Letting agents invited to preview rental auction site

A new rental auction website is inviting letting agents to preview its launch at an event later this month.

LetsBid4Lets.com, which claims to offer the first bidding software for the UK lettings industry, is holding a pre-launch evening at The Shard on June 29.

Attendees will learn about the fledgling platform's strategy and there will be comment and analysis from high profile investment analyst Anthony Codling and PropTech influencer James Dearsley.

LetsBid4Lets says that with some £3 billion worth of property sold at auction last year, it wants to offer tenants the opportunity to bid for rental properties online.

A similar service for Landlords, Rentberry, that launched in the US last year now lists around 100,000 properties on its site and claims it has more than 50,000 users.

Describing itself as 'a new revenue stream for lettings agents', LetsBid4Lets will assist agents to let their properties and can be used as a standalone marketing tool or in conjunction with traditional marketing methods.

The platform says it will provide agents with software that enables them to list a landlord’s rental property in an auction format and subsequently allowing tenants to bid for it.

If a tenant wins the bid, it is their house for the agreed rental period.

According to the website's press statement, all tenants that use the LetsBid4Lets will be pre-referenced by FCC Paragon before bidding.

The new business claims to be in the process of securing 'significant funding' and says it will not charge 'extortionate monthly fees' or tie agents into long contracts.

“Letting property via auction is something that hasn’t yet happened, but at Letsbid4lets we feel it’s the next logical step in the evolution of auctions and property rentals, with letting agents, landlords and tenants alike all set to benefit,” says Spencer Rose, the website's founder and chief executive.

Interested agents can register for the launch event here.