Zumper Launches Instarent® To Support Renters During COVID: Apartments Can Be Reserved And Fully Leased In 24 Hours

SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Zumper, the fastest growing rental marketplace in the U.S., announced today the launch of Instarent®, a digital leasing solution that enables renters to safely find and lease apartments all in one place on Zumper.com. Instarent gives renters and property owners a streamlined virtual leasing process and reduces the amount of time it takes to sign a lease, removing all need for physical interaction. Renters can find, reserve, apply, and lease apartments all within 24 hours.

Zumper aims to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. In response to COVID-19 social distancing requirements, Zumper has quickly released new features that give property owners the capability to list properties for rent with professional photography, video content, and virtual touring capabilities. Renters can make a speedy, yet informed decision about their future rental property all from the comfort of their home. With the 'Reserve now' feature, renters can take an apartment off the market, to beat the competition, and apply to rent the property with one-click. Instarent eliminates any uncertainties that come with finding and leasing a new home in high demand markets, like Chicago and New York.

"Housing is an absolutely essential need, and we are seeing that even in light of COVID, people are needing to lease properties or find a new home," said Vishal Makhijani, Zumper's President and COO. "We felt an incredible responsibility to fastrack our product solutions to meet the needs of our users immediately. By releasing a fully digital leasing experience on both sides of our marketplace, we can help both renters and property owners rent properties quickly while staying safe during shelter-in-place orders and for when they are lifted."

Zumper has created a way to do it all within just 24 hours. Renters in Chicago and New York City can now filter their home search on Zumper for Instarent properties, and when they find the right home for them, they can reserve it immediately. Once reserved, the renter will be first in line to lease the apartment, pending their approval and online credit check.

The new normal calls for virtual leasing. Zumper's data team tracks rental trends to educate renters and property owners on the current state of the rental market and adapt and innovate its products to meet market needs. Since the start of Q1 2020, Zumper has revealed:

• The rental industry took a hit the last 2 weeks of March. Google search volumes for apartments for rent were down anywhere between 10%-30% and properties stayed on the market 29% longer post-outbreak.
• Comparing data from the last week of March to the first week of April, Zumper started to see the market activity rebound with an increase in demand overall, as Google Search volume grew 10% and Zumper traffic climbed 12%.
• In the first week of April, Zumper saw the lowest median rent price messaged for one-bedrooms ever, which was $870. To give some perspective, the national median one-bedroom rent was $1,221 in our most recent National Rent Report.
• 80% of renters are likely to lease a property that they have only toured virtually

Instarent is immediately available in Chicago and New York City with plans to expand to more cities over the course of 2020.

To learn more about Instarent or find properties to reserve now, go to zumper.com/instarent.

Looking to enable Instarent on your rental property? Go to signup.zumper.com/instarent-property

About Zumper:
Zumper aims to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel. With 13 million visits per month, Zumper's free online and mobile rental search marketplace has become the largest startup in the industry. Headquartered in San Francisco, Zumper has more than 200 employees across the U.S. and acquired PadMapper in 2016. The company has raised a total of $150 million in funding from investors including e.ventures, Greycroft, Dawn Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Goodwater Capital, Axel Springer, Stereo Capital, the Blackstone Group, Breyer Capital, Foxhaven Asset Management, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, NEA, CrunchFund, xfund, Divco West, MMC Technology Ventures, Scott Cook, and the DeWilde Family Trust. Learn more at Zumper.com or email [email protected]. 

Interested in joining the Zumper team? Check out open positions here.

SOURCE Zumper

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