Private landlord service listing on Rightmove\"an issue\"

News Category: Industry News

A national discount service which puts private landlords and tenants in touch with each other is advertising on all the main property portals, including Rightmove.

Upad styles itself as an online letting agent, but specifies on its site that it “directly matches tenants with landlords who are advertising private lettings in London and throughout the UK”.

One agent told EAT that Upad's inclusion on Rightmove would be an issue for the industry.

Upad, run by James Davis and which also offers a property management service, is currently running a special £39 advertising offer to landlords who read Property Investor News.

The offer, sent by Property Investor News, says: “If you want to let your property fast, you need to be on the big lettings sites. But if you’re a landlord managing your own property, how do you do that?

“If you need a tenant, Upad.co.uk will list your property on Rightmove, Zoopla, FindaProperty and Prime Location, the new Google Maps’ property listings, plus another 500 UK lettings sites: a wider advertising network than any high-street agent would offer. And they’ll refresh your listing twice a day to keep you at the top of Gumtree too.

“For a one-off fee, your property stays listed until it’s let, with no additional fees when you find a tenant (there are no fees for tenants either). On average, Upad landlords receive 15 tenant enquiries for each property advertised, so finding a tenant doesn’t take long.”

Two years ago, when Upad launched, Davis made it clear that he was not running an agency, and that his service cut out agents. He said at that time: “I believe our service will be complementary to agents.

“I am a landlord myself and have used agents in the past. But the cost of using them is a huge issue to landlords.”

He said his fees contrast favourably with agents’ finders’ fees, “which typically wipe out half the average landlord’s annual net profit”.

He also said then that he would be advertising widely on portals, but would not be able to do so on Rightmove.

Yesterday, a Rightmove spokesman said: “We don’t comment on individual advertisers, but as with all advertisers on Rightmove, Upad will have gone through a formal vetting procedure and have to meet the criteria we set to advertise on our site.

“This criteria includes full compliance with relevant consumer protection legislation. Rightmove does not allow private sellers or private landlords to advertise directly on the site. All sellers and landlords who want their properties to appear on site have to use a sales or lettings agent.”


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