To present your property to the largest range of prospective tenants, you as a landlord need to know the best methods of doing this. In a heavily digital reliant era, listing your property online is crucial to attracting interest and viewings. There are plenty of options to choose from, which can be overwhelming; particularly for first-time landlords. Therefore, we have taken it upon ourselves to collate the best renting sites in the UK, and all the options of where to list your property.
There is a huge demand for the rental sector. Upfront affordability is one of the key driving components in this surge over recent years, with prospective tenants finding it easier to pay a rental deposit upfront compared to buying a house outright. As a result, the number of prospective tenants available for your property is extensive.
However, competition from fellow landlords and property investors can also be equally high; particularly in the HMO (house of multiple occupancies) market.
To have your property seen by as many prospective tenants as possible, you need to be strategic in terms of placement. Knowing exactly where to list your properties can help to give you a competitive edge over other landlords and property investors dipping their line into the waiting tenant pool.
There are a number of UK rental sites you can list your property on. Some are considered the industry standard, whilst some have specific appeals to certain tenant niches.
What are the best renting sites in the UK?
In our quest to make property letting and property management as hassle-free as possible for landlords, we have collated the following list of the best rental sites for properties in the UK:
Rightmove
Rightmove is the undisputed behemoth of the property listing sector. During the pandemic, Rightmove clocked a staggering 1.4 billion site visits, with users spending 9 minutes each on average scrolling through the platform looking for their perfect property; whether that be for sale or to rent. 18 pages/listings is the median number visited by users on this website, so it is important to ensure your property is one of them.
With its considerable monopoly on the listings market, Rightmove can require hefty fees to list on its platform; a cost which for landlords letting the occasional property (or even just one listing), simply is not justifiable to think about. The key to getting your property listed on Rightmove (and in front of its wealth of prospective tenants) is to use a managing agent, who will have a contract in place to minimise costs for landlords.
Zoopla
Zoopla has recently upgraded its website into a beautiful, user-friendly platform and incorporated PrimeLocation into its services. In addition, Zoopla has a fantastic wealth of property data. This can be useful foundations for investors looking at making further additions to their portfolios. Zoopla acquires over 50 million users a month looking at its range of properties, coming second to only Rightmove in this respect. Like its main competitor, Zoopla is only accessible for letting agents; so landlords will need to seek out a proactive managing agent in order to list on the platform.
OnTheMarket
OnTheMarket was originally founded by a group of agents and is very much backed by the industry. Controversially, agents who signed up with OnTheMarket were made to choose between listing on Rightmove or Zoopla in addition to themselves, as opposed to being listed on all three. As a result, Zoopla took the largest hit with many agents continuing to use Rightmove.
OnTheMarket promotes an “exclusive” service, allowing for your property to be listed on the platform ahead of anywhere else. Since being founded, the website has gained significant traffic which makes them a viable option for listing a property on. Listing with OnTheMarket also means that your property is automatically listed on the next candidate in our best UK renting sites list:
In February 2015, the world’s largest social media giant created Facebook Marketplace; a trading platform for users with the ability to list all kinds of items and goods. Fast forward to the present day and the Marketplace has grown considerably, with specific categories ranging from used vehicles through to household goods. Crucially, it also allows you to list your rental properties, free of charge. Listing with OnTheMarket automatically places you on Facebook Marketplace, however, you also have the option to list here without their help.
Uploading a property onto the platform is a relatively simple process, and allows users to contact you directly for more information or to arrange viewings.
In addition, you can also track how many views your property is achieving on the platform. You can also renew your listings to ensure it remains fresh and visible for as many users as possible.
SpareRoom
In comparison to the previous rental sites so far, SpareRoom disregards full property listings. Instead, it is a platform for letting rooms (such as in HMOs), or for finding flatmates. It is commonly popular with students, individuals moving to the UK from abroad, or as mentioned, for HMO properties. Users can build and tailor their profiles to what they are looking for, and make searches based on these requirements.
Find A Hood
Find A Hood is a useful platform for prospective tenants who either know exactly what they are looking for, or those without an idea at all. A questionnaire matches the given answers from its users to the algorithm of the site. Many important factors you would usually consider for investment areas are raised. This includes crime rates, occupations, as well as tenant preferences such as religion. From this, users are matched to properties that meet their requirements. This is particularly useful when you are looking to target your property at certain demographics.
Gumtree
Gumtree has been an online marketplace for over 20 years, and shares many similarities to what Facebook Marketplace has become. Prospective tenants are able to create their own profiles, and easily save preferred properties. It gives you direct control and communication with potential applicants when they enquire about viewings or further details. Gumtree is ideal for landlords looking to furnish their properties in a cost-effective manner, and then let them all in the same place!
Open Rent
OpenRent is another platform that allows landlords to list their properties for free, although limited to the OpenRent website itself. For extra charges and plans, you can list on other platforms (such as Rightmove and Zoopla) by using OpenRent. For landlords who are willing to accept pets, OpenRent has the ability to allow tenants to search for animal-friendly properties. This is an added bonus as demand for pet-friendly properties is never in shortage. It also allows you to reasonably justify slightly higher rental figures when accommodating pets.
MoveBubble
MoveBubble is primarily app-based but still responds with website functionality. As an app, MoveBubble updates based on user feedback on a regular basis; more frequently than competitors with their websites. It also features a popular pet searching feature like OpenRent, and has guides based on respective areas it has properties to rent.
Ideal Flatmate
Ideal Flatmate continues the trend of putting renters first. Users are requested to fill out a personal profile and complete a matching test. This presents users with a list of compatible flatmates, and allows them to communicate to build up a friendship prior to any move-ins. It’s ideal for landlords looking to rent out flats and apartments or HMO rooms.
Airbnb
Airbnb is not a traditional renting site compared to the rest of the platforms on this list. Instead, it is more suited for holiday homes or short term lets. If you are a landlord looking to get extra income from a holiday home, then Airbnb is certainly an ideal solution. Users known as ‘hosts’ can list their properties, and are presented with a great deal of flexibility. You can adjust when you wish for your property to be occupied or vacant, communicate with ‘guests’, and also leave reviews. This means that you can accept or decline prospective ‘guests’ based on their previous ratings, to ensure your property is kept in the best condition and cared for during its occupancy.
RoomGo
RoomGo is another platform tailored to finding room/flatmates, allowing landlords to let out apartments, spare rooms or HMO units. It also has a visible range of data relating to users on the platform at any given time. This allows you to understand the largest demographic in the market at any given time, and adjust the marketing/presentation of your property accordingly. It has a fairly extensive database of registered users looking for rooms, so it is ideal if you are looking for a wide range of prospective tenants.
Nestoria
Nestoria is slightly different to the other renting sites on this list. It acts as a property search aggregator, providing renters with a huge list of properties displayed on all portals. When users click on a listing, they are taken through to the original portal for total transparency. Users can also save their search settings into their account. From this, Nestoria can alert them when properties matching their specifications become available.
BuildToRent
BuildToRent, like Nestoria, is another property search aggregator. Its niche however is looking at new developments. It is mainly a community-edited database, and lists the details of developers and managers for users. It allows prospective tenants looking for new builds to connect with landlords directly, and is an ideal consideration should you acquire a portfolio of new-build projects that you are looking to let quickly.
OneDome
OneDome is another free-to-list platform, with an emphasis on a number of features to help users refine their search. Great schools and areas of low crime rates are amongst some of the factors prospective tenants are able to utilise. In addition, there are a number of area guides to help both landlords and tenants from further afield get acquainted with the basics.
NetHousePrices
NetHousePrices has been part of OneDome since 2019, is another notable platform that requires no fees to list. Originally it focused on just sales, but expanded into the rental side of the sector due to the increasing demand. It features a top searches feature, allowing landlords to see where users are searching for on the platform; ideal for sourcing particular demand. It allows users to broadly search for properties, as well as narrow down options using the Advanced Search option.
Residential People
Residential People is a platform ideal for users looking at the city markets. It is another free-to-list platform, and has an easy to use interface for users searching by factors including furnishing status. If you are a landlord who specialises in city centre apartments or homes, this can be a particularly useful platform.
Oasis Living
Listing through Oasis Living gives you direct access to our proactive approach to digital marketing. In addition to listing on the major portals, we can further advise with listing your property on the other platforms. If you are a landlord who prefers a passive income, we can assist with the management of your property or full portfolio. We attend to all your property needs, regardless of how bespoke, under one roof. This keeps you from having to liaise with multiple parties, and also gives your tenants one direct method of communication. In turn, this keeps your tenants happy. As we know all too well, happy tenants are the proven path to passive income and minimal void periods.
If you would like any further information on the best strategy for marketing your rental property, or how we can help listing on the best rental sites in the UK, contact one of our property management experts today.
