Manchester-based lettings agency Ascend Properties has consolidated its role in the single-family Build To Rent niche with its appointment by investment firm Carlyle to manage a new national portfolio.

Ascend will oversee all leasing and property management activity across the growing portfolio, which recently completed its first acquisition of 288 homes.

The instruction follows the recent appointment to the same role by the Start Living BTR platform, joining similar mandates from a number of portfolios. 

With responsibility for over 7,000 homes, Ascend describes itself as the UK’s largest manager of single family BTR specialist, overseeing over two thirds of the entire category stock.

The firm’s multifamily and buy to let portfolios bring the number of homes under its management to 11,000.

Ged McPartlin, managing director of Ascend Properties, says: “Single-family BTR is an increasingly vital part of the UK’s housing mix. Our unrivalled experience, alongside our investments in proprietary technology, is defining what good management looks like, and we are hugely excited to be working on this new major mandate.”