Startup "Uppie" Solves Deposit Problem for UK's First Time Home Buyers

London, United Kingdom, October 15, 2017 --(PR.com)-- The brainchild of two young entrepreneurs, Uppie matches 95% mortgage pre-approved buyers with sellers of unoccupied homes.

In return for an asking price offer, the seller allows the buyer to move into the property between exchange of contracts and completion six months later. During this time, instead of paying rent, the buyer pays their deposit in monthly instalments.

Twenty-five-year-old co-founder George Rawlings said, “I was so proud to be able to buy my first home  - but it took me five years to save for the deposit I needed. But for many of my friends, while they could afford the mortgage they just couldn’t get their hands on the required 5% deposit. There had to be a way to crack the problem and, after 12-months of research, investment, technical development and some great advice from experts in the field, we created Uppie."

Co-founder Jonathan Harris, 28, who also bought his own property recently, said "George and I have worked together for four years providing marketing software services to the estate agency sector. We realised that there are thousands of sellers of unoccupied properties suitable for first time buyers; e.g. landlords wanting to exit the rental sector, people moving overseas, new homes builders, probate sales, etc. We found we could solve the problem of properties sitting empty by creating early certainty of sale while also securing the full asking price (subject to lender’s valuation) in return for occupancy during a six-month completion."

Matching first-time buyers with landlords selling up.

"Sellers no longer need to take a hit on price or wait to find a buyer. We’ve created a new market by matching this vast pool of sellers with limitless numbers of prospective first-time buyers who would not ordinarily feature in the market, but who are keen to buy."

Rawlings continued, "Our two-sided platform, launched today, matches mortgage-approved buyers with sellers of unoccupied properties. The service is available to credit-worthy buyers who are not able to take advantage of the Bank of Mum and Dad, especially those who have a Help to Buy ISA, and we’re looking forward to giving a real leg up to a whole generation of young property owners."

See how it works at www.uppie.co.uk

Key facts:
· There are 3 million 20–30 year-old tenants struggling to save a deposit to buy their first home (LSL Tenant Survey 2017)
· 31% of renters believe they will never own their own home (GoCompare 2017)
· Only 14% of tenants are renting out of preference over buying (GoCompare 2017)
· There are 1.4 million unoccupied homes in the UK (UK Govt), many awaiting buyers or tenants.

Press Enquiries:

Please contact the founders,
George Rawlings, 07496 145 920 george@uppie.co.uk
Jonathan Harris, 07999 619 688 jonathan@uppie.co.uk

Uppie’s stakeholders include internet entrepreneur Tim Hammond, statistician Dr Bradley Payne, estate agency consultant Richard Rawlings, finance expert Nigel Moran and retail entrepreneur Kal Patel.