A California leasing startup is landing in Boston.
Fueled by $30 million in new funding, San Francisco-based Landing has just opened up its fully furnished studio and one-bedroom apartments for rent across the Boston area.
Founder and CEO Bill Smith describes Landing as a "membership for living." He declines to compare it to other co-living startups, though: The main differentiating factor is that Landing mostly leases out one-bedroom apartments for single professionals, rather than renting room by room. (Co-living startup Bungalow has the market on that in Boston, having launched here last April.)
Smith, a veteran of the startup Shipt, founded Landing just last year based on his own experience trying to rent an apartment in San Francisco.
"When I was scaling Shipt, I moved my family to San Francisco in 2016 and experienced firsthand all the pain points of getting established in a new city: finding the right apartment, getting utilities set up, furniture, all that stuff," Smith said. "During that time, I filed that problem away as one to potentially solve in the future. Renting is supposed to be all about freedom, flexibility and convenience. I didn't really experience any of that."
Landing's ideal renter is what Smith calls a "mobile professional," someone who moves for work with some frequency and wants the convenience of a flexible lease—and a furnished apartment. Landing now operates in nine markets, including Boston. The minimum stay in Boston is 30 nights.
Landing has several studio and one-bedroom apartments available for rent in Boston beginning this month around the North End, Charlestown and Cambridge. Rents run about $3,000 to $4,000 a month. For comparison, Zumper’s January 2020 National Rent Report put Boston's median one-bedroom rent at $2,590. Landing charges an annual $199 membership fee on top of that, which gives potential renters access to Landing apartments in all of its markets: Austin, Birmingham, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and Washington, along with Boston.
"I love Boston. It's a great city," Smith said. "It's a city that definitely attracts a lot of mobile professionals and people that we think are a perfect fit for Landing, and Landing is a perfect fit for their lives."
