What we shipped in August

We spent August on two things: making SpaceYako harder to lie to, and making it easier to search. Here is what changed for you, in plain terms.

If you are looking for a home

Listings expire, so you chase fewer ghosts. Every listing is confirmed live for sixty days. After that it stops showing as current until the agent renews it. You will see a confirmed date on the listing, not a permanent tick. A flat that has already gone is more likely to drop out of view than to sit there wasting your time.

We check for stolen photos. The oldest trick in property fraud is to take someone else's pictures and attach a fake price. We now fingerprint every photo and compare it against the ones already on SpaceYako. If a set of pictures has been copied from another listing, we can catch it before you see it.

We screen listings for scam patterns. We read new listings for the language of pressure and for requests to move payment off the platform. When we see it, a person reviews the listing before it goes live. We do not let a machine approve a listing on its own.

Search got a lot better. Search is now full-text and forgiving of typos. On desktop, buy and rent open as a map, so you can browse by area. Your filters now live in the web address, which means you can bookmark a search or send it to someone and it opens exactly as you left it.

Compare listings side by side. You can shortlist places and compare them on one screen, filter to just the differences, and share the comparison.

See how a price sits. A listing now shows how its asking price compares to the neighbourhood, along with its price history, so a number has context instead of standing alone.

Get told when something matches. Save a search and we will alert you when a new listing fits it, by email or on WhatsApp. You choose how often.

One thing that did not change, because it is deliberate: if you are searching for a home, you never pay us, and no money moves between users on SpaceYako. We do not hold your deposit.

If you are an agent

One free listing, then you pay to list. Drafts are always free, so you can prepare a listing before you commit to publishing it.

Bring your whole catalogue. Agencies can now import their existing listings in bulk. Everything lands as a draft for you to review and submit. An import can never publish on its own.

Your badge is tied to your licence. Agent verification is linked to your professional registration, which has an expiry date. The badge reflects a real, current credential rather than a one-time sign-up.

Rescheduling actually works. You can move a viewing to a new slot in one step, and every confirmed viewing now runs through a full reminder cycle.

Founding-agency codes Are available for early agencies joining us, with a free listing period.

How we think about trust

The thread through all of this is a simple idea. A verification badge is only worth what it takes to remove it. Most platforms issue a tick once and never check it again. We built ours to expire unless it keeps being earned. That is why listings have a date on them, why an agent's badge follows a licence, and why our checks keep running rather than passing once.

We are also clear about what we do not do. We do not hold your deposit. We do not verify who owns a property, because the land records are not open to us in a way that would let us. And we cannot follow a conversation once it leaves SpaceYako, so if someone moves you to a private number and asks for money before a viewing, that is a moment to be careful. We can make a fake listing harder to reach you. We will not tell you that makes you safe.

We spent part of the month auditing our own work and fixing what we found, because a trust claim you never check is just a claim.

More to come in September. If something on SpaceYako is not working the way you expect, tell us. That is how the next one of these gets written.