Housing Partners has just launched a brand new version of its HomeSwapper service, with many new features for both housing providers and tenants.
The new service is already being used by over 700 housing providers and their tenants across the UK and has been built using the latest coding techniques, faster databases and fully mobile technology.
Richard Blundell, CEO, Housing Partners, said, “We’ve spent a lot of money in rebuilding HomeSwapper from the ground up. New user interfaces have been designed to make the experience as user-friendly as possible, taking inspiration from the social media that our users are already familiar with.
“There are new search and mapping functions, including drag-and-drop mapping, and users can also drill down to just 160 metres from a location, adding a very local element to a national solution. In-system messaging also means that personal details are kept secure, while much wider search criteria makes it easier for tenants to find the exact property they’re looking for.
“Perhaps the biggest change to the system is our ‘multi-swap’ feature. This is fully automated and automatically finds possible chains for tenants from our database of hundreds of millions of match opportunities.”
As well as improvements for tenants, housing providers will benefit from new analytic dashboards and reporting tools. Stock can also be better utilised through the improved RightSize best use of stock tool and the new ‘suggest a match’ function.
With more than 40 per cent of users accessing HomeSwapper from a mobile device, the web service is now fully mobile, with a separate mobile site designed to ensure tenants can access HomeSwapper wherever they are.
Blundell said, “The introduction of the ‘bedroom tax’ has highlighted just how important Mutual Exchange is to tenants. We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of exchanges taking place through HomeSwapper since the reforms came into force.”
