James Davis, founder and CEO of Upad, who himself is a landlord, comments: “Our data, as well as anecdotal feedback, has repeatedly shown that one of the primary concerns for landlords is managing void periods. With that in mind, when it became apparent from our Rightmove data that the average number of enquiries per property was down, we acted quickly to address this and mitigate the risk of a void.
Landlords told us that in key cities where competition was high such as London, Birmingham and Manchester they needed a competitive edge. Rightmove’s Featured Listings proved to be exactly that.”
Working with Rightmove, Upad conducted a test in the summer of 2017 listing two properties (one inside London and one in Isleworth), each under a standard and a ‘Featured’ listing. The enhanced ‘Featured Listing’ advertisements received an average of 128% more clicks from interested tenants than those without.
James continues: “It’s a competitive marketplace and securing a quality let quickly is important to our landlords. However, in presenting options such as that offered via Featured Listings, we need to be able to demonstrate tangible benefits and last summer’s test provided just that.”