Maria is frantic. It’s been a week since she received the news she’d been dreaming of for years: she is accepted to study in one of the most prestigious medical schools in Cyprus. Amazing! However, what Maria hadn’t anticipated when applying was just how hard finding accommodation near her campus in Nicosia would be… She opens the seventh listing: The “verified” studio, said to be steps from the university, is on the other side of the city. The bright one-bedroom turns out to be last year’s post. An agent offers a viewing next week, but only in person. Hours pass, messages go unanswered, or worse, she gets emails from landlords offering studios that look like something from the Dark Ages. There is no single place to search, reserve, sign, and pay online with confidence for decent student accommodation.
MyStudentFlat removes that friction for students who want brand-new or near-new, fully furnished, ready to move-in one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments, within walking distance of their university. Every listing on the platform is company-owned or long-leased, so it is verified according to the high standards set by MyStudentFlat and ready to be reserved. Everything happens online. Students find a flat near their campus, reserve it for a minimum of 12 months, e-sign the agreement, and pay the deposit and rent securely. It takes less than 5 minutes for the whole process. After moving in, they can use the “Tenants App” for maintenance requests, messaging the support team, and checking their rental balance and future payments.
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In this interview with The Future Media, Dimitris Economou, co-founder and CEO of MyStudentFlat, explains how the team standardizes quality near campus and turns a week-long search into a few clicks.
How did you come into the space of student housing?
Before establishing MyStudentFlat.com, we have been investing in student accommodation units in Greece & Cyprus for the past eight years. Being landlords of several student flats in both countries, we got to know the space of student housing pretty well. The next natural step was to establish an end-to-end digital platform to streamline our operations and scale our business beyond our owned units, in order to facilitate as many students as possible in finding and securing proper student housing.
When did you first see students and parents struggling to secure decent accommodation near universities in Greece and Cyprus?
Finding decent student housing has been an odyssey for most students, both in Greece and Cyprus, for many years. Student halls are a scarce commodity in both countries and thus are always fully occupied. Due to the fiscal crisis of the previous decade, construction of new residential units had slowed down for many years, limiting the supply of new housing even further.
It’s been only in the last five to six years that construction has started picking up again, but there is still a significant gap between supply and demand of residential units in general. Only a small number of new units are added each year to the market. Most of the available units are older apartments that are over 40 years old, poorly maintained, unfurnished or badly furnished, and not appropriate for a student. Not to mention that the whole process of searching for a student flat is time-consuming and stressful.
Students and their parents spend hours scrolling multiple listing portals and reaching out to the landlords and agents, just to be told that the so-called “verified” listings advertised are either outdated or scams. Even in the case that they do find a decent flat to rent, they need to travel to its location for viewing (which, if they are not currently in the area/country, is not possible), sign outdated paper contracts with unfair terms, and navigate the bureaucracy over utilities connection, registration with the local authorities, etc.
What led you to start MyStudentFlat?
Being active investors in student housing for many years, we saw that there was big pain in the market, with most of the “retail” landlords offering low-standard units and little to no tenant support throughout the lease period. In contrast, we invested only in modern, fully furnished, ready-to-move-in units and actively support our tenants throughout their lease period, as we consider that student life is one of the most sensitive and productive periods in one’s life, so finding a decent place to stay should not be an Odyssey. Moreover, we noticed there was no other active player in the market offering a “one-stop-shop” platform focused on student housing, where students can easily find and secure a modern, fully furnished and equipped flat near their university, in just a few clicks.
So, based on our experience as landlords and witnessing the blind spots in the market, we decided to create MyStudentFlat.
How do you describe MyStudentFlat to someone hearing about it for the first time?
MyStudentFlat is the first end-to-end digital platform for verified high-quality student housing within walking distance from the most sought-after universities in Cyprus and soon, in Greece.
The whole user experience is 100% online, from browsing and selecting your preferred options to signing the rental agreement and paying your rent. As we like to say, at MyStudentFlat, you move from a few clicks to a new life…
Who is on your core team today?
Our management team consists of Elena Orfanidou, as Co-Founder & CTO / CMO of our company, and me, Dimitris Economou, as Co-Founder & CEO.
Elena has been an esteemed C-Level Executive in Banking & Insurance, both in Greece & Cyprus (ex. CDO Piraeus Bank Greece, ex. CDO Astro Bank Cyprus, ex. Member of the Board of Directors Astro Bank, ex. CDO/CMO Groupama Insurance, Greece).
I have been an entrepreneur for more than 20 years in the Travel & Real Estate Industry, serving as CEO of Alice Travel Group Greece, Founder & CEO of Mykonos Feelings Properties & Services Greece, Founder & CEO of Go Global Travel Consultants Network LTD, Cyprus.
Together we joined forces, combining an entrepreneurial spirit & C-Level Execution, along with deep knowledge of the real estate market and digital business.
What standards do you use when selecting and preparing apartments?
We are pretty clear in our criteria for onboarding student flats on our platform. We select only brand new or almost brand new one and two-bedroom apartments (maximum five years old). The properties must be well-maintained, fully furnished, and equipped according to our high-quality standards and should be located within walking distance from the most sought-after Universities.
All our units are handpicked and carefully inspected before onboarding, so we can guarantee that only the best units in each University area will be part of the MyStudentFlat platform.
How do instant reservations and digital contract-signing work?
All the flats featured for rent on our platform are units that we fully control, as they are either owned or leased on a long-term basis by our company. So, all our listings are 100% verified and instantly available to book. We offer a full spectrum of the flat’s characteristics, including detailed descriptions, floor plans, HD Photos, Video tours, and last but not least, the exact map location for each unit. Students can browse flats near their university using various search criteria, instantly book the one they like (with a minimum rental period of 12 months for all our flats), e-sign the rental agreement, and proceed to pay the security deposit and rent securely. The whole process takes less than five minutes.
How do you handle maintenance and tenant support after moving in?
MyStudentFlat stands out as a unique Student Housing Platform in Cyprus & Greece, as we combine top-quality flats with excellent tenant support throughout the lease.
After booking the unit of their choice, our tenants get access to our exclusive “Tenants App”. The App is designed to be a channel of 24/7 support. It includes features like instant maintenance requests, online chat with our support team, an announcement dashboard where tenants can find useful information and advice on various issues related to their flat, and an accounting dashboard where tenants can have a detailed summary of their rental charges and payments. Maintenance is provided by highly skilled third-party service providers with a proven track record under the constant supervision of our in-house Maintenance Executives.
Why did you choose to participate in Startup World Cup Greece this year, and what did you take away from the experience?
The Startup World Cup is an international startup competition truly respected in the ecosystem on a global scale. Participating in such a prestigious competition raised the bar for us significantly and incentivized us to present our company and MVP as simply and as accurately as possible. We worked hard to shape our pitch deck in the most effective format.
When we were informed that we were chosen among the Finalists of Startup World Cup Greece, we were really excited. This gave us the chance to pitch for MyStudentFlat in front of an A-list panel of judges and a sophisticated audience, along with other top start-ups. Overall, we gained invaluable experience, established meaningful connections, and felt we were part of the ever-evolving start-up community of Greece and Cyprus.
What does success look like for MyStudentFlat over the next two years?
Life has taught me that success is built on years of hard work. We will be happy to see MyStudentFlat scaling up over the next years and expanding its presence in all major student cities in Cyprus, Greece, and beyond, offering students quality housing solutions and total support, turning it into the “go-to” platform for finding and booking student accommodation in the S.E.E. region.
