The client
Quay Locations Ltd is a property letting and operating business based at Hill Quays in Manchester, running a portfolio of buy-to-let tenancies. Like most operators at this scale, the business grew faster than its tools: tenancy records, compliance dates, tenant messages and payment tracking lived across spreadsheets, inboxes and generic software that was never designed for the job.
The problem
Nothing was joined up. Renewals and compliance deadlines relied on someone remembering to check. Tenant history sat in email threads. Every question about the portfolio — who’s paid, what’s due, which certificate expires next — meant opening three different things and reconciling them by hand. It’s the standard operating reality for small landlords and letting operators, and it’s exactly the kind of work software should be doing.
What we’re building
A single tenancy portal for the whole portfolio:
- Tenancies in one view — every property, tenant and agreement, with renewals surfaced before they’re due.
- Tenant communication — messages and history tied to the tenancy, not lost in an inbox.
- Documents & compliance — agreements, certificates and safety checks stored against the property, with dates tracked so nothing lapses.
- Payment tracking — what’s due, what’s paid and what’s outstanding, across the portfolio at a glance.
How we’re working
The build follows our standard loop. We scoped the portal with the operator against how the portfolio actually runs day to day, agreed a fixed scope, and are shipping working software early — iterating live with the client rather than presenting a finished system at the end. AI-assisted development keeps the build fast and the cost a fraction of a traditional agency quote.
Where it goes next
Tenancy management is not unique to one operator — it’s a problem shared by thousands of small landlords and letting businesses. The Quay Locations build is the foundation of a productised BTL portal: a ready-to-deploy version other operators will be able to licence, configured to their portfolio. If that’s you, we’d like to hear from you.