A new free-to-list ‘lifestyle’ app that aims to be bigger than Rightmove says it will pay lettings agents when renters switch utilities.

The Bunch was set up by graduates fed up of being taken advantage of by utility companies; it began life as Easy Student Living in Leeds in 2016 but has now expanded its geography and activities. It has some 3,000 renting customers and says it aims to work with anyone in shared accommodation. 

Chief executive Elliott Herrod-Taylor says that would-be tenants swipe through properties listed on the app while the technology takes on board the users’ likes and dislikes. This allows the app to refine the choice it gives the tenant and matches similar prospective sharers. 

At the heart of the company’s strategy, it says, is to try to cater for the same client from undergraduate renter to when they buy their first home, or young person navigating the rental property maze.

It finds tenants for letting agents free of charge and pays agents £20 when a property switches utilities.

The Bunch says its revenues are already nearing £2m it is now wants to expand into Leeds, Manchester, Cardiff and Bristol “and is on the search for forward looking letting agents in these areas.”

“It’s really around creating a relationship when a tenant is young and they are looking for their first time and guiding them through that process” says Herrod-Taylor.

“And then once they’ve once they’ve found the perfect house, we look after them, we do them a good deal on the energy we make sure that they are only liable. And then we repeat that process.”

He says The Bunch will also give agents not only the chance to earn extra income but also provide them with leads.