Luke Burton, Sales & Marketing Director at Rent4sure

What does it say on your business card?

Luke Burton

Sales and Marketing Director, Rent4sure

Who is Rent4sure?

Rent4sure, is an established tenant referencing company.

We provide a range of support, services and systems to the lettings industry including:

• tenant referencing and credit checking

• right to rent checks

• tenant and landlord insurance

• rent protection and legal expense insurance

We employ over 100 people across 3 offices in Dover, Reigate and Norwich.

What is your role in the business?

I joined Rent4sure in 2010 following on from owning and running a successful Home Information Pack Business.

My role initially was to support the company’s sales drive and began to build a national field sales team, which has been massively rewarding.

Over the last six years, I have over doubled the size of the team and in 2015 we opened a dedicated sales office in Reigate with the original 4 recruits from 2010 – who are still with the company.

I was appointed Sales and Marketing Director in 2015 and have direct responsibilities for sales, marketing and revenue.

I also oversee Rent4sure’s reputation and brand development alongside new products, which is the fun bit, although the team spirit at Rent4sure makes it all enjoyable really.

How long have Rent4sure been trading?

We were founded in 2009 by property and financial specialists.

Since processing our first reference in 2009, the business has seen rapid growth and from 100 agent Clients back in 2010, Rent4sure now has over 2500 active agents.

We interact with over 30,000 tenants a month and have a total of 6,000 letting agents on our books.

What is unique about Rent4sure?

The strength of our business is based on the combination of our cutting-edge cloud based platform and a dedicated team of some of the most enthusiastic, committed people I’ve ever met.

Our innovative technology, from which all aspects of the business is run, was initially created by Rent4sure’s current IT director, Jack Webb-Heller, a school leaver when he joined the business in 2011. It is now one of the most modern and user friendly platforms in the industry and has been developed to be expandable as the business grows, using the latest technologies.

The team spirit at Rent4sure is second to none and backed up by the fact that the initial team that set up Rent4sure in 2009 are still all with the business. Our staff turnover is very low, which is great for business continuity.

Why should letting agents use Rent4sure?

We want to help Letting Agents provide the best customer service and our platform has the capacity and efficiency to do this. 

We provide reliable, efficient support services to letting agents at a time when the lettings market is growing and agents need to be on top of industry regulation changes.

What plans do you have for the business this year?

Our business model has growth potential -  it has been a question of getting the right systems and support structures in place to handle the demand. 

We now have very strong, established sales, customer service and IT departments to enable us to continue to grow, and we are recruiting across the board.

 We are planning to increase our headcount by over a third by the end of the year.

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge facing Letting Agents in the current market?

In the past year the rental market has seen a raft of changes and regulations heaped upon it - Right to Rent, stamp duty surcharge, plus other tax relief changes, to mention but a few.

Letting Agents need the best, most efficient help and advice to help support their business, Landlords and Tenants, to ensure they keep on top of all the legal requirements involved in renting a property. It isn't an easy market to navigate. Agents need to ensure they have the right expert help, to keep everyone happy, and their own businesses on track.

What’s your property prediction for the rest of 2017?

There is certainly no let-up in demand for rental accommodation. So, I believe supply is going to be the biggest issue for renters over the next year.

I think we are still yet to see the full impact of Brexit and the Trump administration on the UK property market. However, I think we will see increased overseas investment in UK property, as the pound remains relatively weak, which could be a boost to the buy to let market, and meet some of the rental demand.