2020 Build to Rent Report - HomeViews Business Hub

Our 2020 National Build to Rent Report shares comprehensive insights gathered from the largest dataset collated on the new build tenant experience to date.

This report represents resident reviews from 522 new developments, including 84 BTR developments, which constitutes 37% of the currently occupied BTR developments in the UK. Data is sourced from over 5,000 tenant reviews; 1500 verified BTR tenant reviews and a further 3,500 BTS tenant reviews. The 84 BTR developments are managed by 34 different operators, across 8 cities in the UK: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol and Bath.

In this report we identify the key factors and points of differentiation impacting resident scoring, provide a view of value by combining rating and rental price data, and share advice on how operators can improve their tenant experience.

* Total occupied build to rent buildings in the UK as of 2019 (BPF/Savills 2019)

Our 2020 National Build to Rent Report shares comprehensive insights gathered from the largest dataset collated on the new build tenant experience to date.

This report represents resident reviews from 522 new developments, including 84 BTR developments, which constitutes 37% of the currently occupied BTR developments in the UK. Data is sourced from over 5,000 tenant reviews; 1500 verified BTR tenant reviews and a further 3,500 BTS tenant reviews. The 84 BTR developments are managed by 34 different operators, across 8 cities in the UK: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol and Bath.

In this report we identify the key factors and points of differentiation impacting resident scoring, provide a view of value by combining rating and rental price data, and share advice on how operators can improve their tenant experience.

* Total occupied build to rent buildings in the UK as of 2019 (BPF/Savills 2019)

HomeViews is an independent platform that we can use to say to residents, ‘don’t take our word for it – go and take a look at HomeViews. It’s exactly the same with our Housing Association and local authority partners. We can tell them not to take our word for it, but to look at HomeViews.

Darragh Hurley

Managing Director, Mount Anvil

Our incredible scores are a result of the hard work our team puts into supporting each of our residents and helping many through the process of buying their first home. HomeViews has enabled our residents to share their experience of buying with Anthology in their own words and for us to share their stories with prospective customers.

Steve Bangs

CEO, Lifestory

Each Tipi building has its own personality and style and HomeViews gives us resident feedback, ratings and insight into each separate development and how Tipi as a whole is doing. Reports are exceptionally detailed and HomeViews’ marketing tools and support also help us to amplify our overwhelmingly positive reviews and gives prospective residents the confidence to choose the right home for them.

Sarah Tinsley

Marketing Director, Quintain Living

HomeViews is an independent platform that we can use to say to residents, ‘don’t take our word for it – go and take a look at HomeViews. It’s exactly the same with our Housing Association and local authority partners. We can tell them not to take our word for it, but to look at HomeViews.

Darragh Hurley

Managing Director, Mount Anvil

Our incredible scores are a result of the hard work our team puts into supporting each of our residents and helping many through the process of buying their first home. HomeViews has enabled our residents to share their experience of buying with Anthology in their own words and for us to share their stories with prospective customers.

Steve Bangs

CEO, Lifestory

Each Tipi building has its own personality and style and HomeViews gives us resident feedback, ratings and insight into each separate development and how Tipi as a whole is doing. Reports are exceptionally detailed and HomeViews’ marketing tools and support also help us to amplify our overwhelmingly positive reviews and gives prospective residents the confidence to choose the right home for them.

Sarah Tinsley

Marketing Director, Quintain Living

How can we help you?

Every one of the UK’s Top 20 highest-rated BTR communities partners with us to better understand their residents, amplify positive reviews, justify renewals, report to investors and secure new business.

Engage with your residents with a free HomeViews account

Manage your reviews

We believe the best information about a residential development comes from the people living there. Owners and tenants have a lot of useful information to share with their prospective neighbours, not just on the property itself and its locality, but also on the development and building management.

Does it matter how recent reviews are?

We often encourage Partners to regularly collect reviews. This keeps them in the running for our annual Resident Choice Awards, but it’s also something that consumers value.

Research by Power Reviews found that 64% of consumers said they were more likely to buy a product with fewer, more recent reviews than if it had a higher volume of reviews published three or more months ago.

44% of consumers in that same study wanted to ideally be able to find reviews written within the past month. And 62% would not purchase a product if the only reviews available were published a year or more ago.

How many reviews do you need?

Brightlocal data is again the best place to turn to understand the broad spread of opinions shown by consumers. In 2025, 14% of consumers wanted to see 100+ reviews in order to trust a company’s average star rating. However, the majority of consumers said that 20-49 reviews was enough for them to trust an average rating (33%), while 22% said that 50-99 reviews were enough.

How much should you engage with reviews?

Consumers are more consistent on how much they want to see companies responding to reviews. 89% were likely to use a business that repsonded to all reviews, whether positive or negative. Far fewer (55%) were likely to use a business that only responded to negative reviews.

As we stated above, responding to positive and negative reviews clearly demonstrates to prospective residents that you care.