Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- Rent.com.au’s (RNT) rental payments platform has officially gone public
- RentPay, which provides the company with an addressable market of over 2.5 million households, is now available on the Google Play and Apple app stores
- The app allows renters to make rental payments and communicate with landlords and real estate agents
- For a monthly subscription and activation fee, users can also stow extra cash as a rental payment ‘buffer’, synchronise payments with their pay cycles and add on a credit reporting feature
- But Rent.com.au isn’t finished developing the platform; the ASX-lister intends to add property management tools to RentPay and add revenue opportunities for agents in the near future
- RNT shares fell 6.82 per cent to 20.5 cents in early afternoon trade
Rent.com.au’s (RNT) rental payments platform has officially gone public.
RentPay, which provides the ASX-lister with an addressable market of over 2.5 million households, is now available on the Google Play and Apple app stores. That market is twenty times larger than RNT’s previous access.
“Using the latest technology, RentPay gives the renter flexibility, support and improved financial wellbeing while agents and landlords receive their rent quickly and reliably,” the company stated in an ASX statement today.
The app will set renters back $3 dollars initially and require an additional $2 dollars a month to provide a customer-centric portal where users can track, update and manage their rental payments. It also includes a free ‘demo model’ and the option to add further features at an additional cost.
In addition, the RentPay platform can provide users with notifications about when their rent payments are due and provide payment confirmation from landlords and real estate agents. This way, Rent.com.au claims, renters can become aware of any problems with their rental records before they occur.
According to RNT’s research, 60 per cent of customers identified this as a feature they wanted included as part of a rental platform.
The portal also includes features that allow renters to stow extra cash as a rental payment ‘buffer’, synchronise payments with their pay cycles and add on a credit reporting feature.
From a commercial perspective, RNT believes the platform’s launch will take a segment of its revenue from one-off transactions to more regular, repeating stipends.
“Our vision is to reimagine the renting experience to create Australia’s most empowered rental community and RentPay is a significant milestone towards that goal,” Rent.com.au CEO, Greg Bader, commented today.
“We’re excited by the opportunity RentPay provides to extend our relationship with our customer and also the transformational impact this is expected to have on the company.”
“Our original rent.com.au platform is now profitable and will continue to grow, and by adding the RentPay platform we are poised to significantly increase that growth. Our internal target is to achieve 200,000 paying RentPay customers
by 30 June 2023, which equates to just under 10 per cent market share. That is aggressive but we believe we can achieve that,” the CEO continued.
But Rent.com.au isn’t finished developing the platform; the ASX-lister intends to add property management tools to RentPay in the near future. Moving forward, the company is also planning to include revenue opportunities for agents who utilise the platform.
RNT shares fell 6.82 per cent to 20.5 cents in early afternoon trade. The company has a $87.48 million market capitalisation.
