Breaking Property News 7/4/26
Daily bite-sized proptech and property news in partnership with Proptech-X.
OpenBrix is building the infrastructure layer for the UK rental market
A system designed to connect identity, compliance, payments, and deposits into a single, auditable lifecycle
Thought leadership by Adam Pigott CEO tlyfe (Openbrix) Consumer-Centric Property Platform
‘What we have isn’t another property portal or a standalone tenant app. It’s a system designed to currently connect identity, compliance, payments, and deposits into a single, auditable lifecycle.
We believe the rental market is going through the same shift banking went through years ago—from fragmented systems to regulated digital infrastructure. Our goal is to sit at the centre of that transition.
Today, the rental market is still highly fragmented. There’s no persistent tenant identity, no unified record of a tenancy, and no reliable audit trail for compliance. At the same time, regulation is increasing. With the Renters’ Rights reforms, landlords now need to evidence maintenance, prove compliance, and operate in a far more transparent system. The issue is that the infrastructure to support this at scale doesn’t really exist yet.
The Private Rental Sector landscape is now changing at speed
What’s changing is that renting is becoming regulated infrastructure. Government bodies like the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are focused on reducing system risk, improving compliance visibility, and driving digital adoption across millions of tenants.
The biggest concern for them isn’t policy—it’s whether the systems can actually work at scale without failing. That’s where OpenBrix comes in. We’ve built a platform called tlyfe that creates a single digital record of a tenancy. A complete lifecycle application for the tenants, who let us not forget fund the entire PRS.
It starts with verified identity, giving each tenant a reusable, trusted profile. It then connects into the “move-in” process, deposit tracking through integrations with schemes like the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. On top of that, we provide maintenance and compliance audit logs, which create a clear and legally robust record for landlords and agents.
We’re also building a payments layer using Open Banking, allowing rent to be tracked and managed in real time. Finally, we can add a rental property search portal for tenants to pass over their data in one click, something no other listing portal can currently do.
What makes this powerful is not just the product, but where we sit in the ecosystem.
We operate between tenants, landlords, agents, suppliers and the UK’s largest deposit scheme (the TDS). That means we don’t rely on traditional customer acquisition. Instead, we’re embedded directly into the tenancy workflow from now various sources.
Through integrations and partnerships, we have access to large volumes of tenants and landlords at effectively zero acquisition cost. That embedded distribution is a key advantage. We are seeing certain suppliers and industry bodies now actively moving to sit on our platform.
Looking ahead, particularly with potential changes in how deposit schemes operate, the key question becomes less about who holds the most deposits and more about who reduces risk for government.
From a procurement perspective, what matters is proven infrastructure, digital adoption, and the ability to migrate safely at scale. If a platform already has a large number of tenants actively using it, the risk of transitioning to a national system is significantly lower.
Our business model is straightforward and focused.
We start with compliance software for landlords and agents to provide the “move-in” journey where the tenants conduct their communications and actions on tlyfe. Tenants are the starting point for maintenance issues, so tlyfe also provides maintenance and audit trails, which are becoming essential under regulation. We then layer in payments, capturing transaction data and enabling financial services. When the rental property search portal is released, there will be an opportunity to provide agents and Landlords with verified tenant leads, but that’s not the core focus today.
If you look at the competitive landscape, platforms like Rightmove and Zoopla dominate property search, but they don’t operate during the tenancy itself.
Deposit schemes manage compliance, but they lack modern digital infrastructure. We sit in the middle, focusing on the “during tenancy” phase, which is currently underserved but highly valuable. The tenant App tlyfe, is effectively becoming the last mile to the tenants and is growing significant numbers daily.
This creates strong strategic value.
For banks like Lloyds Banking Group, we provide early visibility into future mortgage customers through rent data. For insurers like Aviva, we provide insight into property condition and maintenance behaviour.
For portals, we offer a way to extend beyond search and into the full tenancy lifecycle. In each case, the value comes from high-quality, verified data. Right now, our focus is execution. That means driving adoption through existing tenancy flows, increasing usage of compliance tools, and building transaction volume through payments.
We’re building the infrastructure layer that the rental market will depend on.
We’re deliberately prioritising depth but breadth will follow in 2026, focusing on the areas that create the strongest long-term value and retention. OpenBrix isn’t trying to be another proptech platform. We’re building the infrastructure layer that the rental market will depend on.
The opportunity is to create a system that connects tenants, landlords, and institutions in a way that reduces risk, improves transparency, and supports the future of renting.
The question isn’t whether the rental market becomes fully digitised. It’s who provides the infrastructure that makes it work. That’s what we’re building.’
Andrew Stanton Executive Editor – moving property and proptech forward. PropTech-X
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