By Tim Gavell

Christina Melling from Chorley has created an online service called Merge, which aims to make it quicker and cheaper to buy a house, while reducing stress.

The site offers a complete mortgage to move-in package with everything a house hunter needs to buy a home in one place.

It includes support with mortgages, surveys, removals, insurance and has a conveyancing platform, and offers help throughout the move process from start to move-in.

Christina attended Parklands High School in Chorley, and Cardinal Newman College, Preston, before going to UCLan to study law. She then had a career change to financial planning working in the sector for six years analysing markets and bringing in-house the best propositions, providers services and tools available.

She said: “What became apparent was that many professional services aren’t easily accessible for the public. What I wanted to do was find a way to make them more accessible and how we could make it so that people could not only access that service, but also all the other tools and services they need to address the life event they wanted to deal with, such as moving house."

"When you move, you need a solicitor, conveyencing, a mortgage adviser. Those are quite fragmented and it is up to you to sort them all out. So I sourced other services surveys needed, utilities, removals, locksmith, cleaning, and packaged it all together to streamline it and make it accessible to people.”

Customers can go on the website and choose from partner companies after typing in their address and requirements.

Christina added: "The tech behind the package also allows for it to be redeemed by voucher code. People are used to buying a gift card to give to loved ones or employees, now they can buy a gift card for a professional service too. I have created what I think is the Deliveroo of professional services and Merge is currently sitting on the UK’s biggest benefit platforms.”

Her company Stipendium is aiming to have a range of products, Merge being the first, launched three weeks ago. Her business partner is John Bohan who has a background in gift card retail schemes for major retailers.

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