Ring33: a data-driven approach to democratise homeownership
Facing rising property prices and climbing mortgage rates, Italian startup Ring33—founded by Paolo Sala, Davide Villano and Marco Rigamonti—helps millennials buy their first home through a rent-to-own model. The company uses machine learning alongside CASAFARI’s deduplicated property data and APIs to value homes accurately and speed up acquisitions in competitive markets such as Milan.
How does Ring33’s rent-to-own model work for first-time buyers?
This was exactly the premise for Paolo Sala, Davide Villano and Marco Rigamonti having founded Ring33, a company that provides an innovative approach to the acquisition of one’s first property.
After having tried multiple times to buy for themselves, the founders were intrigued and investigated the consumption habits of millennials. They learned that in the UK and US, there were already alternative models for becoming a homeowner that didn’t go through the traditional path of resorting to a mortgage, which made them want to create their own version initially for the Italian market and its own specificities.
What Ring33 does is to close the gap between buyer and seller, providing a way for first homeowners to start by renting their dream home, while they build up the means to buy it. This Rent-to-Own approach sets aside part of the rent to be used as a down payment, needed to access a bank loan for the purchase.
Technology also plays an important part in the deal, with machine learning being used to find the ideal home for each customer and allowing Ring33 to create a more affordable, flexible and effective home ownership experience. Also, they count on CASAFARI to keep up to date with market changes and accurately value properties.
Let’s see how our technology helps Ring33 to provide affordable home ownership.
Why did Ring33 choose CASAFARI for Italian property market data?
When looking for updated information about the real estate market, Paolo Sala, Co-founder and COO of Ring33, tells us that the trio of founders found out about our solutions even before we had started working in Italy. As a data-driven company that relies heavily on technology for valuations, they needed access to exhaustive and hyperlocal data about the market.
CASAFARI could provide them with the transversality they desired thanks to our database, which aggregates property data across Europe and is now entering the United States in selected states for commercial real estate only via Claro AI, giving real estate professionals a 360º view of the market by aggregating all sources of information into one single platform. Much like how Italian proptech Affittochiaro uses CASAFARI technology, we shook hands and started this fruitful partnership.
How CASAFARI data enables and accelerates real estate deals
“CASAFARI has brought a viable alternative in the usability of real estate data. There is a lot of data available and, the fact that it is unduplicated, moving from a logic of listings to a logic of real estate properties, simplifies the availability of the data.”
Paolo Sala, Co-founder & COO of Ring33
How do CASAFARI’s APIs and property valuations speed up acquisitions in Milan?
The products chosen by Ring33 were CASAFARI’s APIs (see the CASAFARI Comparables and valuation API documentation), an ally for those that need to keep an eye out for market stock and asking-price variations – both matters that can directly affect the market value of properties.
“The APIs allow us to obtain information in real time, being able to quickly identify changes in the stock for sale. All this information is crucial in the process of monitoring the market, whether for intelligence purposes or for property acquisition transactions.”
Integrate Real Estate Insights into Your System through a Property Data API
During the validation phase of Ring33’s business model, CASAFARI was also a partner for property valuations and market analysis, providing data that backs up and confronts the analyses made in house.
Paolo tells us that they went through a challenge of having to identify opportunities and buy a few properties in Milan in a moment when real estate was acquired in the blink of an eye. In this sense, having CASAFARI’s platform as a benchmark for their valuations allowed Ring33’s team to speed up the buying process and negotiation span.
CASAFARI is glad to be able to enable innovative businesses such as Ring33 to bloom and succeed in a market competitive as real estate’s. May this partnership be a long one and become even more fruitful. Thanks for talking to us, Paolo!
Frequently asked questions
What is Ring33’s rent-to-own model?
Ring33 bridges the gap between buyers and sellers for first-time homebuyers in Italy. Customers start by renting their chosen home while setting aside a portion of the monthly rent to build the deposit needed to secure a bank mortgage for the purchase. This approach provides a flexible and accessible path to property ownership without relying immediately on traditional financing.
How does Ring33 use CASAFARI’s Property Data API?
Ring33 integrates CASAFARI’s APIs to receive real-time property market updates and track available stock for sale across target areas. It enables their team to monitor asking-price variations continuously and respond quickly to market changes. This real-time data flow supports both strategic market intelligence and swift property acquisition transactions.
Why is deduplicated property data important for proptech companies like Ring33?
CASAFARI aggregates listings from multiple portals and removes duplicates, shifting from a listing-based view to a single, clean profile for each property. This deduplication simplifies data usability for automated machine learning models and internal valuation algorithms. It ensures proptech algorithms process reliable market inputs rather than duplicated or distorted data.
How did CASAFARI help Ring33 validate its business model in Milan?
During its validation phase in the fast-moving Milan property market, Ring33 used CASAFARI’s platform as an independent benchmark to cross-check its in-house property valuations. This enabled the team to identify viable opportunities rapidly when properties were selling quickly. Access to CASAFARI’s market data helped shorten both the buying process and negotiation times.
How can developers integrate CASAFARI’s property and valuation data into their own systems?
Development teams can access CASAFARI’s property sourcing, comparables, and market analytics via REST APIs or Casafari MCP. Full documentation and integration guides are available on developers.casafari.com. Teams can register and manage their API keys directly through platform.casafari.com.