Interview with Richard Smith, Managing Director of Moda Living

Moda Living achieved an outstanding seven wins at this year’s HomeViews Resident Choice Awards, including the coveted title of Large Operator of the Year. Hannah Marsh, Co-founder of HomeViews, sat down with Richard Smith, Managing Director of Moda Living, to discuss their success, commitment to customer service, and what’s next for the brand.

Hannah

Congratulations to the whole team at Moda Living for this incredible achievement. Winning seven awards, including Large Operator of the Year, is a remarkable recognition of your work. What does this mean to your team?

Richard

Thank you, Hannah. This recognition means a lot to us. At Moda Living, customer service is at the heart of everything we do, and these awards are a testament to the hard work, dedication, and passion of our entire team.

Every single member of staff plays a role in creating the best possible living experience for our residents, so to receive this level of recognition from those very residents is incredibly rewarding.

Hannah

We know how important resident feedback is in the Build to Rent sector. In 2024, HomeViews collected 8,001 reviews, with an impressive 6,293 (or 79%) of them verified. You also underwent additional spot checks to ensure accuracy. What has been your approach to review collection?

Richard

Transparency is key, which is why we take a consistent, year-round approach to gathering resident feedback. We actively encourage reviews at all times, not just at key moments like move-in or renewal. You’ll see reminders across our buildings including in our lifts and at concierge desks.

Our goal is to create an open feedback culture, where residents feel empowered to share their experiences whenever they choose. That’s why I believe our HomeViews ratings provide an honest and authentic reflection of life in a Moda Living community.

Hannah

Moda Living achieved a Customer Service score of 4.89 for 2024. How do you maintain such consistently high standards across all your developments?

Richard

A huge part of this comes down to the Moda Academy, which we launched a year ago. Every single team member goes through our bespoke training programme, ensuring they’re fully qualified in delivering what we believe to be the highest levels of customer service in the sector. This helps us guarantee that no matter which Moda Living development someone moves into, they receive the same exceptional experience.

The recognition we received at the HomeViews Resident Choice Awards is a fantastic endorsement of the standards we’ve set and the hard work of our teams.

Hannah

Moda Living is now able to showcase HomeViews reviews and ratings on your Built for Renters listings on Rightmove. What impact do you think this will have on the wider Build to Rent sector?

Richard

One of the biggest challenges in Build to Rent has always been awareness and education. Many renters still don’t fully understand what BTR is, or how it differs from traditional rental properties.

Having resident reviews and real-life experiences on the UK’s largest property platform gives prospective renters trust, transparency, and confidence in what BTR has to offer. It’s not just about Moda; it’s about raising the profile of the sector as a whole and making high-quality, service-led rental communities the standard.

Hannah

Finally, what’s next for Moda Living?

Richard

Great question! At Moda, we are constantly considering new ways to move the rental experience forward. Clearly, AI will drive a fundamental change in our industry and we have been working on some new market-leading ideas by using technology.

For example, we will be testing AI-developed robots to deliver an enhanced level of service for our residents around doorstop deliveries of their Uber Eats, Deliveroo, etc. This sounds really easy, but trust me, we have been developing this concept for the past year and we are now almost there! So watch this Moda Space.

HomeViews is the only independent review platform for residential developments in the UK. Prospective buyers and tenants use it to make an informed decision on where to live based on insights from carefully verified resident reviews. Part of Rightmove since February 2024, we’re working with developers, house builders, operators, housing associations and the Government to give residents a voice, recognise high performers and to help improve standards across the industry.

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.