- Posted on 15 Oct 2025
- 2 min 46 sec read
Virtual Place Pty Ltd, an NSW-based company aiming to bring trust and transparency to property maintenance, is partnering with researchers from the UTS to develop an AI-driven platform that seamlessly connects homeowners with verified and reputable tradespeople.
This initiative is part of a larger research project titled ‘Smart Spaces: Building an Intelligent Ecosystem for Design, Renovation, and Maintenance’. The project is developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the Virtual Place module, which aims to bring trust, transparency, and efficiency to the property maintenance and repair industry.
Smart AI for trusted trades
The UTS research team is developing an AI matching algorithm to intelligently connect users with licensed trades professionals based on their specific needs, location, and the tradesperson’s skills and availability. The MVP will also include features for simplified contract explanations and a reputation mechanism to provide transparency in pricing and service quality, helping to eliminate the uncertainty often associated with hiring tradies.
The platform is designed to support ongoing property maintenance by making it easier for homeowners to find reliable help and for skilled tradespeople to grow their businesses through a trustworthy marketplace.
Professor Farookh Khadeer Hussain, the UTS Lead Researcher on the project, commented: “Finding a reliable tradesperson can be a frustrating and uncertain process for many Australians. Our collaboration with Virtual Place allows us to apply sophisticated AI and data matching techniques to solve this everyday problem.
“We’re building more than an app; we’re building a system designed to create trust and efficiency in a vital sector of the economy.”
– Professor Farookh Khadeer Hussain, UTS Lead Researcher
Masuma Hassanali and Sakina Hassanali, Founders of Virtual Place Pty Ltd, stated: “Our mission is to make hiring a tradesperson as simple and reliable as booking a ride or a holiday rental. By partnering with UTS, we are embedding advanced AI into the core of our platform to ensure perfect matches between homeowners and tradespeople, fostering a community built on quality work, transparent reviews, and mutual respect. This is the future of the trade industry.”
The project highlights UTS’s commitment to forming industry partnerships that develop practical, commercially viable solutions using enabling technologies like Artificial Intelligence.
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