A recently launched property tech company that offers shared-ownership of second homes plans to revolutionise the market, freeing up unused property along the way.
Based in London and Athens, Flyway targets the international second homes market in large cities.
The company recently raised $10mn (£8.7mn) in seed and debt funding from a number of institutional investors and angel investors.
Flyway plans to use the funding to acquire and sell its first properties in London and has set its sights on expansion to other cities across the globe later down the line.
Chief executive and co-founder, Nikos Drandakis previously founded Beat, the ride hailing app later acquired by Daimler, which is now part of the FreeNow Mobility group of companies.
Drandakis joined forces with his Beat chief operating officer Sanja Ilic to co-found Flyway in 2021.
Most second homes sit vacant 80 to 90 per cent of the time, so we are essentially consolidating demand into fewer homes and putting more people in fewer homes. — Nikos Drandakis Speaking to FTAdviser via video from one of Flyway’s first properties in London, Drandakis explained that he set Flyway up to solve a problem that he had in his own life, but as the idea progressed he was excited by the positive impact it could have on the housing market overall.
“I wanted to have access to a number of cities that I travel frequently to and I wanted to 'live the lifestyle' of these cities. Plus, I wanted to do it in a way that would mean I wasn’t spending a huge amount of money on rentals or hotels in the long term,” Drandakis explained.
At its core, Flyway’s aim is to offer frequent city travellers an alternative to entire home ownership, hotels and rentals in big cities around the world. It wants to make its customers “part-time residents” of a city rather than tourists.
"This is the moment where the DIY second home co-ownership model gets 'Airbnb-fied'," Drandakis said, adding that he hopes this model will enable this real estate segment to expand significantly.
"Flyway removes all the barriers that made second home co-ownership cumbersome, like property management and scheduling. This way, people are able to enjoy their second city while owning a property on their budget.”
Flyway allows up to 12 co-owners on a property with each entitled to stay in the property for a time proportional to their share.
Empty homes
Drandakis explained that in his mind, someone who travels to different cities frequently for work or other reasons has the option of either spending money on rent or buying a second home.
As the home may only be used 10 per cent of the time, “buying a second home is the largest waste of resources that we as humans have, both from a capital perspective and a land perspective”, Drandakis said.
“For luxury second homes in cities like London and New York, this model was accessible to say 1 per cent of the population. Our model makes it accessible to ten times this population.”
At the moment, the average price for a share of a Flyway home is between £200,000 - £250,000, but in the future Flyway plans to add less expensive homes to its portfolio, meaning that the model will be accessible to even more people.
Currently, co-purchasing of a Flyway property cannot be done on finance, but the firm has plans to introduce this before the end of the year, which Drandakis said will democratise the second home market even further.
In terms of the impact co-ownership of second homes can have on the housing market, Drandakis said it can be big.
“There’s two solutions to the housing crisis, one is to build more supply and the second is to make better use of the existing supply. That’s where we fit in," Drandakis said.
“Most second homes sit vacant 80 to 90 per cent of the time, so we are essentially consolidating demand into fewer homes and putting more people in fewer homes."
Flyway is not naive about the impact it can have in the short term on the housing crisis, but Drandakis believes that incentivising people to use a shared resource will have a positive impact over the longer term.
“You can think of it like carpooling.. What carpooling is to traffic, co-ownership is to the housing problem.”
Sustainability
Part of Flyway's vision is to make peoples experiences of housing better overall.
Drandakis explained how in his view, sustainability is about making the most efficient use of the resources we as humanity have access to.
"What we do sits at the core of this. We help people make the best and most efficient use, not only of land resources, but of their capital resource," he said.
All Flyway's homes will be from new developments and will come equipped with state of the art energy efficiency technology and smart thermostats.
Drandakis also pointed out that the apartment he was doing the interview from does not have any parking spaces, instead it is equipped with basement space for bicycle storage.
"I see a very large movement coming up in how people live their lives," Drandakis said.
"My goal is to have a very big impact on the way people experience life in cities. Not only in second homes, but eventually in primary residence too."
jane.matthews@ft.com
