RentBC begins
Acro Media’s Perl-built platform launches under its new, easier-to-remember name as an early province-wide online rental network.
A British Columbia original
Helping people find home since 1998.
RentBC arrived when searching for a rental online was still a new idea. More than a quarter-century later, the familiar name and hand-drawn identity are back—connected to the reach and experience of the OCH101 network.
The conversation that started it
“There has got to be a better way.”
Richard Brown and founding partner Jason were working in sales at Shaw Cable when Jason came in after an exhausting search for a place to rent with his girlfriend.
“There has got to be a better way to find a place than the newspapers.”
“There is—the internet.”
The connection that made it possible
At almost exactly the right moment, Shaw had installed a T1 connection at a local design shop called Acro Media. Fibre representative Deana Taylor told Richard and Jason that the five young guys behind it seemed exceptionally talented.
They met with the Acro Media team the very next day and—somewhat grudgingly—handed over the first of many $15,000 deposits. Development began in Perl, one of the defining programming languages of the early web.
From BC Accommodations to RentBC
The project was first called BC Accommodations. It did not take long to discover that “accommodations” was difficult for many people to spell. The answer was shorter, clearer and far more memorable: RentBC.
That simple exchange at Shaw Cable became a name—and a province-wide rental network—that launched the following year.
Proving the idea
First came the renters. Then came the business model.
$20 One month. One simple flat fee.
RentBC began as a free service because its founders had not yet answered the most important question: who was the customer—the renter or the landlord? The free launch proved that people would search for housing online. The answer soon became clear: renters needed free access, while landlords would pay to reach them. The first price was a simple $20 flat fee for a one-month listing.
Through Richard’s work at Shaw Cable, the team knew a landlord with roughly a dozen apartment buildings across British Columbia. RentBC offered to advertise the properties online in exchange for a modest 200-square-foot office. It was an early vote of confidence in an idea neither side knew would work.
It did. The landlord did not yet own a computer; when the company was eventually encouraged to purchase one and manage its own listings, the connection was dial-up. Based on the domain records the founders examined at the time, they could find no earlier dedicated online rental service—making RentBC, to the best of their knowledge, the first of its kind.
Beyond the newspaper classified
At the time, many landlords did not own computers or use the Internet. The rental industry was conservative and deeply committed to newspaper classifieds and other established forms of print advertising. A listing in Kelowna’s Daily Courier primarily reached people already living in Kelowna and the surrounding area.
RentBC removed those geographic and physical limits. A landlord could reach renters throughout British Columbia, across Canada and anywhere else someone might be planning a move. Online listings could include longer descriptions, multiple photographs and more useful property information without being constrained by the size and cost of a newspaper advertisement.
For landlords, the Internet dramatically reduced the cost of reaching a much larger audience. For renters, it became possible to explore a future home before arriving in the city. What now feels ordinary was, in 1998, an entirely new way to connect people with housing.
From the archives — July 7, 1999
RentBC makes the business news.
The Daily Courier profiled RentBC partners Jason Leonard, Richard Brown and Long Quang as the service prepared to expand from its Kelowna test market across British Columbia.
The article recorded as many as 3,000 monthly visitors during testing, free access for renters and an early plan to give landlords the software to create and manage their own online listings.
View the full-resolution clipping
Online rentals before it was ordinary
Built in BC for British Columbians.
RentBC was created to give renters one straightforward place to find housing across British Columbia—and to give private landlords and property managers a practical way to reach them.
The original site combined long-term rentals, student housing, local services and vacation properties under one memorable roof. Its illustrated homes, skyline and animated navigation became part of a distinctly early-web identity that people still recognize.
That same independent spirit continues today: useful local connections, broad access to housing information and technology that serves real people.
Our journey
From dial-up to today.
The network grows
Housing, student rentals, local services and recreational properties connect through a recognizable family of sites.
A campus focus
Off-Campus Housing 101 expands the model through school-focused housing networks serving students, landlords and institutions.
A familiar name returns
RentBC is thoughtfully rebuilt for modern devices while preserving the illustrations, personality and BC roots that made it memorable.
What still matters
The technology changes. The purpose doesn’t.
RentBC remains focused on making housing discovery clearer, more local and more human.
Built around place
British Columbia is not one rental market. Our regional approach helps people begin with the communities that matter to them.
Open to housing providers
Private landlords and professional managers both deserve a direct, understandable way to reach prospective renters.
Connected experience
The OCH101 network adds established student-housing reach, institutional relationships and more than two decades of operating knowledge.
Find your place in British Columbia.
The original rental network has returned. Start with a city, region, campus or housing type.
Search RentBC