Rent payment history might be an uncommon amenity, but the process is gaining popularity among some renters eager for a foothold in the mortgage market.
In response to a survey by consumer credit agency TransUnion, 13 percent of consumers now self-report rent payments to credit agencies in 2025, up from 11 percent in 2024.
The trend got a boost in July when the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept mortgages scored by the VantageScore 4.0 model, which includes alternate data sources like rent and utility payments.
The practice of rent reporting has been boosted largely by consumers this year, according to TransUnion. Participation among property managers, for their part, decreased to 44 percent in 2025 from 48 percent in 2024 — the first such drop since the agency started studying rent reporting four years ago.
The analysis reinforces the appeal of rent payment reporting as an amenity, with some 57 percent of consumers surveyed saying they are more likely to rent from property managers who report payments and 80 percent of respondents saying they would be more likely to pay on time when payments are reported.
The findings add to mounting evidence of strong incentives for renters to report their payments to credit agencies. Renters who opt into positive-only rent reporting were 12 percent more likely to have a near-prime credit score of at least 601, according to a study published earlier this year by Urban Institute.
“Traditionally, rent payments have neither been reported to credit bureaus nor included in credit scores,” the Urban Institute said in its report. “But in recent years, the major credit-scoring companies have begun adjusting scoring algorithms to factor in reported rental payments. Preliminary research suggests that rent reporting can tangibly improve people’s credit scores.”
Low credit scores are cited as the reason for denying credit products in 36 percent of total rejected applications, according to a 2019 consumer finance survey by Federal Reserve economist Ying Lei Toh.
Maitri Johnson, head of tenant screening at TransUnion, in a statement called rent payment reporting a “well-documented as a means to improving credit scores and financial inclusion.”
— Abigail Nehring