OnTheMarket agrees partnership with Canopy

OnTheMarket has struck a 12-month exclusive partnership with Canopy, a tenant referencing platform.

The property portal, which is majority-owned by estate agents, said the commercial partnership would provide its agents with free tenant referencing, including employment and landlord references. Canopy also provides credit history, identify verification and anti-money laundering information.

Jason Tebb, chief executive, said: "Our partnership is a direct result of feedback from our agents.

"With the private rental sector currently estimated to comprise almost 6m households in the UK and growing, this offers us the opportunity to create more leads and value for our advertisers."

Canopy chief executive Tahir Farooqui, who founded the business in 2018, said: "We believe our digital and mobile-first platform is the most sophisticated solution for everyone involved in the rental transaction, and we’re delighted to be working with OnTheMarket to bring this to a wider audience."

Roddy Davidson, analyst at Shore Capital, said: "Today’s announcement represents another positive step in delivering against the company’s strategy of providing agents with a holistic offering characterised by regular product and service innovations.

"More broadly, we believe that OnTheMarket’s potential in the new homes market, commitment to fair pricing, ability to offer equity and the presence of an experienced, entrepreneurial and ambitious management team bodes well for the further. We continue to see considerable scope for the company to drive attractive medium-term organic growth."

OnTheMarket is a house stock at Shore Capital, which has an 83p target price on the stock.

As at 1000 BST, shares in AIM-listed OnTheMarket were ahead 2% at 84.48p