The past few months has seen a rise in companies unveiling temporary promotions for landlords and builders, as they look to attract customers whose livelihoods have been impacted by COVID-19.
Yourkeys got in touch, saying it was offering ‘free software to home builders to assist in the market recovery’, while PlanetRent promised ‘deposit free rentals’ for landlords and their tenants.
I was happy to publicise these promotions, but do have a bugbear with both.
To put it bluntly, both promise a ‘free’ service, defined as ‘without cost or payment’, but neither is free when you look at the finer details.
Yourkeys still charges a £50 transaction fee per unit at the point of exchange, while PlanetRent charges one-weeks rent as a deposit – so I don’t see how it can declare the service ‘deposit free’ just because it calls a deposit a ‘reposit’ instead.
I appreciate that companies are trying to put their services in the shop window, but to me it doesn’t seem necessary to try and pull the wool over our eyes by declaring a service completely free, when it isn’t.
Companies have a business to run and money to make, and we all know that they’re facing a battle to secure customers at this time.
However, based on the tone of some of these announcements you’d think they were charities, selflessly giving reductions to their customers, which seems a little disingenuous to me.
Take an announcement from fintech firm Canopy, for example, as its chief executive Tahir Farooqui said: “This is a moment to shift from selling to supporting the lettings agents, landlords and tenants to the best of our ability. These moments call for an act of solidarity and a real sense of community.”
They still need to sell their services though, don’t they?
Personally I’d rather firms be more down to earth, as they make generous promotions to try and secure customers in a dampened down market.
Regardless of the tone of some of these announcements, I’m glad that firms are stepping up to the plate and offering competitive deals for our beleaguered industry.
What is more I’m sure some of these promotions will help the companies in question hit the ground running once the market restarts – even if the way they present them can switch me off.
Perhaps it’s just the cynical journalist in me.
Ryan Bembridge, Editor, PropertyWire
