Proptech brand, Housestars, is set to revolutionise the property maintenance sector, seamlessly connecting homeowners with vetted professional tradespeople and getting millions of jobs around the home done and paid for using a secure escrow system.

There’s been a growing disconnect in how the property maintenance sector interacts with homeowners. Many tradespeople are still using the traditional phone-call model, chasing leads and being undercut by other suppliers, all while doing their day job of helping homeowners and landlords with property maintenance. Many homeowners and landlords feel stung by being let down by unpredictable tradespeople – if you can find one that you like, that you can afford, that will turn up when agreed and that will even answer your phone call in the first place.

Customers will even be able to find the right person for their job just by asking Housestars on Alexa. In a European first, customers can leverage the Housestar app’s Alexa integration with our app to book a home service professional using only their voice. Asking Alexa to find them a builder, plumber or other professional, Housestars takes the booking via Alexa and comes back to the customer with their booking details. Game-changing in terms of accessibility, using Alexa can be helpful for tech-savvy busy families, but – critically - it links the elderly and otherwise vulnerable that struggle using smartphones and apps to secure urgent repair services via Housestars just using their voice.

Berkshire-based Housestars pledges to bridge the gap, uniting skilled professionals with homeowners and landlords. Launched in April 2022, the app is welcoming 40% of customers back as returning users, while month-on-month growth tops 45%.

With the app running in real-time, the process of finding new clients or professional tradespeople is reduced to a tap on the app, with more time freed up to get the work done.

For homeowners, finding someone that you can trust to come into your home can be a long-drawn out process with no guarantee that the work will be done, either satisfactorily or not. Finding trades professionals that will stick to their quote can also be hit and miss, even if you’ve sourced them from a ‘trusted’ website. With such variation at play, homeowners turn to friends and family for word-of-mouth recommendations. Then begins the long chase to tie these popular and reliable tradespeople down to a time and a price.

For tradespeople, it can be hard to keep track of bookings, administration and marketing while working to meet the needs of all customers.

Housestars is the virtual meeting place that brings the two halves of the property maintenance market together and, with a stellar 2022 launch in Berkshire, the proptech company has plans to expand across the rest of the UK and, eventually, into Europe. With a projected value of $13.48B in 2026, up from $7.49B in 2018, the UK Home Services market has a projected compound annual growth rate of 8.8%, confirming an active and vibrant market ahead for Housestars. As an investment opportunity, Housestars and the proptech market – with a clear focus on home maintenance and services – offers a robust option when compared to the current volatility at play within the traditional markets.

As a B2C brand, Housestars has a dual focus on both elements. Homeowners will be attracted through social media and app download advertising and partnership referral schemes (leveraging the word-of-mouth model). Tradespersons will be onboarded through recommendations and social media, but also through targeted tradeshows and partnerships with local builders’ merchants and suppliers.

The team behind Housestars brings together three co-founders. Avijeet Jayashekhar is a serial entrepreneur and banking behemoth with experience across Fintech, Real Estate, and Artificial Intelligence. ; Aparna Brij is an expert in property investment and managing complex business operations, and Wynand De Jager has over two decades of experience in business development, technology innovation, and property investment. In order to support the London, South East and UK rollout, the team is currently raising a minimum of £150k in exchange for 5% equity.

Avijeet Jayashekhar, Founder & CEO of Housestars, said, “This is an exciting time for the Housestars proptech brand. Not only are we witnessing a resounding proof of concept with both new customer growth and returning clients, but our tradespeople onboarding is also going from strength to strength. Working with both homeowners and landlords, our customers are telling us how easy it is to book and agree on a price, with the added security of escrow a huge plus. Tradespeople are navigating their business leads more intuitively with work coming to them steadily. We’re excited for the future and are preparing to roll out the Housestars proptech brand from Berkshire to London and the South East in the short term, and UK-wide in the longer term.”