Bricklane, the residential property investment platform, has doubled its geographic footprint by expanding into select markets in the North West.
The business is now active in six major markets, adding Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, where its proprietary technology platform has identified a need for quality rental housing, while a newly completed financing package with a leading UK lender has enabled Bricklane to continue growing its presence in previously established markets.
Over the past two years, Bricklane has assembled a substantial portfolio of rental homes in London, Bristol and the South East, supported by institutional capital. Following acquisition, each property undergoes a sustainability-focused retrofit and aesthetic upgrade. Retrofitting existing stock enables Bricklane to avoid the carbon cost of demolition and construction, while also providing a quicker turnaround in bringing the property to the rental market.
Building on its success with existing properties, Bricklane has expanded into buying new build properties across the UK using its tech-driven underwriting to transact quickly.
Following the successful financing, Bricklane aims to accelerate its growth, with entry into further markets planned over the coming months.
The UK faces a significant challenge in upgrading the environmental performance of its existing rental stock, which has seen little investment over recent years from individual landlords. With a growing national reach, Bricklane plans to drive this change at scale – taking environmentally inefficient homes and upgrading them to perform significantly better than required by upcoming legislation (i.e. to EPC B or high C). As a result, residents’ energy bills will be lowered and the ESG attributes of the portfolio will be improved.
Simon Heawood, CEO and co-founder of Bricklane, said: “There has never been a more urgent need to upgrade the quality of the UK’s rental housing and provide residents with high-quality properties in which they can feel at home. With the support of our institutional partners, we have the necessary firepower in place to accelerate the market-wide change that we’ve long advocated for, and benefit more households across the UK.”
“We have spent years building the technology, data science expertise and operational teams to enable us to implement this change at scale, and our growing reach takes us further on our mission to revolutionise the rental landscape. Despite skyrocketing demand, standards in the private rented sector remain poor and highly variable – we believe we can make a significant difference in setting a new standard and giving residents the better properties and better service they deserve.”
