Speed renting - it's like speed dating for landlords and tenants
Friday 19th December 2008

You've probably heard of speed dating. It's where singles gather at a venue and get the chance to "date" a large number of people in a relaxed atmosphere, one after the other, for anything from three to ten minutes. At the end of the event, you let the organisers know who you'd like to date again and if that person feels the same way about you contact details are exchanged.

Speed renting is just like speed dating, but involves both sides of the property rental equation - landlords and tenants.

A social event is organised whereby those looking for tenants can meet a whole range of potential candidates and those looking to rent a room or a property can do likewise with landlords.

Is it a viable idea?

Well it seems to be working for Liz McLean in New Zealand who stages speedrenting events in the capital Wellington (population 380,000) and Queenstown (a resort town with a population of around 20,000). According to her website she should also be holding them in Christchurch and Auckland by now and is looking to set up franchise operations in both New Zealand and Australia too.

In November, The Daily Telegraph did a feature on speed renting in London and an event organised by Easyroommate. So it's here in the UK too and should work in any city or town with a large enough rental community (I can imagine it being hugely successful in university towns and cities for example).

Maybe speed renting would work where you live. Or maybe it's something that you could take nationally, either as a company or via some form of franchising.

If speed renting sounds like the business idea for you, or it's already something you're involved in and want to develop, you may be interested in purchasing the domain names speedrenting.co.uk, speedrental.co.uk, speedrentals.co.uk and speedrent.co.uk.

I'm selling them as a package for £5,000 and might be willing to split them if you only wanted to buy one or two.

If interested email me at george@businessideas.co.uk.