MatesPlace

People should feel safe, secure and comfortable in the place they choose to live, so why choose to rent with strangers when you could live with friends? Revolutionising the private rental market using the power of users' networks, Mates Place helps users find flats and flatmates through friends of friends. The instances of fake listings, tenants/landlords from hell or outright fraud are pervasive in the private rental market and these are notoriously difficult to spot or prevent. MatesPlace reduces these risks by only showing users listings posted by people within their wider social network. MatesPlace began as a private Facebook group in 2017 and had grown, just via word of mouth, to over 21,000 users by May 2021. Everyone in the group was a friend of a friend, with people only admitted if they were connected on Facebook to an existing user. To keep up with demand and expand the user-base further, MatesPlace the app was born! Building on the connectivity and increased layer of comfort that has made the Mates Place Facebook group so successful, the app identifies a user's network through their phone contacts, so they only see listings for flats or flatmates from people they are connected to via their wider social network. Users also have complete control over how many degrees of connection they are comfortable with when searching for or offering a place to live e.g. just friends, or friends of friends etc, up to three degrees. Home is the most important place in our life and the people you choose as flatmates can make the difference between happiness and misery. So why just choose a room when you can choose a Mates Place!