2022 marks the fourth year anniversary since our founders, Chris and Sam, moved the very first Settio tenant into their new home in Manchester after leaving their corporate roles in London. What a four years it has been! Let’s take a quick look back at the hard work and milestones that brought Settio to where it is today.
After moving to Manchester and setting up Settio operationally from a bedroom, Sam quickly moved into a co-working space in early 2018 with a vision to bring a new lease of life to Manchester’s lettings and management experience for investors and tenants alike. At the same time, Chris -already established in Singapore and working alongside some leading property sales firms in the Asia Pacific region - was building relationships to secure future growth for the pair.
‘’Like any start up, the first year was a challenge and a learning experience; but we had a strong vision backed by industry leading experience and stuck at it. In early 2019 we started seeing the green shoots of our small business materialise and began receiving the feedback we craved from the market – what we were offering really was wanted by so many landlords out there and wasn’t being catered for by traditional agencies.’’
By the end of 2019, the duo (with Chris securing business from clients and Sam occupying the properties on the ground in Manchester) reached a managed portfolio size of 100 city centre apartments, a milestone they had been focussed on since day one.
As feedback on Settio’s service quality and new approach to ‘property experience’ filtered through the industry both in Manchester and Singapore, the business attracted more attention, and the excitement really began.
2020 saw the growth of our Settio team and by the end of the year, the first large scale appointment as a recommended agent on-site in Manchester. Despite the best efforts of Covid-19, the developer relationship blossomed, and Settio’s reputation continued to grow, attracting more clients locally and internationally.
Within a year, the team moved in to Settio’s new head office and services were being offered alongside developers of landmark schemes; including Affinity Living's 'Embankment West', The FEC’s ‘Meadowside’ and Renaker’s ‘Crown Street’ in Manchester’s City Centre.
Today, Settio manage over 730 apartments between Manchester and London, employ a team of 15 across our UK and Asia-Pacific offices and continue to break the mould as leading innovators in the industry. Constantly striving for better standards, Chris and Sam expect to hit their target portfolio size of 1000 apartments by the end of 2022 and are still having fun doing it!
‘’It’s been an incredible 4 years setting up a business weare truly proud of and still have so much ambition for. Thank you to all our clients, partners, and our dedicated team for enjoying the ride with us’’
- Samuel Fitz-Hugh.
