What Is a Reverse Marketplace and Why Should Commercial Landlords Care?
A reverse marketplace inverts the traditional property advertising model — instead of landlords listing what they have available, occupiers post what they need. This guide explains how reverse marketplaces work, why they produce better-qualified tenant enquiries than traditional portals, and what they mean for commercial landlords and agents looking to fill vacant space.
Traditional commercial property marketing works in one direction: the landlord advertises what they have, and buyers or tenants search through what is available. This model has served the market for decades — and it has real limitations that become more apparent as the market becomes more data-rich.
A reverse marketplace inverts this. Rather than landlords listing what they have, occupiers post what they need. Landlords and agents browse these requirements and respond directly to the businesses that are looking for space like theirs. The demand is listed, not the supply.
This is not a theoretical concept. It is a working model, and for commercial landlords looking to fill vacancies faster and more efficiently, it produces materially different results from portal advertising.
Why the traditional model has limitations
The traditional portal model has a structural inefficiency: the landlord is advertising to everyone, including the majority of people who are not suitable tenants for their specific property.
A logistics operator with 50,000 sq ft on the M1 browsing a portal that shows every available commercial unit in England has to filter extensively to find what is relevant. A landlord advertising a 50,000 sq ft logistics unit on a portal reaches every browser, including those looking for 500 sq ft town centre offices who will scroll past without any friction.
Portal advertising produces two types of enquiry: relevant enquiries from occupiers who happen to be looking at the same time your property is available, and irrelevant enquiries from browsers who have not qualified their requirement carefully. The ratio between the two depends on the portal, the property type, and the quality of the listing — but few commercial agents would claim that portal enquiry quality is consistently high.
How a reverse marketplace works
In a reverse marketplace, the occupier posts a requirement. This requirement describes, in detail, what they need: property type, location, size range, budget, specification, lease term, and timeline. They are committing to a search — not casually browsing.
Landlords and agents who subscribe to the platform can browse these requirements and filter them by criteria that match their available property. When a requirement matches a property they hold, they respond directly to the occupier through the platform.
Every conversation that results from this process begins with a landlord who has read the occupier's specific requirement and believes they have a genuine match. There is no cold calling, no speculative brochures, and no explaining to an uninterested prospect why your property might work for them. The occupier has already told you what they need. Your response is to a specific, articulated brief.
Why this produces better quality leads
The quality difference between a portal enquiry and an active occupier requirement is significant:
Portal enquiry: A business browsing commercial listings who clicks on your property because it looks interesting. They may or may not be actively searching. They may or may not have defined their requirement. They may or may not be in a position to commit.
Active occupier requirement: A business that has decided they need premises, has taken the time to define exactly what they need (location, size, budget, specification), and has posted this requirement publicly to receive responses from landlords and agents with matching space. This is a business that is in market, qualified, and ready to engage.
The conversion rate from enquiry to viewing, and from viewing to offer, is consistently higher for active requirements than for portal enquiries — because the occupier has done the qualifying work themselves before making contact.
What landlords and agents can see on RE:match
When you subscribe to RE:match as a landlord or agent, you can browse all active occupier requirements and filter by:
- Property type — office, industrial, warehouse, retail, leisure, land
- Location — by region, county, town, or postcode radius
- Size range — minimum and maximum sq ft
- Budget — maximum annual rent
- Tenure — to let, for sale, or either
- Use class — Class E, B2, B8, and others
- Timeline — when the occupier needs to be in occupation
Each requirement shows you what the business is looking for in detail. You can save requirements that interest you, set up alerts for new requirements matching your criteria, and message occupiers directly when you have a property that fits their brief.
The occupier's experience — why they post genuine requirements
Understanding why occupiers use RE:match helps explain why the requirements you see are genuine. Occupiers post requirements because:
- The best commercial space is often not publicly advertised — posting a requirement reaches landlords who have not yet listed their available space
- It puts them in control — rather than searching what landlords have chosen to advertise, they describe what they need and receive targeted responses
- It saves time — every response they receive is from a landlord or agent who has read their brief and believes they have a match
- It costs nothing — RE:match is free for occupiers
The result is that occupier requirements on RE:match represent genuine, active demand. They are not casual browsers — they are businesses that have committed to a search and have taken the step of publicly posting what they need.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is RE:match different from a portal like CoStar or Rightmove Commercial?
A portal advertises available properties from landlords to searching tenants. RE:match advertises active requirements from tenants to available landlords. On a portal, landlords push information out and wait for enquiries. On RE:match, landlords browse active demand and respond to the requirements that match what they have. The direction of the information flow is inverted.
Does RE:match replace my existing marketing approach?
No. RE:match complements portal advertising, agent marketing, and direct approaches. For a vacant commercial property, maintaining a portal listing while also monitoring RE:match for active requirements in your area maximises your market coverage. Some landlords find that RE:match requirements produce more qualified conversations than portal enquiries; others use both in parallel.
What kind of requirements appear on RE:match?
RE:match carries requirements from businesses across the full range of commercial property types — offices (from small suites to large corporate headquarters requirements), industrial and logistics units, retail premises, and other commercial uses. Requirements come from businesses across the whole of the UK.
RE:match gives landlords and agents direct access to active occupier requirements — businesses that have already described exactly what they need. Browse live requirements and respond directly at rematch.co.uk.
About RE:match
RE:match is the UK's reverse commercial property marketplace — where business owners post what space they need and landlords respond. Founded by a RICS-qualified chartered surveyor, our platform is built around how commercial property deals really get done.
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