CASAFARI, a company created in Portugal in 2018 and based in Bairro Alto, has just officially launched the Housing for Refugees matchmaking platform. It is a digital portal where refugees from Ukraine can search for housing, long-term and short-term shelter in Portugal now and later in several countries in Europe. Real estate agents, property investors, and private individuals can become a host. A network of volunteers, predominantly real estate agents with help of CASAFARI CRM ensure seamless matchmaking experience at large scale helping European countries to prepare for forecasted 10 million refugees.
The platform refugees.CASAFARI.com is launched first in Portugal with more than 1100 shelter options available across the country right now. The pan-European demand pushed the growth of the total host database beyond 5000 housing options across different countries before launch.
To access the shelter options of this non-profit platform, refugees escaping conflict in Ukraine to Europe can apply for housing, which is continuously validated by the network of volunteers with the help of CASAFARI CRM.
CASAFARI expects to triple the number of housing and shelter offers in the coming days through the participation of more European real estate agencies, investors and private individuals, which collaborate for free and without commissions, integrating in a single site housing that could meet the needs of families escaping conflict in Ukraine in transit in Europe.
This non-profit project was born within the Casafari team as a result of first-hand experience of the mass tragedy in Ukraine. Of its 250 employees, 105 live and work in Ukraine, some of them already on their way to Portugal to join their colleagues in Lisbon. Those who are not yet on their way have been trying to relocate to safer areas.
Since the invasion of Ukraine began, the Portuguese team has been trying to create a solution to help their colleagues and their families in Ukraine. As well as sending over 2 tons of essential supplies (including medical supplies, food and warm clothing), they’ve been working non-stop to rehouse employees and their families in Portugal. In total, they estimate to bring about 500 people.
Through the creation of a 24-hour task force, CASAFARI is also helping its employees who may leave Ukraine to cross the border and then provide accommodation, land and air transport to Portugal.
“Though we had a contingency plan in case of conflict escalation, we did not foresee this speed and scale. We had to adapt quickly, turn our office into an operations centre that ensures the safety of our team, sends support to all people in Ukraine, and is developing technological projects that can help Europe to welcome 10 million potential refugees. “Housing for refugees” project is our focus, but we also kick-starterted IT jobs board with participation of companies providing support to refugees. We want to be an impactful part of the solution to the problem number one right now”, describes Mila Suharev Co-founder, Product and Data at CASAFARI.
She points out that “supporting our staff and their families in Ukraine has been our priority to ensure they all remain safe, until they regain the peace of mind they had in their daily lives. However, it has been essential to extend support to any refugee seeking to settle in a peaceful location. This is a common, “human-to-human” goal, Mila Suharev clarifies.
About CASAFARI:
CASAFARI, Europe’s only independent cross-border real estate network, connects more than 20,000 real estate professionals through MLS functions and a complete real estate database covering all asset classes in Spain, Italy, France and Portugal.
CASAFARI developed custom applications such as a metasearch, comparative market analysis, market analytics, and daily data feed, as well as a Portfolio Solutions division to serve the needs of Institutional Real Estate investors.
The company has a proprietary machine learning technology and extensive data operations to automatically index, clean, classify and match duplicates of millions of property listings from thousands of websites in different languages.
Since launching in 2018, CASAFARI has won major clients from brands such as Sotheby’s International Realty, Century21, Coldwell Banker, RE/MAX franchises, JLL, Savills, Fine & Country, Engel & Voelkers, Keller Williams and important institutional investors and developers like Stoneweg, Kronos, Vanguard and Vic Properties.
