A Stockport-based estate agency that is hoping to crack the built-to-rent (BTR) market has secured nearly a million pounds from investors to bankroll its growth, with its funding round so oversubscribed a further £1 million is also now being sought.

Property Sense has been building a self-serve platform for the BTR market used by managing agents, residents and BTR property owners/operators, and hopes to become the go-to tech solution for the sector.

It finds tenants for BTR developments both before and after they are completed and, during the first six months of its operations, has already helped 2,115 people move into 1,180 homes across five developments.

The firm initially began operations in the NW and Yorkshire but has recently expanded into the Midlands, South East, London, Wales and Scotland with plans to go national soon, hoping to make hay from the rapidly-expanding BTR sector.

Property Sense is registered as both a sales and lettings agency on Companies House and with Rightmove, which it uses to market properties on behalf of BTR clients.

Short space

“It’s incredible to see how far the business has come in such a short space of time,” says Mike Haywood, its CEO (main image) who is serial entrepreneur with two more businesses under way in other sectors including health and 3D visuals.

“We took a bold step early on by pivoting into a highly specialist proptech space, but we knew our technology had the potential to completely revolutionise the way lettings work in the UK, particularly during the critical lease-up and construction phases of developments.

“To have both early-stage VCTs and high-net-worth-individuals (HNWI), as well as a crowd of public investors backing that vision is a huge validation of everything we’ve built so far, as well as where we’re heading.”

Property Sense launched in late 2024 initially as a traditional property firm with £500,000 of investors’ cash as an off-the-high street agency but, as Haywood hints at, then began developing a proptech solution for the BTR market which appears to be its main focus now.