Inflation, interest rates, cost of living increases, you can’t swing a mortgage-repayment-shaped cat these days without ending up in a conversation about property.
Of course, fluctuations in the property market affect pretty much everyone – even if you don’t own a place yourself, there’s a good chance you’re renting one, or soon to start looking for one, and running parallel to the rate rises talk is that of the rental crisis.
Prospective tenants are finding it harder to find a place with vacancy rates in Melbourne being a measly 1% and adding to the issue, rents are also going up.
It may seem fairly bleak if you’re currently out there queueing with dozens of other hopefuls at open-for-inspections but there’s now a new player in the rental market space that may be able to offer some much needed hope.
Rentola are a rental home search engine. Already operating across the globe, in more than a dozen countries, Rentola have now launched in Australia.
Sound interesting? Check out Rentola for yourself right here.
A user-paid aggregator, in addition to landlords uploading their ads to the platform, Rentola also scour the web in search of all available properties, and gather them in one place to, as they say, “simplify the process for landlords and tenants to connect, aiding in kick starting and guiding the first phase of the rental experience”.
Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Gold Coast and Adelaide, all the big cities are covered, so you can filter your search by city, rent, home type etc to find homes best meeting your individual criteria.
Looking for an apartment? Loft? House? How many rooms are you wanting? Or maybe you don’t want the responsibility of a whole place and are just looking to rent a room, you can pop all these details in, then slide the bar right until you hit your maximum price point and then you can scroll through the results.
You can also create a ‘Search Agent’, which will send you an email when a new property that corresponds to your wishes is uploaded, and given their international experience so far, Rentola says that 67% of those who found a new home were subscribers of the search agent function.
So what’s the catch? Well, there’s not a catch, per se, but there is a cost. It’s not a lot, though. The way Rentola works is that it’s free to use the search box at the top, enter the area you want to live in, and tap ‘search’.
You’ll then get to see a list of properties available, which you can read more about and also see pictures of what might very well be your next home.
When you do find something you like, the next step is obviously to contact the landlord to start setting up a visit and arranging to collect the keys. It’s at this point in the process, you need to have a premium subscription to be able to actually see the landlord’s contact information, which will be displayed as an email address, a phone number or an external link.
Good news is, a subscription comes with a short trial period for a small charge – at the moment it’s only $2 for the first seven days. After that, it’s $65 for a subscription that is renewed every 28 days and you can cancel your subscription any time.
For those entering the rental market for the first time, Rentola also have blogs on their website, which are intended to guide you before, during and after your relocation, plus they also have their customer service to help.
If you’re a landlord, they’re also wanting to hear from you, too. Little bit hard for tenants to rent a place if there aren’t any listed, so Rentola have made the process fairly easy for landlords to get involved as well.
To add a listing, simply fill in a description of the home, the rental period, your contact information and photos (the listing must contain at least one decent photo), plus any other specific information you feel relevant or would like potential tenants to supply.
Then, once your listing has been reviewed and approved, it will be up on the Rentola website within 24 hours.
The Rentola multi-international team are located on several continents around the globe and in 2023, they are hoping to reach 50 million users around the world. Their goal is to “make it easier than ever to find the rental property, or tenant, of your dreams. We’re dedicated to helping both tenants and landlords find the perfect match”.
You can follow Rentola on Facebook here.
This article was made in partnership with Rentola.
