Rent.com.au achieves $250m payment milestone on RentPay platform

Rent.com.au (ASX: RNT) has achieved $250 million in payments on rental platform RentPay since its relaunch in January last year.

The company said payment growth was accelerating, with the most recent $100m coming through twice as fast as the previous equivalent amount.

More than 8,900 customers are now actively using the platform, with more than 4,000 new tenants being prepared for onboarding to the system.

Tenant support

Chief executive officer Greg Bader said the achievement was rewarding for the company.

“This milestone is really down to the growing support of the tenants and agencies on our books,” he said.

“We are keen for RentPay to amplify value back to our customers.”

“Every year we experience an impact on our search portal revenue from the ebbs and flows of seasonality across the year on top of broader market swings, [so] the importance of this platform to building an annuity revenue stream cannot be understated.”

He said the platform was key to the company’s future growth.

“It provides an annuity-style revenue stream which helps insulate us from market fluctuations within our traditional renter product and advertising sales revenue streams,” he said.

“Importantly, it allows us to serve renters beyond just the “movers” market and address the entire renting population, which makes up 32% of Australians.”

New features

Rent.com.au is continuing to develop RentPay with the addition of new features such as the latest payment methods, new savings initiatives for tenants and capability and integrations for agency customers.

The company recently partnered with Paylab to provide customers with a discount of up to 15% on everyday spending with a selection of retailers which can then be applied to their RentPay account to reduce weekly rent commitments.

Take-up through the trial period is reported to have been positive, with over 5% of RentPay customers opting in to Paylab and offsetting thousands of dollars against their rent.

Record quarter

Mr Bader said Rent.com.au had experienced a record quarter of activity against a pipeline of tenants to be onboarded that matches the company’s entire 2023 calendar year growth.

“General market awareness is increasing not only with RentPay but with the level of understanding in terms of what benefits newer payment platforms can offer.”

“Renters are wanting payment choice, rewards and flexibility.”

“In a tight market, we are finding that smart agencies know that cost-of-living pressures impact us all and they are actively looking for opportunities to make life easier for their tenants while saving time and money.”