Another home swap site launches

A ‘home swap’ website for estate agents and house builders launched this week. Property-Matchmaker.com has been designed to create chain-free sales and has already signed up Bellway Homes.

Created by two women from North Yorkshire, Miki Rogers and Paula Westacott modelled Property-Matchmaker on a successful American website.

It allows agents and developers to match their properties with those of buyers and sellers across the UK who then swap or trade homes with each other – eliminating the need for a first-time buyer and creating chain-free sales.

Rogers, a former IT professional and primary school teacher, said: “The housing market is stagnant and much of the problem stems from the lack of first-time buyers in the market. People still want to move, but because first-time buyers can’t get mortgage deals without large deposits, the market has ground to a halt.

“Our website is unique. Historically, house-swap businesses have cut out the agents, but our site is for the sole use of professional estate agents and house builders. It allows them to search across the UK and help second-time buyers to trade homes with each other. There’s no chain and no first-time buyer so the process is infinitely quicker and much less likely to collapse.”

Westacott, who worked for Taylor Wimpey for 15 years, said: “The system has been in development for six months and uses bespoke, highly advanced technology to match buyers’ and sellers’ needs in terms of location, price and size.”

www.property-matchmaker.com