Building a Real Estate Marketplace for a UK Property Management Firm Managing 10,000+ Properties

Success Story

About the Client

Ringley Group is a leading real estate company with over 20 years of expertise in delivering end-to-end property solutions. Their innovative online platform provides clients seamless access to surveys, valuations, legal services, property management, and sales, enabling smarter, data-driven decision-making and efficient asset management. Operating across six specialist divisions, law, surveying, building engineering, finance, build-to-rent, and property management, they manage 300 blocks and more than 10,000 properties nationwide.

Country:

Industry:

Real Estate

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Business Situation and Requirements

The real estate market had many problems: tenants had trouble finding trusted properties, buyers couldn’t easily compare options, and sellers faced slow sales and lots of paperwork.

To streamline operations and create a unified experience, the client envisioned a property management marketplace – a single digital platform where landlords could list and manage properties, tenants could discover, lease, and service them, and vendors could offer maintenance and facility services. The marketplace would centralize workflows, automate transactions, enable real-time collaboration, and provide analytics across the entire property lifecycle, turning a complex multi-party operation into an efficient, scalable digital ecosystem.

In addition, the client wanted to move beyond a purely operational platform and create new revenue streams by embedding flexible, configurable monetization models. These included variable brokerage fees, subscription-based plans for landlords, paid premium listings, transaction-based commissions, and customized pricing rules based on property type, location, and deal value.

After evaluating several technology providers, they chose Unthinkable for its expertise, innovative approach, and ability to deliver a seamless platform for all stakeholders.

Our team was tasked with developing a patented application, PlanetRent, for our client, designed to:

Define a clear product roadmap and end-to-end workflows for landlords, tenants, and internal teams.
Design a scalable, secure system architecture to support thousands of properties and users.
Build role-based portals with tailored experiences for each stakeholder group.
Integrate automation for approvals, notifications, and routine operational tasks.
Ensure real-time visibility and reporting across properties and operations.
Ensure high performance, reliability, and cloud scalability for future growth.

The Solution

The journey began with a focused product discovery phase, where wireframes and interactive prototypes were created to shape user journeys and refine key features. By building a single, unified codebase, we accelerated time to market and ensured a consistent, high-quality user experience with reliable performance across devices.

The web portal was designed to empower landlords, giving them the ability to showcase their properties, manage essential documentation, and oversee their portfolios with complete transparency. For agents, the platform provided seamless access to marketing assets such as property photos, floor plans, and EPCs, while streamlining e-contract management and deal processing. Tenants benefited from an intuitive interface that made property discovery, communication with agents, and online rental transactions effortless, creating a fully digital, end-to-end rental ecosystem.

Core Features of the Landlord Portal

Transparent, compliance-focused dashboard: Built with deep industry expertise, the landlord portal allows users to manage all key property documentation while ensuring full regulatory compliance. This includes EPC certificates, gas safety certificates, HMO registrations, and PAT testing. The portal offers a centralized, easy-to-navigate dashboard that gives landlords complete visibility over their properties, helping them stay organized, compliant, and informed.

Automated rent collection and alerts: The platform automates rent collection, reducing delinquencies while sending timely alerts for missing or expiring documents. Monthly payments are seamlessly debited from tenants’ accounts, offering landlords operational efficiency and peace of mind.

Core Features of the Agent Portal

Digital deal management: Agents can manage the entire letting process digitally, from executing deals and handling offers to issuing e-contracts and performing tenant referencing. This reduces administrative effort and accelerates transaction times.

Real-time task and contractor management: Agents can track repair jobs, assign contractors, and monitor progress in real time. Centralized access to marketing materials ensures consistent property promotion and efficient workflow management.

Core Features of the Tenant Portal

Hassle-free property search and payments: Tenants can browse available properties, contact agents, and make secure payments via card or bank transfer.

Maintenance and service management: The platform allows tenants to submit repair requests with supporting images or videos, track progress against SLAs, and rate completed work, ensuring transparency and accountability.

Centralized document access: All essential documents, including contracts, inventories, meter readings, and service records, are accessible in a single location, offering tenants a convenient and fully transparent rental experience.

The Impact

Since its launch, PlanetRent has rapidly become a leading, all-in-one rental management platform, redefining the way landlords, agents, and tenants interact. By centralizing property management, automating essential workflows, and providing real-time visibility into every aspect of the rental process, the platform delivers unmatched efficiency, transparency, and convenience across the rental ecosystem.

Today, PlanetRent supports over 10,000 active landlords, streamlining operations while enhancing tenant satisfaction. Its measurable impact is clear: rental voids have decreased by 28%, and average tenancy duration has increased by 46%, demonstrating the platform’s ability to foster long-term, loyal tenant relationships. Combining innovative technology, data-driven insights, and an intuitive, user-friendly interface,

PlanetRent empowers landlords to optimize revenue and operational efficiency while giving tenants a seamless, transparent rental experience that simplifies property search, payments, communication, and maintenance management all within a single, cohesive digital ecosystem.