The Daily Business Post: Startup Of The Day: Rentview

Company: Rentview

Founders: Colin Napper, Andreas Riha

What it does: the company has created a cloud-software system that allows property agencies and landlords to manage their properties and any issues arising around those properties.

Development stage: active, product now on sale

Funding: none announced

Website: Rentview.com

While property sales may have slumped, property rentals have not. And, with an historically large stock of housing in the country, competition among agencies and among landlords is fierce. Competition puts pressure on resources. For landlords and agencies, time spent cataloguing and administering individual properties – and their inventory – is a luxury that is becoming increasingly scarce.

That’s where Rentview comes in. The Dublin-based firm has come up with automation software that creates an easy-to-use administration system for agencies, landlords and tenants.

“If you’re an agency or a landlord and don’t have software, you used to manage your rents in an Excel file or diary saying that rent is due on this date or that date,” said Colin Napper, the company’s chief executive. That has an awful lot of implications if it’s not marked off properly.”

Day-to-day things become crucial, said Andreas Riha, the company’s sales and marketing chief.

“You have tenants looking for documentation,” he said. “You also have landlords coming in for end-of-year accounts, plumbers invoices, fees and more.”

Rentview’s system involves doing an inventory of the stock and conditions of a property, which can then be catalogued using the system’s smartphone app.

The system costs €100 per month for up to 100 properties.

So far, the product is being trialled with 18 agencies who, among them, have 600 landlord clients and 1,500 tenants. Feedback has been positive, and a white-labelling service is being considered.

For Rentview, Ireland is just the beginning. While there are 1,600 property and letting agencies here, that pales in comparison with an estimated 25,000 agencies in Britain.

“At the end of the day, if you have a happy landlord who’s had a good service, he’s gonna keep you on and then refer you on,” said Napper.

Contact journalist: adrian@businesspost.ie. Contact desk: digital@businesspost.ie.

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