Rentify is seeking to change how tenants pay rent and how property owners manage rental units in the UAE by connecting payment options with artificial intelligence (AI) tools for collections, renewals and property operations.
The platform allows tenants to make payments through cards, bank transfers and monthly instalments, subject to eligibility and the arrangements available. It also provides payment schedules, reminders and transaction records, while its Earn AI system supports landlords and property managers with collections and lease renewals.
Rajneel Kumar, Co-Founder of Rentify, said the company was launched to address the payment requirements of tenants and the collection and management needs of property owners.
“Dubai Land Department recorded AED 126.4 billion in tenancy contract value in 2025. That gives a sense of the scale, but the problem we set out to solve sits inside each individual home: tenants need payments that fit their cash flow, while owners need reliable collections and well-run properties,” Kumar told Lana in an interview.
“We started Rentify because those needs should work together. A tenant should have more choice over how they pay, and a property manager should have the information and tools to act on that payment.”
Kumar said the company was developing its services around the rental cycle, connecting payment services with Earn AI.
“That thinking now connects our payment services with Earn AI. We are building around the full life of a rental unit, from the first payment to the next renewal,” he said.
Rentify offers monthly rent payments to help UAE tenants manage cash flow
Rentify allows tenants to choose between payment methods, including cards, bank transfers and monthly instalments, depending on eligibility and the arrangements available.
Tenants can also access payment schedules, receive reminders and maintain records of payments made through the platform. Kumar said Rentify also offers a rewards programme linked to rent payments.
“Eligible payments also earn BELONG Coins, which can be used across participating dining, lifestyle and everyday experiences,” he said.
“For me, the value is having control over a major household expense: knowing what is due, understanding the cost of each option and choosing what works for your budget. The experience should be clear enough that tenants do not need to chase someone to understand where they stand.”
According to Kumar, the timing of rental payments remains a challenge for tenants in the UAE, particularly when rent instalments coincide with deposits, moving expenses and agency fees.
“Payment timing can be as difficult as the rent itself. Take an illustrative annual rent of AED 120,000. Four equal payments mean AED 30,000 at a time. Twelve equal payments mean AED 10,000 a month, before any fees,” Kumar said.
“That is a very different cash requirement, particularly when a deposit, moving costs and agency fees fall due together.”
He said tenants also face uncertainty over whether payments have been processed, allocated to the tenancy agreement and recorded by the property owner or manager.
“The second challenge is uncertainty. Has the payment cleared? Has it been matched to the right tenancy? Who do you contact if something changes?” Kumar said. “We are focused on giving tenants both flexibility and a reliable record, so managing rent takes less effort.”
Monthly rent payments do not reduce annual rental costs, says Rentify co-founder
With rental prices rising across Dubai, Kumar said payment flexibility could help tenants manage their cash flow, although paying rent in monthly instalments does not reduce the amount owed over the year.
“We should be precise about affordability. Paying monthly changes when rent leaves your account. It does not, by itself, reduce the annual rent, and any financing or service fees must be considered,” he said.
Kumar used an annual rent of AED 120,000 to explain the difference between quarterly and monthly payments.
“In the AED 120,000 example, moving from quarterly to monthly payments reduces the first rent instalment from AED 30,000 to AED 10,000, before fees. That leaves AED 20,000 less to find at that point, although the remaining rent is still payable later,” he said.
“For a household managing a move, that difference can matter. Our responsibility is to make the options and their total cost clear, so flexibility helps people make a sustainable choice.”
Rentify uses earn AI to support landlords with collections and lease renewals
Beyond tenant payments, Rentify is developing services for landlords and property managers to monitor rental income, manage collections and oversee lease renewals.
Kumar said property vacancies have a financial impact on landlords, making the management of rental units and collection processes an area of focus.
“One vacant month costs roughly 8.3% of a property’s potential annual rent, before maintenance or the cost of finding a new tenant. That simple calculation explains why the quality of day-to-day operations matters so much to an owner,” he said, adding Rentify helps make payments easier to collect and track. “Earn AI supports the work around them, including collection follow-ups and renewals.”
According to Kumar, identifying payment issues and initiating lease renewal discussions can give property management teams time to address matters before they affect rental operations.
“Starting a renewal earlier or identifying an unresolved payment can give a team more time to act,” Kumar said. “The measures I care about are rent collected, days vacant, renewals completed and the cost of managing each unit. Those tell us whether the technology is improving the business.”
Kumar said changing the way rent is paid in the UAE would require payment arrangements to work for both tenants and property owners.
“The shift is towards giving both sides more choice and better visibility. A monthly payment option can help a tenant manage cash flow, but it also has to fit the owner’s collection process,” he said. “Otherwise, you have improved one part of the experience and created more work elsewhere.”
He added that payment flexibility must be connected to the systems landlords use to monitor transactions, reconcile payments and manage collections.
“Our role is to connect payment options with the records, reconciliation and follow-up that make them practical. Changing an established market takes more than offering an app,” Kumar said.
“It requires a system that property owners trust enough to adopt and tenants find useful enough to keep using.”
Earn AI focuses on intelligence, rent collections and lease renewals
Rentify is also using AI to support property management processes, with Earn AI covering intelligence, collections and renewals.
Kumar said the role of AI should be measured by whether it helps property management teams complete tasks and resolve issues rather than simply generating notifications.
“I judge AI by whether a useful piece of work gets completed. A reminder has limited value if the payment has already arrived and nobody has reconciled it. A renewal alert has limited value if the tenant’s earlier conversation is missing,” he said.
According to Kumar, Earn AI is being developed around information relating to rental units, tenancy agreements, payments and communication histories, while people remain responsible for decisions requiring judgement.
“Earn AI’s first three workflows cover intelligence, collections and renewals. We are building them around a shared understanding of the unit, its lease, its payments and its communication history, with people retaining control over decisions that need judgement,” he said.
“The test is practical: did the payment get matched, did the renewal move forward, and how much work did the team still have to do?”
Earn AI operates across 13,000 rental units representing over $250 million in annual rent
By September 2026, Earn AI was operating across 13,000 rental units representing more than US$250 million in annual rent, according to Kumar.
The figure represents the annual rental value associated with the portfolios using Earn AI rather than revenue generated by Rentify.
Kumar said one of the challenges in introducing rent payment technology to the UAE market has been gaining the trust of tenants and property owners.
“The hardest part is earning trust in a process that affects someone’s home and someone else’s income. Owners need to understand how payments will be received and reconciled. Tenants need to understand the cost and what happens if something goes wrong,” he said.
He added that implementing the technology requires integration with property management processes, handling exceptions and ensuring responsibilities are understood.
“That makes implementation as important as the product. We have to fit into existing workflows, handle exceptions and make responsibilities clear,” Kumar said.
“By September 2026, Earn AI was live across 13,000 rental units representing more than US$250 million in annual rent. That is the rent associated with those portfolios.”
He said managing operations across that number of rental units places responsibility on the company to ensure the system performs according to customer expectations.
UAE rental market expected to see greater integration of payments, AI and property management
Looking ahead to the next five years, Kumar expects the UAE rental market to see closer integration between payment services, property operations and resident services.
He said tenants would increasingly expect digital payment options, while property owners would seek information about rental income, costs and decisions relating to their units.
“I expect the next five years to bring much closer connections between payments, property operations and resident service. More tenants will expect flexible digital payment options. More owners will expect a clear picture of each unit’s income, costs and upcoming decisions,” Kumar said.
He added that managing property portfolios through manual processes would become more difficult as the number of units under management increases.
“As portfolios grow, managing every follow-up manually becomes harder. AI can help teams keep up, provided it has the right information, clear permissions and a record of its actions,” he said, adding companies using AI for property management would need to demonstrate the impact of their systems on operations, including the time taken to resolve issues, the completion of tasks and service delivery.
“Our ambition is for more of the routine work to happen reliably in the background.”
Rentify eyes GCC expansion as it develops rental payment and property management services
Rentify is considering expansion beyond the UAE into other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets as it develops its rental payment and property management services.
Kumar said the company’s priority is to connect payments, collections, renewals and resident services throughout the rental cycle while giving property owners and managers information about operations.
“Our priority is to make Rentify more useful across the full rental relationship. That means connecting payments, collections, renewals and resident service around each unit, and making the results visible to the people responsible for it,” he said.
According to Kumar, rental markets across the GCC face payment and property management challenges that could create opportunities for Rentify’s services. However, he said expansion would need to account for regulatory requirements, customer behaviour and partnerships in each market.
“There is a clear opportunity across the GCC, where similar payment and operational challenges exist. But expansion has to respect local requirements and customer behaviour,” Kumar said. “We want to carry a proven way of working into each market, supported by the right local relationships.”
Kumar concluded by saying the company’s longer-term ambition is to use technology to automate more of the work involved in managing rental properties while retaining human oversight of decisions.
