CheckRent
- Client project
CheckRent is a free rental search for UK renters. It puts listings from Rightmove and OnTheMarket in one list and compares each rent with the official ONS average for the area, with council tax and total monthly cost estimates.
Technologies
- Python
- FastAPI
- JavaScript
- AWS WAF
- Web Scraping
- Government Data API
The Challenge
UK renters struggle to compare properties across multiple marketplaces, with no easy way to assess if a listing is fairly priced. Government rent data exists but is buried in hard-to-access datasets, and council tax information requires separate lookups for each property.
The Solution
A search by postcode, property type and bedrooms that returns listings from Rightmove and OnTheMarket in one list. Each listing gets a deal rating, from Great Deal to Expensive, based on how its rent compares with the ONS Private Rent Index average for the area. Listings also show an estimated council tax band, an estimated monthly cost with bills and any price changes over time.
UX & Design
The home page is a single search form with four fields, one of them an optional box for your current rent. Results open with an area summary and, if you entered your rent, a rating for it, followed by listing cards with a colour-coded deal badge. Price history opens in a modal dialog, and the search is kept in the URL, so a result page can be shared or bookmarked.
Development
Results come from the site's own JSON API, which returns listings together with ONS rent data, council tax rates by band and rent history back to 2015. Rent trends are drawn with Chart.js. Results also show local crime figures from data.police.uk and benefit claimant counts from NOMIS. The front end is one page with client-side routing for search, area rankings and guides.
Key Features
- Search by postcode, property type and number of bedrooms
- Deal rating for every listing against the ONS average rent
- Estimated council tax band and total monthly cost with bills
- Price drop and price rise tracking with a price history view
- Rent trend chart and average rent by bedrooms and property type
- Local crime and benefit claimant figures for the searched area
- UK rent rankings by local authority, sortable by cheapest, most expensive and fastest changing
- Plain-English renter's guides on rights, deposits and rent data
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