Can Roost transform the broken housing market?

Hello there,

Today we’re sticking with the theme of rethinking housing that we began on Tuesday.

Meet the startup that wants to turn housing co-operatives into a mainstream, widely accepted alternative to buying or renting.

Scroll down to read all about Roost.

But first:

• The Startup Coalition is looking for feedback on its new policy suggestions designed to “mitigate” the impact of the controversial new government rules on angel investing

• Founders: Has PreSeed Now profiled your startup? If so, don’t miss the email Samantha sent you yesterday - we have something useful for you! 👀 (if you didn’t get it, reply to this email and let us know)

– Martin

Roost thinks there’s an alternative to buying or renting a home… can they make it work?

The housing market is pretty grim these days, to say the least.

House prices continue to cut first-time buyers out, while the rental market encourages poor-quality homes at increasingly high prices, owned by landlords who don’t particularly care about their tenants.

One solution to this is housing cooperatives, where residents are shareholders in their properties, get freedom to make changes to them, and don’t have to worry about being evicted by landlords on a whim. 

Investors in the properties, meanwhile, don’t have to worry about maintenance and other issues landlords would prefer not to bother with.

But despite these advantages, and these co-ops being popular in other parts of the world, they are barely a blip in the UK housing market. 

Roost is a startup that wants to massively boost the number of housing co-ops, with a modern take on the idea. 

It works like this: you find a property either on Roost’s website or elsewhere, find some people you want to move in with, and then Roost helps you set up the co-op as a legal entity with its online software.

You then move in as a member of the co-op, paying for rent and utilities. Any funds left over from everyone’s payments can then be spent on things like home improvements.