PropTech: £2m raised by site marketing only homes-with-tenants

A new website specifically dedicated to marketing rented property with tenants in place has raised over £2m investment in the past two months.

Vesta says it hopes to take this amount to £3m by the close of the fund-raising round in mid-March.

Vesta describes itself as “a new marketplace” which allows sellers to continue their rental revenue stream all the way to completion, with buyers being able to earn income from day one because there is no void period finding a tenant.

The latest round of seed funding will enable the PropTech firm to roll-out across the UK.

It says it currently has secured marketing rights over 177 tenanted properties (both individual units as well as apartment blocks) which are collectively valued at over £50m. 

Investors so far include Bob Wigley (chairman of UK Finance and ex-chairman of Merrill Lynch’s European and Middle Eastern activities), Chris Lacey (until recently head of residential capital markets at CBRE) and David Ritchie (former chief executive of Bovis Homes). 

“Our investors share our belief that Vesta’s innovative marketplace will revolutionise the private rented sector, bringing together housebuilders, buy to let sellers, buyers and property investors and removing significant market inefficiencies” explains the platform’s chief executive, Russell Gould.