YouSpotProperty.com has been touting for leads to find abandoned properties in London.
Successful tips stand to be rewarded with shopping vouchers and a 1% cut of the final selling price.
Benjamin Radstone and Nick Kalms, both former bankers, have spent the last decade renovating derelict houses. They found abandoned property and then found its owner, negotiated the purchase, and sold it on once renovated.
Now they have upped the game by calling in the public to help.
“Derelict buildings attract squatters and vandalism, provide refuge for vermin, bring down local property prices and cultivate weeds and damp – creating problems beyond their own borders,” said Radstone, 31. “By reporting run-down, unused properties to us, we can track down the owners, potentially buy the property and return it to use.”
He believes 800,000 disused homes exist in London, with 24,000 units sitting empty for longer than six months. A disproportionate number are in areas such as Kensington and Chelsea, he claims, “because local authorities cannot afford to intervene.”
Local councils are often too strapped for cash to issue compulsory purchase orders. The average price of a house in London has reached £409,881.
The company, based in Hampstead, North London, has received 400 reports so far, paid out vouchers to 300 people and sold 100 properties.
The venture is the latest in a series of innovative companies in the last decade which try to make house buying easier. Web portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla, and online estate agency eMoov, have all challenged traditional estate agency work.
