Movebubble chief executive Aidan Rushby has underlined the importance of agents to the success of his renting app.

The app, which lets tenants book viewings and pay a holding deposit to agents through the software and send instant messages to negotiators, initially launched in 2014 with a focus on private landlords, but this has since changed.

Rushby, a former branch manager for letting agents Ocean, told EYE: “The mission has always been to make life easier for renters. That has never changed.

“It was never going to work if we couldn’t build a model that made life easier for agents. We have managed to achieve that.”

He says that with the fee ban coming in, technology can help lettings agents save money when it comes to finding and checking tenants for their landlords.

Rushby said 30% to 40% of agents in London are now signed up to the app, explaining: “A lot of agents are seeing this as being more efficient and enabling them to become more mobile.”

Asked how the function of messaging within the app is different to communicating on email, Rushby said: “There is no framework in email to make a payment and you would need to go back over old messages to find information.

“Movebubble stores everything like tenant details in one place, so it is easy to access.”

Agents would still need to do reference checks but Rushby said a lot of the information needed would already have been input on the app.

Tenant viewing requests and messages are sent to letting agents through an instant message on the app that would come up as an alert on their mobile phone.

Rushby said: “Millennials more than ever are changing the way they interact with services from Uber to Deliveroo.

“Renters can view property, book viewings instantly on the platform and chat and secure a place to live. They can then leave a review and rating for the agent.

“There is a subset of older agents that may not like this technology, but the majority of negotiators are aged 20 to 35 so would be communicating with people of their own generation.”

He said the fastest viewing booking has been 30 seconds which took place at 7am one morning, while the latest an offer has been received was at midnight.

Rushby said the app takes an £80 commission from each transaction once a renter moves.

He said there were 40,000 downloads in 2016 and he is anticipating a record 10,000 this month.