PlanetRent has joined the fray

A lettings platform is claiming to the latest and only the second ever to offer landlords the ability to advertise their properties on Zoopla and Rightmove directly without the need for a letting agency. The first was OpenRent, but now PlanetRent has joined the fray offering to manage landlords’ property marketing needs including the creation of a bespoke website, although it although offers its service to letting agents as well.

Services like this have been controversial in the past – it is only recently that the major portals have been accepting hybrid services like OpenRent and PlanetRent, helped by the fragmentation of the estate agency sector into different models. When most agents were traditional high street operations, unrest among agents forced the portals to eject non-standard players. For example, NoAgent was persuaded to change its name to Howsy after an agent outcry.

PlanetRent has told LandlordZONE it has clearance from the portals to offer its landlords direct access for their properties to Zoopla’s and Rightmove’s listings on a pay-as-you-go basis. PlanetRent, which is free to download and use, also enables landlords to create their own website to advertise their properties on, with real-time reporting and updates on when offers are made. “PlanetRent has been designed to save landlords and agents, time, money and hassle, by automating the majority of the lettings process,” says Mary-Anne Bowring, boss of the Ringley Group, the company behind PlanetRent. “Now more than ever, landlords need to focus on the correct marketing strategies for their properties and we’re confident that PlanetRent has the perfect offering for landlords of all sizes.”