Marina has recently moved to Lisbon to work. She’s been searching tirelessly for an apartment to live in, but it has been no easy task. Not only the lines to visit apartments are taking precious hours from her days, but the paperwork she needs to present to each owner is huge and, once she has it all ready, she usually finds out that the competition is already summing over 200 people. Yes, for one single apartment.
And this is not the only problem Marina is facing. With so few properties available and so many people looking for them, owners are charging whatever they feel like, making rent prices skyrocket. She started questioning if her paycheck will be enough for living a balanced life.
Of course Marina could look for housing a little outside the city center, where having a roof over your head is more affordable, but that means adding quite some time to her daily commute.
To top it off, when finally someone chose her as their lucky tenant, Marina found out that the apartment was actually being sublet. The current tenant is going on a sabbatical and wants to keep the apartment, so they decided to sublet without the owner knowing. This means Marina will have to decide whether she’s willing to live in a nice house, relying only on this unknown person’s word. She’s not feeling safe at all without a proper lease agreement.
Does Marina’s situation ring a bell? She’s facing hardships such as:
- Lack of stock for long-term rental
- Increase of rental prices unconforming with the average salary of locals
- Lack of reliability on a rent deal
- Non-compliance with leasing regulations
Marina’s pain points are common in the big cities of Europe, where many properties were turned into short-term rentals for tourists while the influx of people coming to work and live is as steady as ever.
But we all know all the advantages of someone like Marina being able to live close to the city centers. They profit from shorter commutes, better educational centers and a broader job offer. Also, they’re able to enjoy all cultural activities the place has to offer and actually get to live somewhere they would like, instead of choosing the home they can pay for.
In other words, Marina and her counterparts would gain quality of life if they faced a more friendly environment when it comes to choosing where to live.
In order for that to happen, something (or many things!) needed to change in Europe’s real estate market. And that’s what we’re here for. Let’s talk about all the ways CASAFARI empower local communities and organize the market!
Strengthening of consumer protection on the real estate market: CASAFARI data brings transparency and professionalism
By now, you probably already know that our tools remove information asymmetry on the real estate market, both for rent and for sale, right?
We do it by ensuring accuracy of data, so no real estate professional has to work with outdated, confusing or duplicated data. We also do it by bringing equality of access to all information available on a market. This way, a single real estate agent doesn’t need to look in thousands of different sources to identify trends, to control their portfolio and to find the ideal properties for their clients.
And last but not least, we do it by making sure that market information is transparent.
How? With our products, we allow real estate professionals to make data-driven decisions, such as how much should be charged for a property, both for sale or rent. These are the professionals advising both tenants and owners, therefore they can offer a real and clean view of the market to both parts.
And, once everybody involved in the process of renting a house is fully aware of the reality of the market, more and more deals are closed taking that into account. In the end, CASAFARI’s data helps normalize prices among properties in each market, which pushes for affordable rent in the big European cities.
By empowering real estate agents, we also professionalize a fragmented market where usually private owners are the property managers without professional knowledge, tools and any compliance. These agents change the owner-tenant relationships, often marked by abusive practices, to a more professional and predictable one.
When both tenants and owners know which are their rights and responsibilities in a rent deal and everything is conducted according to renting regulations, they will have to do their part to honor the contract. This way, consumer protection is brought to the table, forcing private owners to respect standards established by law.
Summing up, changing the real estate market for the better is our motto because it brings advantages to everyone touched by it. Real estate professionals can work more efficiently, owners can accelerate their deals and tenants have a safer way to find a home in Europe.
Featured photo by Kaitlyn Baker on Unsplash
