Work/02
Campus Sublet
Student housing marketplace.
Campus Sublet is a student housing marketplace that we developed and launched to help students sublet their apartments to other students.
- Status
- Launched
- Scope
- Product concept, development and launch
- Users
- University students
- about100
- Users
- 10
- Successful sublets
Screenshot of the listings screen from the launched app.
01The problem
The problem
Many student leases run for a full year, so students who leave for the summer, whether for an internship or to go home, keep paying rent on an apartment they aren't using. At the same time, students moving to a new city for an internship need affordable housing for just a few months.
We wanted to make it easier for those two groups to find each other.
02The app
The app
The app is built around listings, and the browse screen shows the things a student needs to know before reaching out.
Listing types
Students can browse subleases, lease takeovers and roommate listings, and filter between them.
Price and dates
Each listing shows photos, the monthly price and the move-in date.
List and map
Listings can be viewed as a grid of cards or on a map.
Posting and messaging
Students post their own listings and message each other in the app.
03Results
Results
We took Campus Sublet from an idea to a launched app with real listings. It reached about 100 users and helped facilitate 10 successful sublets.
Building the app was only part of the work. We also had to get the first listings posted and the first students signed up, and then watch how people used it.
04The longer-term idea
The longer-term idea
The longer-term idea is a university-to-university housing marketplace. A student moving from Florida State to another city for a summer internship could find a temporary apartment from a verified student there, and the student renting out the apartment could recover some of their housing costs.
The concept uses university email verification to keep the marketplace limited to students. This part is still an idea. The app we launched is the listing marketplace described above.
