Keyzy raises £3 million to help first-time buyers get a leg up on the property ladder

London’s Keyzy has raised £3 million in a seed funding round that’s aimed at helping the startup accelerate its purchases of homes and the development of its technology platform. The end goal for Keyzy is to enable more key workers and young professionals to join the property ladder for the first time. 

Keyzy’s £3 million seed round was co-led by Axeleo Capital and Outward VC with Seed X and existing investors Global Founders Capital and ActivumSG Ventures participating.

With UK property prices rising at a rate of 3x faster than that of pay rates in the past nine years, it should come as no surprise that there’s a dire need for help. Socking away the needed 10 to 20 percent for a down payment in the face of a sea of cost of living increases is next to impossible.

Along the lines of what StrideUp is working on, although sans deposit, the problem plaguing first-time buyers and key workers, Keyzy is offering would-be homeowners access to capital that shelters them from rent and property price inflation and gets them in a position to not only secure a roof over their heads but jump aboard the property ladder, a well-revered method to accumulating financial security over time.

Again, similar to StrideUp, Keyzy offers to acquire the home chosen by the customer and leases it to them at a fixed rent for three to seven years. In doing so, these customers are able to establish a credit history to facilitate a future mortgage application while up to 25% of their rent is converted to lower the locked-in buy-back price of the property. Customers also have the right to buy the home at the original total cost minus the converted rent that has accumulated.  

“This funding round allows us to accelerate home purchases and meet the surging demand from 1,000 applicants and more than 3,000 who signed up to our pre-launch waitlist,” commented Keyzy co-founder Simon Groll. “It’s an exciting moment in our drive to grow the platform, especially with turmoil in the mortgage market and the help to buy scheme coming to an end.”