It was meant to show you where to buy in Croydon or rent in Camden – but CrystalRoof Ltd’s tracker is now helping to map the coronavirus crisis.
The free-to-use service can find the number of new cases in your postcode area every day as well as shedding light on the situation in each NHS and local authority area.
It has the potential to be an important tool for key workers, care organisations, charities and health boards dealing with the impact of COVID-19.
Created for your mobile device, the simple software was designed to help you find the best places to live.
But it has been adapted to provide heat maps and graphs explaining where cases are, peaks and plateaus, and numbers of people who have coronavirus.
Of all the data provided, it is perhaps that on when lockdown started that is the most pertinent for the London-based start-up behind it – for this is when it gained a new role.
New mission
“Our mission is to democratise access to data and provide free information on residential areas in London by postcode,” said CrystalRoof Ltd’s CEO Victoria Varzinova.
“Our target audience are people who want to buy or rent a property, property investors and other property professionals.
“But after launching during the coronavirus outbreak, all these spheres were quickly put on hold.
“This is when we decided to introduce a stats section on the pandemic because we already had the structure to host this sort of data.”
Church bells
The aim is to offer a free subscription service, providing what the company specialises in – data processing, visualisation and interpretation.
While the initial focus is London, CrystalRoof Ltd’s eventual aim is to provide insights on residential areas across the U.K.
The in-depth information will detail everything that can impact on where people choose to live.
This includes affluence, crime rates, schools, transport links, local amenities, exposure to aircraft and traffic noise, as well as other potential nuisances such as ringing church bells nearby.
Victoria added: “Our service is GIS-based and the aim is to provide data in an easy-to-use format for a wide audience.”
“While our tracker was designed for the residential market, hopefully it can now prove of use to those helping us deal with the coronavirus crisis.”
