How PropTech is Reinventing Letting Agencies

13.09.21 10:00 AM Comment(s)

Propelled by the pandemic PropTech quickly secured its place in what has been a rather traditional industry.

With a radical change in buyer demand due to the impact of Covid-19, many estate agents have found themselves trying to keep up with an even faster paced lettings market than the industry has previously seen.

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Tenant property preferences have also seen a significant change over the past year. With many employees now able to work from home, many tenants favour outdoor living space in commuter zones over once popular inner-city dwelling. For the first time rental prices have dropped in London, whereas more suburban and rural locations have seen interest that supersedes the property stock available.

How does the Rental Market work?

The UK rental market is defined as the price of a property whilst rented out to an occupier in a lease. The cost of leasing a property is generally dependent on the supply and demand of properties within the industry.

For example, the current rental market is seeing a boom in demand, however supply is low. Therefore, renters can expect to see a rise in monthly lease payments for properties in sort after areas.

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How is the UK Rental Market?

The UK rental market saw a peak in interest during the covid pandemic, with a spike in the past 12 months. With more people looking to rent there's a growing demand for more stock to enter the market.

Unlike past trends big cities such as London saw a fall in tenants looking to rent in popular areas (-9.4% rental growth pre-lockdown). With many offices remaining closed, once favoured high street shops unable to reopen and notorious tourist attractions remaining closed, tourism has fallen. As the urban scene tries to recover the attraction to live in a big city has dwindled.

However, property news reports have shown that commuter zones outside of these cities have seen exponential l growth. According to Landlord Vision sitting outside of the city centre such as the North East have seen up to 5.5% rental growth this year, followed by South West 5.3%, East Midlands 4.8% and Wales 3.8%. According to research carried out by Homelet the average UK rent is now at a record breaking £1,007 per calendar month, this figure is up 5.9% compared to last year.

How are faster occupancy rates effecting letting agents

During the last year estate agents have seen a spike in interest in the UK housing market with a pent-up request from clients for properties, as sellers took full advantage of the government's stamp duty holiday. This led to record breaking house prices across the UK. With house prices at an all-time high this and other contributing factors due to the covid19 crisis saw a surge in people forced to search for short and long term rent options.

With an increased demand from clients within the rental housing market, the pressure on estate and lettings agents has led many agencies to re-evaluate their estate agency software and end user experience. As we know, first impressions aren't always what they seem. On the market today are great lettings and property management PropTech solutions that are easy-to-use, fast, thorough and offer GDPR approved tenant referencing, ensuring that the best tenants and return on investment is met for the landlord.

Companies such as RentProfile are speeding up referencing checks up to 5 times faster than leading competitors, with a 20% uplift in approvals. At Dezrez we understand the impact that efficient technology solutions have on estate agencies, that's why we integrate our Rezi software with more third-party solutions than other leading sales and lettings software solutions.

Automation is key to lettings success

There's no denying that managing rental properties in a busy property market is no easy feat. Modern property management software however can relieve the burden for both the agent and the client. ReziPM - Property Management Software is designed to alleviate many of the stresses and automate many tasks, freeing up agents time to focus on other tasks. Using leading lettings and property management software allows agents to manage monthly rents, tenancies, maintenance and accounts.

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The best CRM software also offers a cloud-based solution. This means agents can work on portfolios anytime and anywhere. Our partner integration with GOTO has also meant that businesses can now benefit from access to EPC data and reports through their agency software, capitalising on time saving, efficient processes that are speeding up tasks for teams within the lettings business.

In 2020, Dezrez integrated its Rezi software with Zapier, a powerful automation tool designed to save time, money and resource. Zapier is enabling property professionals to better manage their business despite the increase in red tape. Estate agencies are now using Zaps to complete most everyday tasks, some of these include automation through property portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla, advertising properties on social media, automating push notifications allowing instant responses to users of a site and even creating reports built through data automatically pulled in from data sheets.

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Demystifying the private rental sector

The private rental sector has seen many landlords unwilling to drop their rental rates due to an awareness of low inventory in the market verse high demands. It is a great time for landlords to list their properties. With an inflation of tenants seeking rental accommodation lettings properties are being snapped up at lightning speed. With a tenant race the pressure is on the agent to ensure that their landlords remain safe guarded.

The best lettings and property management companies will deal directly with prospects and tenants with their effectiveness powered by the software solution they use. In an article written by Letting Agent Today suppliers mydeposits and Ome carried out a survey which included 14,200 landlord agents and tenants. It was discovered that most landlords (65%) managed their own portfolio.

With the UK property industry sitting within a very traditional market these figures weren't surprising to us. However, with a boom in demand and legislation changing on a regular basis, we are expecting to see more landlords welcoming agent software and technology advancements to power and protect themselves for increased growth.

At Dezrez we recently partnered with data-driven technology solution Kamma, designed to simplify the complexity of the Private Rental Sector. Used by top letting agents across the UK, they provide instant intelligence on rental yields, property licencing regulations and energy efficiency. As well as comprehensive reports on local property and local authority laws, Kamma also offer access to live rental market data.

What will happen to UK rental market?

According to research rental growth in outer city locations is a trend set to stay. With many people now able to work remotely, the London rental market has taken a significant hit. Research further shows that the buy-to-let market is flourishing in commuter zones and more rural locations across the country, however the average rent prices for such locations has risen significantly and continuing to do so.

With more people renting and property supply running at an all-time low, now is a good time for many first-time landlords to list their properties with agencies. In a fast-paced industry, making sure that your agency is attracting the right landlords and ensuring quality tenants has never been more critical.

New buyer demand met with new intuitive PropTech, accessible within estate agent software like Rezi through utilisation of an open API is a moment of opportunity for real estate agents. Embracing PropTech that enables dynamic automations and integrations is speeding up the reaction times for estate agencies and helping them to win more listings and manage properties more efficiently.

It is evident that providing exceptional customer care to both landlords and agents, whilst delivering real time actions is paramount for business and industry growth. Utilising software such as Rezi, with its ability to connect to third party services and create automations to speed up workflows, it’s software that is helping businesses to win more instructions and connect the property world.