HomeRenter website promises to cut out UK letting agency fees

HomeRenter, a new British online property lettings website backed by newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror is to be launched on Monday, offering to cut out the role of traditional letting agents and the hefty fees they levy on tenants.

These fees, which go towards the cost of conducting viewings, verifying references and drawing up contracts, have become an increasingly important earner for traditional agents as a shortage of affordable housing forces more people to rent each year.

However, their sharp rise has inflated the cost of renting and fuelled public anger, prompting the British government to announce plans last year to ban such tenant fees.

HomeRenter’s Airbnb-style online marketplace would allow renters to circumvent the fees. Instead, the business intends to make its revenue by tapping the estimated 2 million landlords who own fewer than three properties by charging them an annual membership cost of £99.99 (US$130) to showcase properties.

“High fees and poor service on offers from traditional agents created the momentum to build HomeRenter,” chief executive Will Handley, the former managing director of Trinity Mirror’s news businesses division, told Reuters.

“We firmly believe that through the digital means you can cut out the middle agent and create a world in which landlords and tenants enjoy happier tenancies.”

If successful, the site could pose a further challenge to traditional estate agents such as Countrywide and Foxtons, who are struggling in a cooling market in the face of Brexit uncertainty and rising competition from online rivals such as Purplebricks.