Real estate giants realestate.com.au have recently launched an interesting new feature. Pet Profiles will allow tenants to show their pets in the best possible light – and also help property managers save time when weeding through rental applications.
As part of a national survey, landlords, property managers and tenants were surveyed in a drive to make the property rental purchase easier.
The study identified that 48% of property managers spend a large amount of their time looking into animal breeds, temperament and personality when reviewing tenant applications, even though it’s come to light that tenants aren’t always 100% honest about owning a pet when applying to rent a property.
In order to make the rental market more transparent, the popular property portal have created the Pet Profile function, which allows prospective tenants to include a short description and photo of their pet when applying for a property.
The feature was launched off the back of the study, which found that deciding whether or not to accept pets was one of the trickiest aspects of the rental process for property managers. It’s also been launched in a bid to improve the user experience for tenants and make it easier for them to find suitable properties.
The study also revealed that:
- 27% of people have hidden a pet before rental inspections have been conducted
- 25% of people have lied about owning a pet when trying to rent a property
- 72% of Australians agree that most of the basic damage within their property is caused by humans, not animals.
- Despite this, 93% of property managers think landlords will be concerned that pets will damage their property.
- 50% of Australians with pets have found it hard to get a rental property.
Since the launch, over 57,000 people have added their pets to their 1form applications, with positive responses being received all round.