[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.
BACKGROUND
The goal of the project is focused on using Cardano DApp to create an authentic registry for property owners to eliminate scammers and high agent fees in seeking accommodation, and to allow for easy search and renting of houses in Ghana and beyond borders. The purpose of funding is to focus on building a credibly transparent platform (Cardano Rent DApp) that allows property owners to lists their properties for accommodation seekers to make choices devoid of scammers and middlemen. We shall also a conduct survey research report for the first phase of the project in the first 3 months to inform usability in Ghana. The field report would increase participation among stakeholders in preparation for the DApp development and usage.
In the past two decades and counting, Ghana is facing an acute housing challenge with a housing deficit standing at 1.8 million. Each day, an estimated number of over 1900 individuals are looking for homes to rent in both urban, peri-urban and rural communities. The search for accommodation/apartment and flats come with challenges especially, travelling from city to city, province to province, and from one community to another. The cost in travelling and dangers involved in commuting from one city to another is disheartening and a daunting task. In many cases these desperate individuals looking for rent fall in the hands of fraudsters who display beautiful apartments whose owners are not aware of ongoing fraudulent activities.
As renter rate is skyrocketing means having the money for rent is not the problem but finding the right landlords and housing owners is the biggest threat. Many at times, rent allowances and fees are paid to scammers posing as apartment or flat owners. There are also rent agents charging exorbitant fees to view the accommodation/apartment/flats and often terms as Viewing Fees. The agent will further charge a 10% agent fee when one is interested in the house. The agents will first, inflate the rent fees, he takes the additional fees, and secondly ensure he makes another 10% on the actual fees. This is causing accommodation to be expensive and delaying the renting of apartments/flats of homeowners.
[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
SOLUTION IN FOCUS
Creating a DApp will help eliminate fraudsters, middlemen who are charging exorbitant fees making rent more expensive in Ghana. Homeowners and individuals seeking accommodation/apartment/flats through a constructive verification process, would help both parties to freely negotiate terms to build trust and competence. This would be the first Cardano Blockchain Dapp in Ghana to transform the real estate sector. The decentralized DApp will bring together all homeowners and individuals and groups looking for accommodation/apartment/flats/office space to rent. It will be a credible one-stop-shop that would also prevent the delaying of rents of accommodation and the high cost of apartments caused by the middlemen. DApp will reduce cost, scammers and build trust in the rent and accommodation ecosystem. It will allow homeowners to list their homes on the DApp for credibility and visibility.
Why Cardano Rent DApp
The DApp would use AtalaPRISM to register legitimate landlords with real time KYCs, real estate agencies, and apartment owners who are renting or selling flat/ apartment/ accommodation. The registry will provide unique identification for those that would be verifiable at the Lands Commission of Ghana. The Cardano Rent DApp for Rent is important because it would provide a unique registry for homeowners and landlords as well as allow for a transparent and open market devoid of fraud. The identity and openness of the dApp would save rent/accommodation seekers from dealing with the same property which has different owners and property owners can easily be verified on the dApp. It will reduce the high cost of rent and delayed tactics of accommodation agents.
Subscribers (Property owners/accommodation seeker) signing up onto the Cardano DApp for Rent would need to be ADA (Cardano holders) by creating Yoroi wallets or any other wallets to keep their ADAs. All subscribers would need to subscribe with a fee as little as $0.80 in ADA value for maintenance of the DApp. This would onboard users into the catalysts community, expand the use of Cardano particularities, grow the number of ADA holders in Ghana, Africa and beyond, and inspire interest to grow the catalyst ecosystem.
The Cardano Rent DApp will sanitise the rent ecosystem and bring trust and transparency in the economics of demand and supply. The target audience include LandLords, Homeowners, real estate agencies, individuals looking for accommodation/apartment/flats/offices for rent. The high network in the real estate sector is a plus to the team to improve the housing sector with Cardano DApp Rent.
<https://www.pulse.com.gh/news/local/watch-out-for-online-scam-as-2-estate-agents-arrested-for-tonaton-fraud/k1wnj27>
This will progressively eliminate rent fraud in the years ahead, create a credible housing sector and enhance accountability.
<https://theghanaweb.com/beware-of-rent-fraud-in-accra-and-some-part-of-the-country>
<https://www.modernghana.com/lifestyle/10370/9-essential-things-to-consider-before-renting-an-apartment.html>
The following activities would enable the impact of Cardano Rent DApp reach more individuals as well as adding an evidence base for real-world people to witness decentralized solution in Ghana.
- Registration of Subscribers
- Payment of rent allowance with ADA
- Verification of subscribers
- Proof of identity
- Proof of property ownership
- Property listing and location verification
- P2P transaction policy agreement
- Real Estate company listing
Smart contract
The smart contract would function in Seven ways to make accommodation vacancy available and accessible as well as eliminating fraudulent transactions. This includes, (1) proof of vacancy, (2) transaction cost, (3) confirmation of payment and (4) release of payment (5) proof of ownership, (6) KYCs (7)Location maps. It will build trust and provide the most credible web platform for accommodation seekers and homeowners. The smart contract creates the platform that establishes the trustworthy relationship that encourages both homeowners and accommodation seekers, to interact with focus on renting apartments.
Market Analysis
In the past few months, we undertook market research and this provided us with confidence to scale up the proposal for dApp development. Our market research has shown the need for sanity in the housing market in Ghana as homeowners are faced with the challenge of agents, fraudsters and middlemen curtailing networking between homeowners and buyers. According to one landlord, who mentioned that, ‘I see my house on social media being advertised when I am not letting the property out, only God knows the number of people who have fallen victim to these fraudsters’. This among other field interviews has boosted the team’s confidence to scale up because of the identified needs currently existing.
Real estate housing in Ghana is booming. However, it is characterised with gloomy and unreliable sources of securing rent. Students, businessmen, spouses, businesses, servicemen and all professionals on a daily basis are looking for accommodation/apartment/flats/offices.
PARTNERSHIP
We are partnered with Calogeron Ghana Limited, a construction and real estate firm and Procurement and Project Management Consultancy (PPMC) <https://ppmcgroup.com/> . Having presented this proposal in fund 8 but not funded, the team has undertaken developments to strengthen the partners with Calogeron Ghana Limited for the execution of a successful project.
[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
The team foresees that trust in using the dApp would be critical to homeowners as well as educational levels. The team would focus on properties in the urban and peri-urban communities while expanding gradually into the rural areas. Also, educational outreach would help the project in building confidence of homeowners to submit their properties on dApp. Risk is minimal because, homeowners and landlords are already in search platforms they could confidently put their apartments on for visibility and direct engagements with home seekers.
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.
1-5 weeks - Project Phase 1
User Research
Completely have the Cardano Rent website built and hosted.
Completely have the Cardano Rent mobile App platform development research and launched on TestNet.
Publish usage research guide
6-9 weeks month - Project Phase 2
Development of Dapp
Host educational outreaches and workshops to engage, inform and onboard individual landlords and homeowners in the real estate sector onto our platform (A minimum of 200 in 2 months after the DApp development).
Onboard SME real estate agency
10-13 weeks months - Project Phase 3
Launch of Cardano DApp for Rent on mainnet (If no delay issues arise during testnet launch).
Extend the engagement and accessibility of the platform to about 300 (households and institutions) through educational outreaches and workshops.
Assist LandLords and Homeowners install the app including the real estate and construction firms and the general public
Onboard more real estate agencies based on demand.
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.
Budget Add up to the budget
Design Research - $5,000
Front End Development - $15,000
Back End Development - $15,000
Smart Contract Development - $5,000
Project Management - $4,000
Hosting, GCP, GSuite etc. 3 year - $6,000
Incorporation and legal fees - $2,000
Educational & Onboarding - $4,570
Marketing/advertising - $ 6,000
Team Fees - $3,000
Contingency - $1,000
Total - $66,570
[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.
Arnold Kwofie
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnold-kwofie-276782105>
Arnold is computer programmer with over 3 experience software programming. He manages the database system of the University of Mines and Technology in Ghana. With his analytical skills and engineering mathematics, he doubles as software engineer at Gracecom AREF Consult. His research areas involves emerging technologies for development.
Bismark Ebo Yankson
Yankson is a professional IT technician with specialities Software engineering, database management and administration, spreadsheet administration, network installation and administration, and system analysts. He has 5 years experience in web development and cyber consultancy, and had built systems for organizations that deliver results.
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/bismark-yankson-a94728125>
Peter Bismark
<http://linkedin.com/in/peter-bismark-kwofie-93681486>
Peter has 5 years experience as a private sector researcher and public policy subject matter expert. He is also a blockchain enthusiast and was the first Ghanaian to host a blockchain radio show in Africa. He is a consultant on business development and real estate. Peter has consistently proven to have authority in free market economics and using blockchain to enhance transparency and accountability. Due to his huge networks, he is able to put together mammoth gatherings to create awareness on current trends on technology and poverty friendly policies of the state. Peter is known in the policy space and very eloquent. Peter was a CA in Fund7 and Fund8 with most of his reviewed proposals getting funded.
Link <https://www.mixcloud.com/LChrisBates/bitland-interview-with-harbour-city-radio/> and <https://cryptortrust.com/news/category/interviews/>
[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.
The Cardano App Rent will sustain itself with the annual subscription fees in ADA. If funded, we will not return to Catalyst for extra funding.
[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?
The Cardano DApp for Rent would make recordings of activities for auditabilities. The DApp developers would use github to enable openness and transparency in development. Catalyst members would be given progress reports on the discord channel. The DApp Research guide would help include localization in Dapp design and development and ensure participation by stakeholders. This would help in easy tracking of activities of the project.
KPI: Key Performance Indicators
Though our focus is on the phase 1 of the project, KPI for the entire project would be to measure the impact of the project in its entirety, the following metric would be a useful indicator for the project.
Number of Registered Landlords and Homeowners
Number of Yoroi wallet holders subscribing
Number of Registered Licensed Agents
Number of Real Estate Developers subscribing
Number of Search by Users
Number of Secured Transactions
[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?
A user-friendly and functional Cradano DApp Rent that is able to bring both homeowners and homeseekers together to facilitate negotiation and transact for business.
It is also the most credible, transparent and platform of excellence to search for accommodation/apartments that eliminates scammers and delays in ensuring apartments are rented on time. The Dapp will avoid middlemen who engineer the cost of accommodation/apartments for rent leading to high cost of properties for rent.
It is also the Dapp that easily grows ADA holders and enhances the application of the use of Cardano particularities to solve problems.
Another success can be observed with other countries on the African continent and beyond listing their properties for rent.
[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.
The proposal is not a continuation one but one that was presented in Fund8 but was not funded.
