Crayon Partners is featured in the third edition of Precious. Partnerships., Degroof Petercam’s magazine published as a supplement to De Tijd and L’Echo. This issue highlights long-term partnerships built on trust, expertise, and shared convictions. The magazine includes a dedicated article on Crayon Partners and its rent-to-own residential strategy deployed in London, supported by Degroof Petercam and the Indosuez Wealth Management group. The full magazine is also available online in Dutch and French on Degroof Petercam’s corporate website.

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Rent-to-Own - Crayon Partners, or leasing as the future of residential real estate

Offering apartments through leasing, as is done for cars, to enable a wider segment of the population to access homeownership: an innovative idea that requires combining real estate expertise and investment know-how. Crayon Partners is now deploying this strategy in London.

“Coworking, coliving, data centers. In real estate, new uses are booming,” notes Mathias Flattin, co-founder of Crayon Partners. “Many operators lack capital to finance their first institutional portfolio, while financiers require a track record in the hundreds of millions of euros. By building a solid bridge between the two, we can offer real estate models that are profitable, resilient, and meaningful.”

With 15 years of experience in venture capital, Mathias Flattin brings his knowledge of the European start-up ecosystem, while his partner, the Franco-British Thibault Weston Smith, has mastered real estate investment strategies, which he has diligently practised in the United Kingdom and the United States.

Mr Weston Smith explains: “Crayon Partners has created a solution offering professional investors, with a strong understanding of the real estate sector, the ability to invest in the UK residential sector through the rent-to-own model. The household occupies its future home, saves part of the rent, and has a pre-negotiated purchase option that can be exercised within four years.”

“For our investors, Crayon Partners represents an opportunity to reconcile thematic and geographic diversification, by focusing on a specific segment of residential real estate, with potentially attractive returns.”

Mathias Flattin, Co-founder of Crayon Partners

“With the support of Degroof Petercam as well as the Indosuez Wealth Management group through our initiative, we are offering diversification within the UK residential sector through the rent-to-own model.”

Thibault Weston Smith, Co-founder of Crayon Partners

Mr Weston Smith continues: “In London, the homeownership rate has fallen by 17.5% over 30 years.* Thanks to AI and open banking, we identify financially sound households that are nevertheless excluded from traditional credit. The idea is to reach this audience, mainly young working adults and essential workers.** The rent-to-own model is both clearer and more liquid than progressive homeownership schemes, which tend to operate more like co-ownership.”

Proof of concept successfully delivered in London

With a very tight residential market, highly financialised and volatile, and a culture of refinancing mortgage credit every five years, London is an ideal environment to demonstrate the relevance of the model.

“On such a rigid market, we can achieve a genuine societal impact,” summarises Mathias Flattin. “Access to homeownership represents a powerful social elevator, with demonstrated impacts on health, education levels, and even crime rates.”

Many properties are also available, notably due to increasing borrowing difficulties linked to rising interest rates and higher construction costs. Crayon Partners can therefore buy at scale and “lock in” good prices. With the support of Indosuez, to which Degroof Petercam has been affiliated since summer 2024, Crayon Jaune has already secured three residential blocks in London. The ambition of its founders is now to extend the model to the Belgian, French, Swiss, Spanish, and Monégasque markets.

“We are also aligned with ESG values,” concludes Mathias Flattin. “For investors who understand the risks linked to ‘brick’ investments, such as liquidity and valuation risks, Crayon Partners represents an opportunity to reconcile thematic and geographic diversification, by focusing on a specific segment of residential real estate, with potentially attractive returns.”

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