openrent
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Latest property news
Who blinked first? OpenRent and Rightmove sign new listings deal
Online lettings agent and the UK's biggest portal have been engaged in a weeks-long battle over listings fees, but Rightmove now says they've made up.
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Marketing
Rightmove sees share price fall following OpenRent exit
The portal saw its share price drop nearly 5% after confirmation that the UK's largest lettings agency OpenRent was leaving.
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Marketing
Rightmove confirms it has parted ways with OpenRent
The UK's largest lettings agency, OpenRent, which until now represented 8% of all Rightmove's rental property listings, will leave the portal after negotiations over pricing broke down.
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Proptech
The Germans are coming! Berlin proptech VC lands with millions to spend
Proptech1 Ventures has set up an office in the City and is looking for UK proptech firms seeking to expand into Europe.
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Latest property news
OpenRent offers landlords and tenants free rent collection service
Read how the UK's largest letting agency OpenRent has launched a rent collection service that's free for both landlords and tenants.
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Latest property news
Property portals heavily criticised for allowing ‘No DSS’ rental listings
Read how Zoopla and the other UK key portals have been heavily criticised for allowing letting agents to upload ads that prevent benefit claimants applying.
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Latest property news
Tenant Fees Bill: Lords hail OpenRent as future of industry
Two peers in the Lords yesterday recommended online-only letting agency OpenRent as the future of the industry during Tenant Fees Bill debate.
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Latest property news
Both Purplebricks and OpenRent change claims made on their websites following ASA investigations
Two of the UK’s largest online agents have been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) about misleading claims on their websites. The first is Purplebricks, its 11th referral since it started up in 2015. A complainant challenged whether the way the company provides information about its standard fee of £849 was misleading. An icon is positioned next to text saying “our standard fee £849” which, when hovered over, pops up with the text: “This is our standard fee for everywhere outside of London and surrounding areas, where we charge £1199 inc VAT. Around 40% of our customers pay us a fixed fee of £300 to cover ALL viewings”. The complainant understood that the average fee was therefore likely to be higher than £849 and challenged whether this was misleading. The ASA says it agreed, saying that “we noted that it was only when a user hovered over the icon that information about the additional cost for the viewing service became visible”. “We approached the advertiser with our concerns and they agreed to amend their website.” Instead, the Purplebricks site now says “viewing service is optional £300” on the main page, rather than as a pop-up. OpenRent complaint The second…
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Latest property news
High street agents making 473% profit on some lettings fees, says OpenRent
The profits generated from the lettings fees charged by high street agencies remain unfair despite the looming ban to be introduced during the next parliament. That is the claim made by the UK’s largest letting agency brand, online-only operator OpenRent, which says it is now the biggest in the market at 50,000+ properties let a year, up from 25,000 two years ago. This, OpenRent says, makes it larger than competitors LSL at 35,000 rentals, Foxtons at 20,000 or Haart at 5,000. It also claims to have a ‘time to rent’ of seven days. Referencing cost The South London-based online agency says the real cost of referencing a tenant is £15 and yet recent government research indicates an average industry cost to tenants of £86. It also reveals that the average cost of setting up a guarantor is £95, while the real cost is also £15. And the average cost of a tenancy renewal is £85 but OpeRent, using a calculated cost based on it taking ten minutes to check a renewal contract and an average negotiator salary of £20,000, £4 to renew. Using the same hourly calculation of staff cost, OpeRent says it costs high street agents between £4 and…
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Latest property news
UK’s ‘largest letting agent by listings’ OpenRent raises £4.4m from VC firm
OpenRent, the online-only company that claims to be the largest letting agent in the UK, has secured £4.4 million in funding from a Berlin-based venture capital firm. Global Founder’s Capital, the venture arm of Rocket Internet, is the second organisation to invest in the business since 2014 when Express Newspapers and OK! Magazine owner Northern & Shell gave OpenRent an advertising deal in return for equity in the company. OpenRent has 4,237 properties on its own website but also advertises on Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation and operates a low-fee basic model that’s free for landlords to use the first time, and then after that £29 for a basic package and £49 for a premium one, which includes tenant referencing, contract drafting, deposit registration and collection of rent. STANDALONE SERVICES The company then also sells standalone services including referencing, gas safety certificate and electrical safety checks, energy performance certificates, inventory services and photos and floor plans. OpenRent says it has 640,627 registered landlords and tenants on its books, promotes itself as the “service high street agents don’t want you to know about” and says it advertised 50,000 properties last year, although it does not reveal how many of these it rented. The…
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