OpenRent

OpenRent removes the letting agent from the transaction. A private landlord lists directly, meets tenants directly, and buys only the specific services they cannot do themselves — referencing, a gas safety certificate, rent collection — rather than paying a percentage of rent for a bundle.

What It Does

• Advertising: free listings, distributed to Rightmove, Zoopla and PrimeLocation as well as OpenRent’s own site
• Referencing: tenant checks as a paid add-on
• Money: rent collection and rent protection
• Compliance: gas safety certificates and legal support
• Management: fuller property management for landlords who want it

Position

The free listing is the whole strategy, and the portal distribution is what makes it credible: a landlord’s objection to going direct is that they will not reach tenants, and appearing on the same portals as agency stock removes it. Revenue then comes from the add-ons.

For this directory the entry is a useful boundary case. OpenRent competes with the letting agents that most other providers here sell to — its growth is their lost instructions — while simultaneously operating as a portal and a lettings platform. It states 8.7 million tenants and landlords use the service.