The premise of this app specially designed for students is simple: you download the app, then subscribe (with rates starting at 29 euros per month) in order to benefit from detailed apartment visit reports.
Within a few hours after the visit, the student receives all the information they requested, be it photos, videos, answers to specific questions about the accommodation (the level it’s on, brightness, presence of storage space, layout, etc) or even comments on the neighbourhood.
The reports are made by people who have already registered on the application, mostly students themselves, and can be as detailed as one wishes. Each visit is paid for within 48 hours.
For those doing the visits it can also be a good way to help make ends meet, since each apartment visit allows the individual to pocket 12.50 euros.
A sum that could theoretically quickly climb to hundreds of euros by the end of the month if a person is conducting several of these each week.
The students in charge of the visits are free to accept or refuse a visit, according to their preferences and in particular based on their schedule.
Combating students’ financial insecurity and reducing carbon footprints
Beyond the practical and financial aspects, My Veasytor also aims to prevent students from being the victim of scams, to remove the stress of visiting apartments as well as to reduce carbon footprints, since students no longer need to travel.
“No need to juggle between classes, exams, student jobs and apartment visits,” say the founders, who have themselves been confronted with the problems of relocation during their studies.
Launched barely a year ago, the application is already available in a dozen cities in France (Paris, Lyon, Rennes, Tours, Lille, Bordeaux…).
The founders have just obtained 8500 euros of funds, thanks to a crowdfunding campaign launched on KissKissBank which has just ended.
This amount will be used in part for developing new features on the application, including the introduction of new languages for foreign students.
The pandemic has accentuated and worsened the issue of students’ financial difficulties.
In 2020, 63,000 students in France received assistance from Secours Populaire, a French non-profit fighting poverty.
And according to a survey conducted by the French association Co’p1-Solidarités étudiantes, one student out of two declared that they were hungry at some point during the 2020-2021 academic year.
But this growing financial insecurity does not only concern students. According to several surveys Generation Z was one of the most affected by layoffs during the Covid-19 pandemic and has also been hit hard by increasing costs of living.