Letting Agent Software UK: The 2026 Buyer’s Guide

01 · Definition

What letting agency software actually covers

Letting agency software is any system that moves a property from instruction to a let, managed tenancy.

The core is a lettings CRM that holds landlords, applicants and properties. Around it sit specialist tools for referencing, inventories, money, maintenance and, increasingly, AI.

Managed portfolios usually add dedicated property management software for rent, repairs and compliance after move-in.

The system of record

Landlords, applicants, properties, viewings and tenancies in one database, plus portal feeds and the diary.

02 · Why the stack matters

Lettings is a volume game on every front

England has 4.7 million private rented households, 19% of all households, according to the English Housing Survey.

Rightmove says demand is rebalancing to about 10 enquiries per rental home, still above the 6 to 7 it saw before Covid.

Private rented households, England0.0mEnglish Housing Survey 2024-25

Share of all households0%Same survey

Enquiries per rental home~0Rightmove, FY2025 results

Enquiries per home before Covid6–0Rightmove, same report

MHCLG English Housing Survey (Dec 2025) and Rightmove plc full-year results (Feb 2026). See sources.

03 · The stack map

Letting agent software UK agencies run, job by job

Filter by job. Each card says what the category does and names well-known UK vendors, in no particular order.

Vendors are examples, not recommendations, and many overlap: several CRMs include referencing, property management or AI of their own.

Check what your current contract already includes before adding another subscription.

Winning the landlords in the first place is its own discipline: see landlord lead generation and our guide to online rental valuation tools.

CRMMature

Lettings CRM

The system of record for landlords, applicants, properties and tenancies, with portal feeds and a diary.

→Applicant matching and viewings
→Portal listings and enquiries
→Tenancy and landlord records

Property management software

Runs managed tenancies after move-in: rent, maintenance, compliance and landlord reporting.

→Managed portfolio in one view
→Tenant and landlord portals
→Compliance and certificate tracking

Arthur Online

Read the guide →

TenancyMature

Referencing and tenancy progression

Checks applicants and moves them from accepted offer to signed tenancy.

→Tenant referencing and guarantors
→Contracts and e-signing
→Move-in payments

Goodlord

HomeLet

TenancyMature

Inventory apps

Photo-rich inventories, check-ins, check-outs and mid-term inspections on a phone or tablet.

→Timestamped condition records
→Evidence for deposit disputes
→Inspection reports for landlords

InventoryBase

MoneyMature

Deposit protection

Government-authorised schemes that protect tenancy deposits and resolve disputes.

→Protect the deposit
→Issue prescribed information
→Handle returns and disputes

DPS

mydeposits

TDS

MoneyMature

Rent collection and client accounting

Collects rent, reconciles payments and pays landlords and contractors from client account.

→Automated rent reconciliation
→Landlord statements
→Arrears visibility

PayProp

ManagementEstablished

Maintenance and repair reporting

Tenants report repairs with photos; jobs are triaged and sent to contractors.

→Structured repair reports
→Contractor dispatch
→Job history per property

Fixflo

Read the guide →

MarketingMature

Portals

Where most tenant enquiries still start, fed from your CRM.

→Listings with a fixed advertised rent
→Applicant enquiries
→Tenancy tools on some portals

Rightmove

Zoopla

OnTheMarket

MarketingEstablished

Landlord valuation tools

Instant online valuation widgets that capture landlords’ details on your website.

→Captures landlord leads
→Gives an indicative rent
→Feeds the valuer’s diary

ValPal

Read the guide →

AIEstablished

AI receptionist and enquiry handling

Answers calls and enquiries, qualifies applicants and landlords, books viewings and logs maintenance.

→Evenings, weekends and overflow
→Viewings booked into the diary
→Call summaries written to the CRM

Lettings Quest

Street AI Call Handler

Alto Lead Flow

Read the guide →

Maturity is our editorial read of how widely each use is deployed in UK agencies, not a survey figure. Vendors named are examples, not endorsements.

04 · The law changed the spec

Renters’ Rights Act readiness in your software

The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 is law. Its first big phase went live on 1 May 2026, and the next one lands in December.

Section 21 went on 1 May 2026, and every private assured shorthold tenancy became an assured periodic tenancy with no fixed term.

Any lettings software built around end dates, renewals and fixed-term fees now needs a different model.

The landlord database opens region by region from 15 December 2026, subject to Parliament approving the draft regulations. Our Renters’ Rights Act guide for letting agents covers each phase in depth.

1 May 2026 · In force
Periodic tenancies, no section 21
Fixed terms end; rent bidding and discrimination bans start; rent increases only via Form 4A. Source ↗
31 May 2026 · In force
Information sheet deadline
Existing written tenancies needed the government information sheet; new ones need a written statement of terms. Source ↗
15 Dec 2026 · Coming
Rental property register opens
West Midlands first, then one region a month, under draft regulations still awaiting approval. Source ↗
Not yet set · Coming
Marketing needs registration
A later phase makes it unlawful to market an unregistered property, with identifiers on adverts.
2028 · Coming
Landlord Ombudsman sign-up
Mandatory landlord membership is scheduled for 2028. Source ↗

Dates from legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK guidance, the MHCLG roadmap and Propertymark. See sources.

05 · Test your stack

Eight things your lettings software must now handle

Tick what your current setup does today. Nothing is stored.

These are the day-to-day duties from GOV.UK guidance that land in software: templates, fields, workflows and reminders.

Letting agents can be fined personally for some breaches, so “the system did it” is no defence.

Civil penalties for rental bidding and discrimination run up to £7,000 per breach, and up to £40,000 for the most serious offences.

Ticked0/8

Tick whatever is true of your agency today.

06 · The big decision

All-in-one suite or best of breed?

An all-in-one platform promises one login and one bill. A best-of-breed stack lets you pick the strongest tool for each job and connect them.

Whichever you choose, the connections between systems are where data gets retyped and deadlines get missed. Ask every vendor for its API and integration list in writing.

One vendor

All-in-one suite

Connected tools

Best of breed

Status quo

Spreadsheet and inbox

One login and one support desk

✓

–

✓

Specialist depth per job

Varies by module

✓

–

Data typed once

✓

If integrated

–

Audit trail for the Act

✓

Across systems

–

Answers the phone at 21:00

–

Swipe to compare

07 · What software doesn’t do

Your software sleeps when the office closes

Set your office hours. The strip shows how much of the week a caller reaches voicemail.

Every tool above stores, tracks or reminds. None of them picks up a ringing phone at 19:30 when a tenant has a leak or an applicant wants Saturday’s viewing.

We don’t quote an industry figure for how many lettings calls come out of hours, because no independent one exists. Your own call logs are the honest number.

Hours a week with nobody on the phone

0 of 168

0%of the week unstaffed

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

00:0006:0012:0018:0024:00

StaffedVoicemail, or nobody

Office opens09:00

Office closes17:30

Your hours, your arithmetic: a week has 168 hours. Nothing here is a claim about when enquiries arrive.

08 · The AI layer

Lettings software that answers back

An illustrative maintenance call at 21:40 on a weekday. The property and the caller are examples.

Lettings Quest is an AI voice assistant that answers your lettings line, holds a natural conversation and does the next step: books the viewing, logs the repair or takes the landlord’s details.

It then writes a summary to your CRM, so the morning team starts with a record, not a voicemail. It is designed to work with Reapit, Alto, Street, Jupix and Expert Agent, plus Google and Outlook diaries, via their APIs.

For the maintenance side, see AI property management. For applicants, see how to automate tenant enquiries.

Inbound call · maintenanceTue 21:40 · Lettings line0:00

Illustrative transcript, not a recording of a customer call. Escalation rules are set by each agency.

09 · Changing systems

Switching lettings software without the chaos

Moving a live lettings book is harder than moving sales, because every managed tenancy carries money, deposits and compliance dates.

If your CRM is sound but your phones are the problem, adding an AI layer is a far smaller change than a migration.

01

Step 1

Audit the jobs, not the brands

List every lettings task and which system does it today. Mark where data is typed twice.

02

Step 2

Check the Act first

Periodic tenancies, Form 4A and register IDs are non-negotiable in any new system.

03

Step 3

Clean the data before it moves

Deposit references, certificate dates and landlord bank details need checking by a person.

04

Step 4

Run in parallel for a cycle

Reconcile rent and client account across both systems before you switch off the old one.

05

Step 5

Add the layers last

Referencing, maintenance and AI enquiry handling connect once the core is stable.

10 · Where to start

Which part of your stack needs fixing first?

Two questions. The result points you at the right guide.

For many letting agencies the leak is not the database at all but the phone, the portal inbox or the landlord pipeline.

Question 1 of 2

What frustrates your team most?

11 · Buying well

Five questions before you sign anything

Whoever you buy lettings software from, including us, these questions separate working products from slideware.

Rightmove, for example, added a Section 13 rent-review function to its Tenancy Manager in September 2026, so check whether a tool you already pay for has quietly gained a feature.

01

01 / The Act

Show me a periodic tenancy and a Form 4A rent review

Watch it done live, not described on a slide.

02

02 / Data

What do you read and write, and through which API?

If data doesn’t flow both ways, someone retypes it.

03

03 / Hours

What happens to calls and repairs after 17:30?

Software that only works when staff are in leaves the riskiest calls to voicemail.

04

04 / Contract

What is the notice period and exit cost?

Long lock-ins are common in lettings software. Know yours.

05

05 / Exit

Can I export everything, including history?

Tenancy histories and deposit records must come with you.

FAQ · letting agent software UK

Questions, answered

The things agents ask us first, in plain English.

There is no single best letting agent software; it depends on your portfolio and which jobs you want in one place. Most UK agencies run a lettings CRM such as Reapit, Alto, Street, Jupix or Veco, plus specialists for referencing, inventories, deposits and maintenance. Choose on Renters’ Rights Act support, integrations and exit terms rather than feature lists.

A typical UK letting agency uses a lettings CRM, a referencing and tenancy progression service, an inventory app, a government-authorised deposit scheme, rent collection or client accounting software, a maintenance reporting tool and the property portals. A growing number add an AI layer to answer calls and enquiries.

Neither, strictly. Lettings Quest is an AI voice assistant that sits on top of your existing letting agent software. It answers calls, qualifies applicants and landlords, books viewings and logs maintenance, then writes each call back to your CRM. It does not replace your CRM.

Yes. Since 1 May 2026 private tenancies are periodic with no fixed term, rent increases go through Form 4A at most once a year, and adverts must state a fixed rent. Software built around fixed terms and renewals needs changing, and the landlord register from 15 December 2026 adds new identifiers to store.

It is software that runs routine lettings tasks without someone doing them by hand: replying to enquiries, booking viewings, chasing references, sending reminders and logging repairs. Some of it lives inside your CRM; AI assistants extend it to phone calls, which most workflow tools can’t answer.

Pricing varies widely by vendor, branch count and modules, and most vendors quote on request. Compare the total cost of the stack against the staff time each piece saves.

All the mainstream UK lettings CRMs feed listings to Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket and pull enquiries back. Lettings Quest is designed to work with those portal enquiries too, so a caller asking about a listing is matched to the right property.

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