Housify

Project Overview

Key Details:

Housify is a global real estate platform built for international property investors — combining traditional property search with investment-grade analytics like rental yield, cash flow, and CAP rate. As the sole designer on this project, I designed the entire experience end-to-end: from the multi-country entry point to deep property-level investment calculators.

Problem

International investors face two problems most real estate platforms solve separately, not together: finding a property, and knowing if it's actually a good investment. Listing sites show homes but not returns. Investment tools show numbers but no real listings. Housify needed to merge both — at a global, multi-currency scale.

Key Issues:

Listing platforms rarely surface real investment data (cash flow, ROI, CAP rate)
Investors need to compare opportunities across different countries and currencies
Financial metrics are usually locked away in spreadsheets, not available while browsing
No easy way to see how a property stacks up against local market averages

Research

Since Housify's core user is an investor rather than a typical homebuyer, research centered on financial decision-making: what information someone actually needs before committing capital to a property, and how that need shifts across markets.

Research Activities:

Studied how real estate investors evaluate deals (CAP rate, cash flow, cash-on-cash return)
Mapped multi-country requirements — currency, language, and localized market data
Benchmarked market-insight and property-comparison patterns from investment platforms
Balanced needs across a wide user base — from first-time buyers to serious investors

Design Process

I designed the platform end-to-end: a global country/language selector spanning 30+ regions, a discovery-focused homepage, investor-specific search and filtering, and property detail pages that embed full investment calculators directly into the browsing experience.

Design Steps:

Designed a global country & language picker covering 30+ regions
Built the homepage around three clear entry points: Buy, Rent, House Values
Designed investor-focused filters (CAP rate, price, floor area, beds)
Designed property pages that combine listing info with live financial calculators
Designed the House Values and Market Insights tools for area-level analysis

Solution

The final platform pairs property listings with an investment-analytics layer: rental income and expense breakdowns, cash flow and CAP rate calculations, a rental strategy calculator with adjustable down payment and interest rate, and market-level trend charts — all inside a single, clean property page.

Key Improvements:

Multi-country, multi-language property search (30+ regions)
Investor-focused filters: CAP rate, price, floor area, beds
Rental Strategy calculator: cash flow, cash-on-cash return, CAP rate
Market Insight tools comparing prices by postal area/district/sector
House Value estimator with map-based area comparison
Trend charts for pricing, yield by bedroom count, and sold vs. asking price