While the coronavirus pandemic has proved challenging in a variety of areas, the development and use of technology has been among the beneficiaries of this difficult time. After rising in the past couple of years, the rate at which new property technology, or proptech, with new services and apps to support letting agents, property investors and landlords has come online has accelerated.
A number of welcome new services have become available in recent weeks, including a letting agency rebranding to only sell tenanted buy-to-let properties. In addition to that new option for property investors, letting agents and landlords can now make use of at least three new tech-led services platforms. This means that although letting agencies and landlords continue to face some Covid-19 related difficulties, there are an increasing number of options available to help them and their tenants and ensure the UK's lettings industry can continue to advance and provide the important homes tenants need, across the country.
Tenanted BTL Investment
One former estate agency has recently rebranded and now only sells tenanted buy-to-let (BTL) properties in cities across the north of England. Edgertonz identified there was a need for an option for investors to purchase a BTL property with an existing income. This takes away the concerns of the potential performance of buying an off-plan home in a new development that may, or may not, prove popular with tenants and deliver the revenue investors are looking for.
The agency’s managing director said there is less risk involved when buying a tenanted property and that in, what he calls second-tier cities, such as Manchester and Newcastle, returns are stronger than in London and other well-populated but expensive cities in the south.
“Our primary focus is to bring forward and source completed properties with rental income already secured in popular tier-two cities where property prices are due to increase dramatically in the coming years,” Richard Peck said. “Investing in completed property helps to reduce customers risk in comparison to purchasing off-plan buy to let properties, where rental returns cannot be assured.”
The use of tech in this venture helps to highlight to potential investors the revenue generating aspect of the property they’re interested in purchasing and also comparing the available return with a potential return on other, non-tenanted properties.
Proptech Options Aplenty
While the above example is something that’s quite specific for potential BTL property investors, a raft of new proptech is now available to letting agents and BTL landlords around the country. The three we’ve identified are:
- Movinghub has added a new tool, to allow agents to provide tenants with utilities and services when they move into a rental home.
- A new venture from Landlord where property investors can easily manage all of their investments from one platform.
- PlanetRent which automates legally-related issues such as compliance and marketing.
By utilising constantly developing technology, these firms, among others, have created new options for letting agents, property investors and tenants to help smooth the way in different areas of the industry. This means that even though letting agents have a lot of rules to follow and boxes to tick, there are an increasing number of proptech tools to help them do this.
Of course, at RentGaurantor, we’re no strangers to technology as we’ve been providing a proptech solution for letting agents for two years now, helping thousands of agents and tenants across the industry. As we continue with our work during these uncertain times, we know new specific and general proptech offerings will help support everyone across the lettings industry and make the process simpler, smoother and more successful whether you’re an agent, a tenant or an investor.
