Finding a place to live was no easy task for Dalhousie University student Madison Lent. “Since I moved up here, it’s always been a struggle to find a place to live, whether it’s been student housing off campus or finding roommates for single apartments … it’s always been an issue with Facebook Marketplace, Kijiji, (and) people just not responding back in time,” she says. With classes starting soon, she was running out of options — until she came across an app called “SubSwap.” It’s a student-only housing platform that helps verified students find subleases and compatible roommates. “Obviously, the housing crisis in Halifax is a pretty big thing, so we decided to create SubSwap in order to help solve it,” says co-founder, Abdelrahman Talaat. He says the app currently has 100 active users since it launched in June. Users can swipe through roommate profiles and housing options based on compatibility factors, including budget, location and living preferences. “You get to design every question for your needs. What time you sleep, (if) you’re an outgoing person or not, we have very specific questions for users to put in for them to find someone who literally matches their need,” says Talaat. Faris Mohamed, another SubSwap co-founder, says the app is available to any student in Atlantic Canada. “We want to expand to North America and then all over the globe,” he says. They hope people will end their search finding a perfect match. “It was very helpful. I actually ended up finding a place with a girl who now I’m very, very close with. It’s been really great,” says Lent. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
