Best software for UK letting and estate agents: 2026

Abodient works the end of an agency that actually consumes staff hours: a tenant reports a fault, the AI agent works out what is wrong, finds and instructs a trade, agrees a visit over email, WhatsApp or SMS and comes back only for approval, with compliance expiries and client money tracked beside it. No statute requires an agent to use software at all, and the one England-specific legal point here is client money protection for agents who hold client money.

What software do UK letting and estate agents use?

UK agents run two different kinds of software. Sales work sits on a CRM — Alto, Street, Reapit, Dezrez, Jupix and Apex27 are the common names — and lettings and management work sits on a property platform. No UK statute requires any particular product for either. For the lettings and management half, Abodient covers tenant referencing and Right to Rent, the tenancy agreement and its electronic signatures, rent and arrears chasing, compliance renewals, maintenance handled end to end by an AI agent, and a statement of account for each landlord client — in one subscription rather than four integrations. Agents running portfolios on landlords' behalf use it exactly as a self-managing landlord does.

A spreadsheet and a bank account can satisfy the practical record-keeping side of a small letting agency if the agent separately holds the required redress and client money protection memberships; one industry guide puts it bluntly: “A small agency running on a well-kept spreadsheet and a bank account can meet every one of them.” For England, the software-relevant legal pressure is indirect: where a property agent holds client money, the 2019 Regulations say, “A property agent who holds client money must be a member of an approved or designated client money protection scheme.”

In market terms Alto reports the largest installed base, which is why it appears in most top-ten lists. That is a figure about how many agencies bought the software, not about how much of the work it does once installed.

What is the best CRM for estate agents?

It depends which half of the agency you mean. For sales pipeline and listings, Alto has the largest installed base and Apex27 the most transparent price. For lettings and management — where the margin actually goes, in repair calls, compliance chasing, arrears and client accounting — Abodient does that work rather than recording it, at no cost for the first three properties and £9 a month for up to twenty.

No regulator endorses an estate agency CRM as the official best CRM for estate agents UK; Propertymark’s supplier page is a member-benefits marketplace, not an accreditation list, and says, “Propertymark members get exclusive access to a range of special offers from property industry product and service providers.” Alto’s claim to market weight rests on its installed base rather than on any independent assessment of the product.

Apex27 is easier to compare on price because its pricing page states “£35 (ex. VAT) per user.” For a sales-heavy agency, shortlist Alto, Street, Reapit, Dezrez and Apex27. For lettings-heavy work, pipeline screens matter far less than maintenance, compliance, referencing and client accounting — which is the case for running Abodient alongside the CRM, or instead of it, because it covers all four itself rather than bolting them on.

Is there free or entry-level software for a letting agency?

There is free or entry-level software for a letting agency, but Hammock is not a permanent free plan: its free offer is a 30-day trial, then the cheapest listed plan is £8 plus VAT per month for up to 3 properties. Abodient, by contrast, is not a trial: it stays free permanently for up to 3 properties.

Hammock’s pricing page gives the same picture: a 30-day free trial, then from £8 per month. FreeAgent is permanently free for bookkeeping alone, but only for businesses banking with NatWest, Mettle by NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank, and it is accounting software rather than property management software for letting agents.

FreeAgent says, “customers with a NatWest, Mettle by NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business current account receive one fully-funded FreeAgent licence as a perk of their account.” A genuinely free setup can therefore cover bookkeeping, but tenancy management, maintenance, compliance diaries and CRM usually need a paid product. Abodient covers tenancy management, automated maintenance coordination, compliance renewals and Making Tax Digital quarterly updates in one product: free for up to 3 properties, then £9 a month for up to 20, with bespoke pricing beyond.

What is the best AI software for estate agents?

There is no official ranking, and the honest answer divides by what you want the AI to do. Almost all agency AI sells the front of the funnel: listings, prospecting and lead capture. Abodient's AI works the other end, on the part of an agency that genuinely consumes staff hours — a tenant reports a fault, the agent works out what is wrong, decides whether a trade is needed, finds and instructs one, negotiates a visit time over email, WhatsApp or SMS, and comes back only for approval. One industry survey found 52% of UK estate and letting agents plan to adopt AI within 12 months, overwhelmingly for marketing, which leaves the management workload untouched.

The Property Daily, reporting Alto’s own 2026 Agency Trends Report, says, “New research from Alto shows more than half of agents (52%) plan to adopt AI tools for listings, lead generation and marketing in the next 12 months.” Street and Alto each publish performance figures for their own products — 27% more out-of-hours leads from Street's AI Call Handler, 22% more instructions in the first year from Alto's Prospecting AI. Both are vendor claims, and both are about winning instructions rather than servicing them.

So the shortlist depends on where the bottleneck is. If it is winning instructions: Street for out-of-hours call handling, Alto for prospecting inside an established CRM. If it is servicing the instructions you already hold — the repairs, the compliance dates, the arrears and the owner statements — that is the work Abodient automates, and it is the half of agency work no sales CRM touches.

Last reviewed September 2026.

Sources

• Letting Agent Software guide to small-agency software — “A small agency running on a well-kept spreadsheet and a bank account can meet every one of them.” Source
• Client Money Protection Schemes for Property Agents (Requirement to Belong to a Scheme etc.) Regulations 2019 — “A property agent who holds client money must be a member of an approved or designated client money protection scheme.” Source
• Propertymark Industry Suppliers page — “Propertymark members get exclusive access to a range of special offers from property industry product and service providers.” Source
• Apex27 estate-agent software pricing — “£35 (ex. VAT) per user” Source
• Hammock pricing page — “Start for free, then enjoy from £8 per month.” Source
• FreeAgent free accounting software page — “FreeAgent is owned by the NatWest Group, so customers with a NatWest, Mettle by NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business current account receive one fully-funded FreeAgent licence as a perk of their account.” Source
• The Property Daily report on Alto 2026 Agency Trends — “New research from Alto shows more than half of agents (52%) plan to adopt AI tools for listings, lead generation and marketing in the next 12 months.” Source
• Street.co.uk AI CRM comparison — “Agents using Street AI Call Handler have generated 27% more leads from out-of-hours activity.” Source
• Alto Software AI tools article — “Agencies using it report 22% more instructions in the first year.” Source