The boss of online lettings platform lettingaproperty.com is determined to overcome landlords’ inertia to switch from using high street agents.
Jonathan Daines admits it’s a challenge as 95% of landlords still use agents, with the ingrained belief that the online process will be complex.
“We’re here to demystify that,” he tells LandlordZONE. “As long as a landlord uses our platform from start to finish – finding a tenant to collecting rent – they’ll be doing it within the boundaries of legislation.”
Set up in 2008, the platform set out to address the shortcomings of traditional lettings by offering rental property management online. Landlords get their rent on time, whether tenants pay or not, plus legal cover and expert lettings support for a fixed monthly fee. lettingaproperty.com also now includes a marketplace for landlords and tenants to securely connect, featuring instant messaging, digital wallets, and OpenBanking.
It has let 8,000 properties in the last 14 years and now has more than 20,000 registered landlords. About 1,540 subscribers have put their properties online – just over 0.1% of the available market – says Daines, who aims to grow this to 1.2% in the next few years, helped by equity crowdfunding.
It’s on track to raise £850,000 through Seedrs which will support marketing activity and product development to grow its subscriber base.
The platform’s growth potential is huge, he insists, and reckons becoming more of a brand name will win people over. “Users have had a bad experience on the high street or are savvy enough to know times are changing – after all, selling houses online is now very common. We have younger and older landlords on board, and some of them have invested £5,000 or £10,000 in our crowdfunding campaign.”
