WEB-based property specialist Citylets has signed a pioneering deal which will raise thousands of pounds for leading housing and homeless charity, Shelter Scotland.

Since its inception in 2000 by entrepreneur Thomas Ashdown, Citylets has become Scotland’s biggest rental portal, used by over 200 letting agents. As a single, convenient site for house hunters it attracts a huge audience, which sees it involved in the letting of around 25,000 properties per year.

Now a small fee from each of those transactions will be handed over to Shelter Scotland, which works with homeless and badly housed people across the country.

Thomas said: “In recent years there has been a shift in the Scottish business community to embrace some form of corporate social responsibility as the norm, not the exception. This has in part been driven by employees who want to work for employers looking to give something back to the community. My staff are really into the idea.”

The tie-up is initially set to raise about £5000 for Shelter Scotland and is well-aligned according to Thomas. He added: “Supporting Shelter Scotland was a natural choice for us. Our own clients are letting agents who are regularly in touch with Shelter to ensure that they deal with all tenants fairly, responsibly and legally. Agencies will offer what support they can by directing tenants to the charity and to Citizen’s Advice Bureau’s.

Archie Stoddart, Director of Shelter Scotland, said: “We are pleased that Citylets have chosen to raise money for Shelter Scotland. Our housing aid centres and families projects across the country offer support and advice to people who are homeless or badly housed and the money raised will help us to continue this work.”

Citylets is used by 150,000 people per month. With more than 25,000 properties let every year from over 200 agents, it is the only company with such extensive data that it is able to produce a detailed quarterly report on the state of Scotland’s rental market.

Those reports are freely available from www.citylets.co.uk/reports and are ideal for prospective tenants researching property availability or likely rental costs in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.

ENDS