Wednesday, 8 October 2014
- we’ve defined the question, created a data guide and user research, invited applications from teams, provided expert support to the shortlisted 10 teams at the Creation Weekend and now, selected 3 finalists to receive £5k + a tailored package of incubation support. If you’d like to find out more about their journey through the Creation Weekend, check out our Storify.As we enter into the final ‘incubation’ phase, we’re pleased to introduce the three teams and the ideas that they have put forward (below). Now they have the chance to win the final £40,000 prize - so do get in touch with them directly if you think you could support them to fulfil our judging criteria - use of open data, innovation, sustainability and social impact.
RentSquare (previously The Fair Rent)Team Fair Rent: Lais de Almeida, Helena Trippe + digital Iban Benzal
Q: What is your product?
The Fair Rent is a web-based matchmaking service, helping generation rent calculate fair prices for specific properties and search for landlords who realise a return isn't just about charging the highest fee.
The service uses open data to calculate a fair rent index, bringing visibility to the issue, and combats inflated rent levels, extortionate fees and poor quality housing. The platform proposes an alternative model to connect both demand and supply, encouraging the market to regulate itself.
Q: Who is on your team? Tell us more about yourselves!
We are a multi-disciplinary team of service designers from different backgrounds, bringing together public service, housing, technology and design. Helena is a housing practitioner, specialising in service delivery, policy implementation and research. She is currently undertaking a PhD on public service innovation and the is in charge of design for The Fair Rent. Iban, a creative technologist, is an expert in fast prototyping, responsive design, developing ways of connecting user-centred design with new technologies and the internet of things. Laís is a service and social innovation designer, with expertise in co-design, co-production with stakeholders and user communities, and prototyping ideas to design out risk.
We know housing is a big and complex issue, especially for those who can’t afford it. It is sector very resistant to change as there are so many competing interests. Yet it is in serious need of disruptive thinking, serial innovation and generally a good shake-up! Since meeting at the RCA, we have keenly pursued our interests in social and public innovation, and the role of new technologies to facilitate social change. The Housing Open Data Challenge is a perfect opportunity to make something happen.
Q: How did you come up with the idea? When and what was the lightbulb moment?
The idea is a really culmination of three separate research and design projects we were involved in, looking at mobility in the affordable housing sector, inequality in cities and technology based tools for active citizen engagement and decision making.
The light bulb moment happened when we realised that open data is a powerful source for social innovation. We approached the challenge as a design problem, and by unpacking the brief of how people could get the maximum from renting, we realised two things. First, by combining different data sets, we can calculate a fair rent index and then design a service to create better relationships between landlords and tenants.
We believe passionately that affordability in housing is not only achieved by turning on a government tap of direct provision, subsidy or investment. We wanted The Fair Rent to introduce a model of affordable housing with a small ‘a’, driven by user needs and the market. We wanted to recognise landlords should not be penalised for generating profit from their investment, but design an alternative which is an equally attractive model to connect both demand and supply.
Q: How will your project help the community get the best out of renting?
The Fair Rent is for those 1.1 million people who government is failing to support. It is for the millions of young people and families who can’t rely on the bank of ‘mum and dad’ and face a lifetime having to move every couple of years, knowing they are being overcharged and unprotected.
The value proposition serves two customer groups - tenants and landlords - providing a service proposition designed to reliably and through transparency of information minimise costs for both.
We don’t want to be another property advertising site. The Fair Rent perhaps sets out to achieve the unthinkable... it is a demand driven tool that helps regulate the private rental market by making profit levels explicit and encouraging more socially responsible practice by landlords in the rents they charge and tenants by how they look after where they live. The Fair Rent’s vision: greater equality in cities.
Q: What open data are you using and how does it form an essential part of your proposition?
The Fair Rent is only possible because of Open Data. It allows us to calculate how much a landlord is paid and is paying for a home, then compares it with social and market rents to give a fair rent price for tenants but also ensure a good return for landlords.