Uppie deposit solution targets Airbnb generation
by Startacus Admin
The PropTech startup that's helping first time buyers and renters in a pretty innovative way...
It’s no secret that becoming a homeowner is a harder thing for many people these days than ever before. Wages aren’t keeping up with rising house prices and high rent swallows up the pennies being put away for a deposit. We have written before about some property tech startups looking to make things easier for first-time buyers (and renters), and we have another good one today.
Cheltenham-based Uppie wants to help first time homeowners own a home for the first time by, in a way, paying the deposit for them. It won’t be too shocking to hear that there is a give as well as a take for the buyer: sharing their new home with an ever-varying array of strangers! Yay! Uppie will guarantee up to 90 days of Airbnb bookings and pay at the start of the service, thereby covering the deposit. 
Now all the brand new homeowner needs to do is make sure there’s a bed in the spare room. Uppie does recommend that the house have at least one spare room, and we agree that this is probably a good idea, as we’ve found that strangers don’t like to sleep across the end of the bed like the family dog. Maybe because the family dog takes up too much room for them to fit comfortably.
Uppie is responsible for filling the bookings and takes on the risk of the room not performing as well as expected, meaning that the bookings they buy from the homeowner are non-refundable and said owner does not lose out. Conversely, if the room does better than expected, it will shorten the length of the agreement with Uppie.
Currently, Uppie is only available in Cheltenham, but Bristol, Edinburgh, Bath, and Southampton are set to join this year. Given the popularity of Airbnb and of having a home to live in, we think Uppie is a promising solution to the deposit problem.
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Published on: 17th January 2018
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