A new crop of fintechs is exploring growth opportunities in pay-later lending for monthly rent payments as inflation pinches consumers.

Pay-later loans are increasingly available for monthly housing payments as financial technology companies seek growth by responding to consumers’ affordability struggles.

While the buy now, pay later market has traditionally focused on providing consumers with financing at retail merchants for discretionary items, a newer batch of companies sees profit potential in tailoring loans to rental payments and other monthly bills such as utilities, medical care and telephone service.

A variety of players have moved into the pay-later rental arena in recent years, aiming to fill financial gaps between consumers’ monthly rents and their incomes, as the increases in the former outpace the latter.

The rise of these businesses is “really revealing in what they say about the state of affordability around life essentials,” said Ariel Nelson, a senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center. “These products are really appealing because people are desperate.”

Companies seeking to develop a market in the rental area include RealPage, an apartment management software firm, which last year bought Livble, a startup that offers renters flexible payment options. Another is New York-based Flexible Finance, known as Flex, which lets consumers split their rent, mortgage or other monthly bill payments.

A third rent-focused fintech is Bilt Technologies, which offers a payments and loyalty program aimed at attracting rent and mortgage payments to its co-branded credit cards. In addition to points for rent and everyday spending on its cards, New York-based Bilt issues points for homeowners’ association and condominium fee payments.

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