Rent.com.au Passes $200M Payments Since Launch in Trading Update

Share prices in Rent.com.au enjoyed a small spike today as the Australian specialist rentals platform announced that it surpassed A$200M in payments through its RentPay product.

Rent.com.au, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, highlighted accelerating growth including $50M of payments processed in just three months, and more than 8,700 active customers currently using RentPay. Shares rose from 1.8p to 2.1p when the announcement was made.

Meanwhile, CEO Greg Bader used the trading update to outline what he calls a "significant and cost-effective growth opportunity" to target more agent customers this year.

RentPay, launched in 2021, is a platform that lets tenants in Australia flexibly, control their rent payments to increase tenant wellbeing while ensuring agents and landlords continue to receive their rent quickly and reliably. Based on the idea of depositing funds into their RentPay wallet, renters now had the option to over-pay their rent to build a rent 'buffer'—an offering that Rent.com.au said 58% of renters said they wanted.

The product has been a success, with accelerated growth since January 2022.

Greg Bader, CEO at Rent.com.au, said:

"Achieving this $200 million in payments milestone which comes just three months after passing $150 million reflects the solid end to 2023 that we experienced.

"With consistent consumer-driven growth supporting significant agent-led growth, we now have more than 8,700 paying RentPay customers and monthly payments now exceed $15 million.

"While our platform was developed wth renters in mind, there are significant productivity benefits available to real estate agents who adopt RentPay as their preferred rent collection tool. Agents therefore present a significant and cost-effective growth opportunity for us which we've actively pursued through the back half of 2023 with some success."

The firm's trading update also shared an update on strategic partnerships with Mastercard—which will facilitate 'one-click-pay' functionality for users on its platform—and real estate software solutions provider MRI Software which is set to increase user numbers via its MRI Property Tree solution, which is Australia0s leading cloud-based residential property management solution with over 4,200 real estate agent customers.