a reasonable price,” he said.
“We want them to get better deals.”
“There is also one aspect that is internships that are entirely remote now, even for up to six months. It has quite a big impact and makes the market difficult for landlords and agencies as well,” he pointed out.
Bennacer also pointed out that the majority of the portals are built for agents, and surely not built for renters’ needs.
“So we want the other way round. The students need to be at the centre of it.”
What the two co-founders plan to do “in the nearest future” is give renters the power to rate their experience with a particular landlord or agency so it can be visible and available for anyone on the site.
“What we have seen with COVID is a problem that has been reflected ten times stronger than before in finding a tenant. You might feel is the other way round, that to finding an accommodation is something difficult, but is not, is becoming more and more difficult for agencies and landlord to find ‘good renters’,” said Bennacer.
“This was the case even before COVID apparently. Maybe the market in terms of pricing will be more stable and it will stop going crazy. Maybe at some point landlords or agencies will ask less deposit or no deposit, to encourage renters to stay and to live in London, that, of course, is an expensive city.”
Follow CocoonSync on their Instagram page to know more!
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