Bloomberg Línea — Brazilian proptech startup QuintoAndar announced on Wednesday a new product to allow property owners to negotiate directly with their tenants.
QuintoAndar, valued at $5.1 billion, offers property rental and sale between intermediates through its platform, but the new product, called ‘renting without management’, allows property owners to choose whether to use the platform’s management or not when making a property available for rent through QuintoAndar.
According to Caio Oliveira, QuintoAndar’s product director, this solves the problem of people who live in the same building as the flat they are renting and prefer to have a more personal contact with their tenants to solve problems without having to go through the platform’s administration.
The model also works for owners who have several properties and already have a management structure in place.
“We have identified a relevant segment within the market that prefers to rent without someone helping with the administration,” Oliveira said in an interview with Bloomberg Línea.
According to QuintoAndar, until the signing of the contract, all the products are similar: a photographer from the platform takes professional photos of the property and records videos, and QuintoAndar collects information and assists the owner with the pricing process.
When the property appears on the platform, prospective tenants can schedule visits digitally, send proposals, credit analyses and send documentation online.
The startup says its platform has more than 10 million monthly visits and closes more than 12,000 contracts per month.
The difference between the two products is in the closing of the contract. In the case without administration, it will be mandatory for the tenant to contract a guarantee. For this, QuintoAndar is offering a product called “fiança simples”, a rental guarantee.
With this guarantee, the tenant and owner sign the QuintoAndar contract and the platform inspects the property. From then on, the administration is the responsibility of the owner.
“The owner will be responsible for collecting the rent, the condominium charges and taxes, and will also be responsible for dealing with any type of problem that occurs with the property, such as repairs,” explained Oliveira.
The proptech only acts in the event the tenant does not pay the rent, guaranteeing the value to the owner.
“We studied a lot before making this product, the market, the clients. We found that there are customers who don’t want the management service, so we are offering a different product for a different segment,” Oliveira said.
While QuintoAndar no longer earns a revenue from the administration fee, it also no longer has to bear a series of costs linked to that service.
“It is a product that has its own economic viability, it already has a very large demand and can potentially increase our range of properties for customers,” he said.
The new product has been running for 11 days and the platform has seen a 7% increase in the number of properties listed on the marketplace, he added.
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