Miss-directed anger

RNT has been subjected to misdirected anger so I would like to do the same here.


Our product was designed to help tenants and agents because there was a gap in the market left from old technology due to the an outdated banking system.
Over the last 6 months the NSW government has set their targets on third party payment processing for rent and for a good reason, we have had competitors launch with aggressive acquiring, aggressive pricing and deceptive business practices designed to maxamise profit or inconvenience the tenant to a degree that they end up paying the extra fees.

We have unfortunately been lumped in with the worst in this category, here (in NSW) Trina Jones has come in swinging and has taken aim at deceitful real estate agents and third party payment apps.
More to read here, that first point has within "Some renters are happy to pay a fee for additional services or convenience of using apps"
I would just like to put this into perspective,
From www.whichrealestateagent.com.au - "The management fee is usually a percentage of the weekly rent, payable for the day-to-day management of the lease, and in NSW can vary from approximately 5-12%."
From www.corelogic.com.au - "Median rents across the capital city markets ranged from $745 per week in Sydney"
At the lower end of agent fee's, say 6% on $745 is $44.7 per week, now compare that to our base $0.46 flat subscription cost per week.
Now the debate as to who should pay that $0.46 fee is debatable (I feel that the agent should cover the cost) however it falls well below fees associated with purchases using a debit card at an EFTPOS terminal which the ACCC puts at < 0.5% and actually lower than the governments Centerpay service where businesses pay a fee of $0.99 per transaction, including GST.
Yet rental prices have grown between 4.3% - 16% YOY, a graph that looks a little like this,


Landlords/agents can raise the rent and that's called a free market
Agents can charge a % of their choice and that's called a free market
Yet, our product is too much of a burden for a tenant, so much so that they are changing legislation to block it
Meanwhile it is legal for a business to refuse cash in Australia source here, which would render you dealing with third party companies such as a bank + Mastercard/Visa + EFTPOS company, all who make money in the process. This is fine.

I wonder when Trina Jones consulted with advocates and tenants did she ever think maybe they should target the core reason rents have nearly doubled in the last 5 years, like releasing more land or removing % based income for REAs

On another note,
RNT provided a service with by releasing monthly reports on changes such as availability and average pricing and it was such a help that they released their own rent check tool
RNT saw there was an issue with tenants needing to pay a bond but were still waiting on their previous bond to be returned so they created a transparent bond loan product, it was such a help to tenants that the government introduces a Portable Bond Scheme

It's like every time we do something that helps tenants the government take the idea and has blocked us whenever possible, I feel this is not going to work until we are able to get our product in front of these decision makers to show that we are a positive step in the right direction for tenants.


Rant over.