Spain 
Italy 
Greece 
CTT to Enter the Rental Market Launching Portal Where Owners Can Manage Their Properties
28 June 2018
The postal agency is preparing to launch an online platform where property owners can collect rents from their tenants. A name has already been given to the new service: “Income +.” The new project will help to diversify the company’s operations.
CTT is preparing to launch a new online service aimed at the rental market, ECO learned. The idea is to create an internet portal where property owners can manage their properties, in another effort by Francisco Lacerda’s administration to diversify the company’s business lines.
Officially, the company is not commenting. “CTT is constantly developing innovative and dynamic new products and services, taking into account the needs of the market and customers. When we have news for the market, we will announce it,” an official source of the postal operator stated.
Nevertheless, the company has already registered the “Renda+ (Income+)” brand at the National Institute of Intellectual Property (INPI) with the following Nice classifications, which define the type of service in question: 36 – Financial services, electronic financial transaction services, services payment processing, acceptance of payment of real estate rental invoices, online payment services for invoices, collection of real estate rentals; 42 – Provision of temporary access to non-downloadable online software for the processing of electronic payments, namely real estate rentals.
Also, the domain www.rendamais.pt has already been acquired by CTT, although the site is still offline.
That is, all indications are that CTT will release the project in short order, at a moment when the Portuguese real estate market is experiencing a time of strong dynamism.
On the other hand, by the type of registration submitted to the INPI, it seems that the online platform being developed by CTT will also enable tenants to use the portal to pay rent.
Still unknown is the business model that will be used by CTT, namely how they can extract revenues from this new service for collecting and paying rents. Through its Payshop network, now a part of the CTT Bank, the company already provides a payment service for telecommunications bills and electricity.
When entering the rental market with this new service, the door is open for CTT to explore possible synergies between their financial services and the new rental insurance provided for in the New Generation of Housing Policies for the protection of property owners (in case of tenant default), tenants (in case of sudden loss of income) and real estate (in case of unexpected damage).
Lacerda has sought to accelerate the diversification of CTT’s business, which is currently highly dependent on two segments that have been in decline for several months – the distribution of letters and the sale of state products. In the first quarter, CTT registered a 50% drop in profit to 5.4 million euros.
Just two weeks ago, CTT announced a joint venture with Sonae for the creation of an e-commerce platform, in a project that will have an initial investment between 10 and 15 million euros.
Original Story: Economia Online – Alberto Teixeira
Translation: Richard Turner