IT services provider Housing Partners, which is headquartered at Whittington, Worcester, has launched a £1 million new version of its market leading HomeSwapper service after working on the upgrade for more than a year.

HomeSwapper is the UK’s leading mutual exchange service, with more than 300,000 users live on the service at any one time. The process allows people living in social housing to swap their home with any other council or housing association tenant across the country and HomeSwapper sees more than 40,000 swaps each year. The new service is now in use by more than 700 landlords and their tenants, including local housing providers Sanctuary, Fortis Living and Rooftop Homes.

Richard Blundell, chief executive of Housing Partners, said: "It’s been a very busy year for us at Housing Partners, working flat out to deliver the new HomeSwapper. With many UK tenants facing significant financial implications as a result of the so called ‘Bedroom Tax’, being able to swap their homes is a very important option. The service also helps people to move for other reasons, including for work or to be closer to family, and helps thousands of people start a new life every year.”

As part of the upgraded service, tenants can now perform automated multi-swaps, a first for mutual exchange providers. This means the service will automatically find chains of swaps (much like in a private property sale) using its database of hundreds of millions of match opportunities. There is also brand new search and mapping functions, including drag and drop mapping and users can also drill down to just 161 metres from a location. In-system messaging also means personal details are kept secure, while a much wider search criteria makes it easier than ever for tenants to find the exact property they’re looking for.

Mr Blundell added: "As Housing Partners is an agile product development organisation, we will be delivering constant gradual improvements to the new HomeSwapper service throughout the year. We are confident our users will love the new service, and look forward to even more swaps in 2015.” homeSwapper is on homeswapper.co.uk