Mobile-First Rental Platform
A mobile-first rental marketplace designed to improve trust, transparency and accessibility between tenants, landlords and platform administrators.
- Role
- Product Developer
- Organisation
- Independent / academic
- Status
- MVP
- Period
- 2025 – 2026
Case study
Problem, solution and contribution
The problem
Rental seekers may experience fraudulent listings, unclear property information, limited transparency and weak communication with landlords.
The solution
A role-based marketplace containing property listings, search, filters, map discovery, digital contract workflows and administrative oversight.
My contribution
- Product architecture and data modelling
- Role-based marketplace design
- Authentication with JWT
- REST API design
- Trust-and-safety design for listings
Intended users
Tenants searching for trustworthy housing, landlords listing properties and administrators overseeing the marketplace.
Tenant, landlord and administrator roles
Property listings
Search and filters
Map discovery
Authentication
Digital contracts
Notifications
Listing availability
Trust and safety workflows (concept)
Escrow-payment concepts (planned)
Dispute-handling concepts (planned)
Product thinking
The platform was scoped as an MVP and startup concept focused on trustworthy housing access. Core discovery and listing flows were designed first, with escrow, dispute-handling and full trust-and-safety systems treated as planned improvements rather than shipped features.
Technical foundation
The architecture is built around JWT authentication, REST APIs and PostgreSQL data models, providing a scalable base for an East African rental marketplace.
Product gallery
Screens and supporting visuals
Outcome
Produced a working MVP direction and a clear, scalable architecture for a trust-focused rental marketplace.