£5m new funding for PropTech anti-agency management platform

Property management platform Howsy has revealed new funding to the tune of £5m - and it now claims to be one of the country’s leading PropTech firms. 

Howsy already offers landlords free listings on Rightmove and Zoopla and early this summer it launched a new service which includes guaranteed rent and repairs. It describes it as being designed for landlords for whom “day to day heavy lifting was just the start of their problems”.

Howsy also offers “innovative insurance products” as well as a fixed-fee management cost which it claims is thousands of pounds a year cheaper than High Street lettings agents. 

Established in 2016 and originally called NoAgent, the company is based in Shoreditch, London, and claims to have doubled in size each year. 

Chief executive Calum Brannan says: “Landlords and tenants have been underserved in this industry, and we are rapidly shaking it up through great technology and a focus on customer service. We’ve already started to turn this around on a national scale and this latest raise, along with a few strategic acquisitions, should not only help us in our mission, but it will enable us to scale fast as well as look at opportunities outside of the UK.”

He adds: “We’re aiming to make renting a property as easy as booking a hotel.” 

The chair of the Howsy board is Gillian Kent, former chief executive of the now-defunct PropertyFinder portal, which was sold to Zoopla.