As multifamily leaders across the United States grapple with increasing complexity around regulation, affordability, renter expectations, and operational efficiency, the UK offers a revealing look at what comes next when those pressures intensify.
Oli Sherlock, Managing Director of Insurance at Goodlord, one of the largest proptech companies in Europe, sat down with Tyler Christiansen, CEO of Funnel, for a fireside chat.
“Our purpose (Goodlord’s) is really to simplify the route to getting a home,” he said. “We feel really passionate about making sure homes are available to people, and making sure that the ecosystem is better for it.”
That language matters because it frames the problem correctly. In markets undergoing structural change, the winning companies are not the ones that optimize a narrow slice of the journey. They are the ones who understand the full ecosystem well enough to reduce friction without destabilizing trust, affordability, or economic viability.
The conversation offered multifamily real estate executives a front row seat to how much U.S. housing regulation could shift if it follows in the UK’s footsteps.
Goodlord serves “three and a half thousand letting agents” rather than owner-operators. The market is even more fragmented, without the rise of megamannagers that we are seeing here in the U.S. The terminology is different (letting instead of leasing). The rules and regulations are more extensive, particularly with the implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act.
But beneath those surface differences the strategic questions facing the UK are the same ones now confronting U.S. operators, only in a more advanced state: How should companies respond when regulation begins to reshape the economics of renting? What happens when policy changes move from the margins of the business into the center of the operating model? And which companies are positioned not just to absorb that pressure, but to grow because of it?
What the UK reveals about multifamily’s next chapter
In the UK, that ecosystem is already under significant regulatory strain. As Sherlock explained, “renting and letting a property in the UK is heavily regulated.” Landlords and letting agents must comply with “about 76 direct pieces of legislation today.” Failure carries real consequences. “They can be fined,” he said, and in some cases, “landlords can go to jail for non-compliance.” That is not compliance as a back-office concern. That is compliance as an operating condition.
His conclusion was striking in its simplicity: “We deal in complexity, we deal in chaos. The more complex, the more chaotic something is, the better we shine.”
That line captures an increasingly important truth for the U.S. market. Regulation no longer sits neatly outside the renter journey. It affects leasing velocity, pricing strategy, fee transparency, resident communications, risk exposure, revenue design, and technology architecture. It stops being a policy issue and becomes a systems issue. That shift tends to reward companies that can interpret complexity faster than their peers and build or work with supplier partners to absorb it.
The UK’s Tenant Fee Ban offers a clear example. Letting agents still had to do the work of referencing renters, supporting them, and managing the process, but “they simplistically cannot charge the tenants a single penny in fee.” The revenue pressure did not disappear. It simply moved. As Sherlock put it, “The only route of everything is rent. It’s the oxygen, it’s the blood going around our business bodies.” And when that happens, the market responds in predictable ways. “What happens to rent? It goes up, right?”
That observation gets to the heart of an uncomfortable but essential executive conversation. Well-intentioned legislation does not automatically produce good outcomes.
Sherlock argues that a healthy rental market requires balance across all parties, not rhetorical allegiance to one side. “If we were trying to maintain an ecosystem, like a coral reef, you wouldn’t favor one single part of that ecosystem. You would be trying to tender to everything in it to let it flourish.” Push too hard against one group, and the effects spread. “The supply of property will go down, tenants lose.”
That framing should resonate in the U.S., where the flood of recent supply drove down rents, but drove up operational pressure for managers and owners. The long-term health of the market depends on sustainability, not short-term victories for one stakeholder over another. Sherlock put it plainly: “The truth is it has to be sustainable and kind of kneejerk legislative change that cripples one element or one stakeholder, I just think is, is a zero sum game.”
When regulation reshapes the operating model
The biggest change in the UK today is the Renters’ Rights Act. Sherlock called it “the biggest change since the Housing Act in 1988” and “a seminal moment for our industry.” The most dramatic shift is the move away from fixed-term contracts and toward indefinite tenancy. “As of the 1st of May, in the UK a tenant will sign a contract and they essentially will have a contract for life. It’ll just go month on month on month, rolling forever until it’s terminated either by the tenant or they’ve breached the agreement.”
For operators and technology providers, that is not a minor regulatory tweak. It changes the assumptions under the entire rental process. Rent increases can happen only once a year. Renters can appeal them. Tribunals may take months. The increase is not backdated. Sherlock’s economic reading of the situation was unsparing: “It’s a sound investment [as a renter] to spend 49 pounds to appeal the rent.” If the system takes four to six months to process, “you get a rent break for four to six months on that basis.” His broader prediction followed naturally: “It sounds great on the face of it for tenants, but I promise you in the next year, rents will go up and they’ll go at a faster rate.”
What U.S. operators should take from this
For U.S. executives, the more relevant takeaway is not the policy critique alone. It is the business reality that follows when traditional revenue levers come under pressure.
The UK reached that point through legislation. The U.S. operators are pressured too, as pricing practices face more regulation on a city and state basis to provide upfront clarity around the full cost of housing, the challenge not just compliance, but also operational design.
Goodlord’s response stands out: “We made a decision very early on to be agnostic,” Sherlock said. The company focused less on arguing with the direction of change and more on preparing customers for it. “We saw our job as industry leaders, and I would argue experts to guide. So educate first.” Sherlock described becoming “obsessed on this legislative change.”
That may be the most transferable lesson for U.S. multifamily leaders. Regulation functions as a sorting mechanism. It separates organizations that can absorb ambiguity, redesign processes quickly, and educate customers from those that wait until pressure becomes panic.
Protection is becoming part of the operating model
The other major insight from the conversation centered on protection. Goodlord now insures “about 1.3, 1.4 billion pounds worth of rent in the UK on a yearly basis.” It has built products that protect landlords, letting agents, and renters at the same time. That matters because the most durable revenue models in rental housing do not merely monetize transactions. They stabilize relationships.
“The perfect products for us are ones that tend to more than one party,” Sherlock said. Rent protection illustrates the logic. “When the rent doesn’t get paid, nobody earns. So when we pay the rent, everybody earns.”
That is a powerful framework for proptech more broadly. Too many products still treat the rental journey as a series of isolated feature opportunities. The stronger model is to identify the points where trust is most fragile, where handoffs most often fail, and where one stakeholder’s risk quietly becomes another stakeholder’s burden.
Sherlock’s account of Goodlord’s response during COVID made that point especially well. “I was really proud and aged by about 30 years to be the only supplier to keep our rent protection product switched on through the entirety of the pandemic for new business and renewal. It’s no good selling umbrellas when the sun’s shining.”
Trust is built when conditions deteriorate, and a company still stands behind its promises.“That’s a legacy, that’s trust, that’s belief in what you’re doing.”
Just as important was the way he described renters themselves; even while criticizing policy outcomes, he maintained a more balanced view of human behavior and responsibility.
“Most people are good people. Most landlords, most agents are good people.” Goodlord’s own experience reinforced that belief. Sherlock said that when renters fall behind on payments, the company is often able to step in, mediate, and help resolve the issue before it escalates. In nearly half of those cases, Goodlord is able to help get the renter back on track. His conclusion was instructive: “We are not looking for one party to always win. We’re trying to cater to all three.”
That is the nuanced standard the industry (both supplier partners and operators) needs to increasingly hold itself to: Not renter-only rhetoric that ignores owner economics. Not owner-only optimization that treats the resident experience as a cosmetic layer. A genuine ecosystem strategy where everyone can, and does win.
The future belongs to a different operating model
This conversation brought the industry’s next operating challenge into sharper focus. The pressure building in the UK may be arriving through different channels, but the underlying challenge feels familiar: multifamily is being pushed toward a new operating model.
That is exactly why this discussion mattered at Forum. The people in that room were there to rethink operations around AI, centralization, and the human experience in housing. They were there because the old 1:100 model is no longer enough for the complexity the industry is now carrying.
The companies that respond best will redesign work around more specialized teams, cleaner handoffs across the renter journey, and smarter use of AI to strengthen consistency, speed, and service.
That shift is an ecosystem shift, where better outcomes compound for renters, onsite and centralized teams, and the operators trying to deliver both growth and resilience. At a moment when so much of the world is framed around competing interests, the more ambitious path is to build a model where everyone can win.
