Open Rentals

A self-hostable rental listing platform. Ships with landlord identity verification, PostGIS-powered geo-search, and a full renter application flow. Fork it and deploy it for your city.

Stack

Backend — FastAPI, PostgreSQL + PostGIS, SQLAlchemy 2.0 (async), Alembic, Redis Frontend — Next.js 14 (App Router), TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Radix UI, Mapbox GL Infrastructure — Docker, Cloudinary (images), Stripe (payments)

Running locally

cp .env.example .env
cp backend/.env.example backend/.env
cp frontend/.env.example frontend/.env.local
# Fill in the required keys below, then:

docker-compose up -d

# Seed demo data (first run only)
docker-compose exec backend python seed.py

• Frontend: http://localhost:3000
• API docs: http://localhost:8000/docs
• Browse the API spec online — no setup required

Features

• Landlord identity verification with admin approval before listings go live
• Property listings with PostGIS radius search and Mapbox map view
• JWT auth with access + refresh tokens, role-based: renter / landlord / admin
• Full rental application flow with status tracking per listing
• Separate dashboards for renters and landlords
• Email notifications for applications and verification status

Example - Miami

Listings	Listing Detail

Renter Dashboard

Project structure

backend/
  app/
    api/routes/     # auth, properties, applications, users
    core/           # config, security utilities
    models/         # SQLAlchemy ORM models
    schemas/        # Pydantic request/response schemas
    services/       # email, media upload
    db/             # async engine, session
  alembic/          # migrations

frontend/
  src/
    app/            # Next.js pages (App Router)
    components/     # UI, layout, property cards, dashboard
    lib/            # API client, auth context

API keys

Required

Key	Where	Notes
SECRET_KEY	backend/.env	Any long random string — used for JWT signing
DATABASE_URL	backend/.env	Set automatically by docker-compose

Required for the map view

Key	Where	How to get
NEXT_PUBLIC_MAPBOX_TOKEN	frontend/.env.local	account.mapbox.com — free tier is sufficient

Optional (features degrade gracefully without them)

Key	Feature	Where to get
CLOUDINARY_CLOUD_NAME / CLOUDINARY_API_KEY / CLOUDINARY_API_SECRET	Property photo uploads	cloudinary.com — free tier
SMTP_HOST / SMTP_USER / SMTP_PASSWORD	Email notifications (verification, password reset)	Any SMTP provider (Gmail, SendGrid, Resend, etc.)
GOOGLE_MAPS_API_KEY	Address autocomplete	Google Cloud Console — Maps JavaScript API

The app runs without Cloudinary, SMTP, and Google Maps — those features are simply disabled or fall back gracefully.