Ten Questions with Adrian Hawkins-Longley, CEO at Chainwright

Property chains are one of the biggest threats to a home move—with the potential to destroy a vast number of transactions at a moment's notice.

Zoom into the UK and just 2% of properties are being actively marketed at any time.

Adrian Hawkins-Longley is CEO at Chainwright, an early-stage startup that connected the dots.

"When you find a property you love, it might not be for sale. And when you're finally in a position to buy, your dream home might already be sold. With Chainwright, when a house you loved three years ago comes back to market, you'll know about it."

But what problem does Chainwright solve? How does the product work? How much does it cost?

I asked Adrian ten questions, and he gave me ten answers...

What problem does Chainwright solve?

Buying and selling today is a real lottery. When you find a property you love, it might not be for sale. When you're finally in a position to buy, your dream home might be sold. Marketed properties exist in silos across different websites and apps, making it hard to maintain a comprehensive view of your interests. Forming a complete, viable chain in this environment is a tortuous and fragile process that plays a big part in the stress and uncertainty of moving home.

Chainwright addresses this by creating permanent connections between people and properties, whatever their position. This approach bridges the gap between the 2% of properties actively marketed and the 98% that aren't.

Tell us about the nature of property chains. Why are they important, and why are they a broken system?

A chain starts with a first-time buyer making an offer, then the seller needs to find somewhere to move to, and so on, each link forming one at a time, with no idea what lies ahead, until it reaches a seller without an onward chain, such as a probate sale or an investment property. This sequential approach means that unless you’re lucky it can be months until a chain is complete, and each new link adds uncertainty.

Chains have become a necessary evil.  Building chains from the bottom up only exposes you to a tiny proportion of chains between people who would consider buying each other’s property if the timing was right.

What is the size of the opportunity here?

The UK property market has 30 million homes and over £200 billion in annual transactions yet only 2% of properties are actively listed at any time, despite millions maintaining an active interest in moving.

This creates a massive opportunity to unlock value in the other 98%. 

We're taking a strategic approach to capturing this opportunity, starting with select local markets where we can prove our model works.

The really exciting aspect is that our technology—which can reconcile properties across different platforms, maintain persistent connections and match complete chains of buyers and sellers—is fundamentally scalable across any property market globally.

Your website says "Let the perfect move find you." What does this look like?

Buying or selling your home is often a journey that starts long before the transaction. Most of us who have bought and sold have experienced that moment where you see the perfect next home but your property isn't on the market yet. Alternatively, you get an offer from a buyer but you can’t find anywhere you love that’s on the market. 

The traditional property market assumes you're either A) 100%, totally committed to buying/selling or B) 0%, not interested at all.

In my experience, the reality is far more fluid. It's about building and maintaining connections over time, with properties you love and buyers interested in your property (or street), so we can strike when the timing aligns for everyone, independently of the so-called 'market'.

What is the value proposition for buyers, sellers, and agents?

For buyers and sellers, Chainwright solves a fundamental problem—keeping track of every property that interests you, whether you're actively looking or just exploring possibilities. Save properties from any property website, add homes you've spotted while exploring neighbourhoods, or discover new possibilities on Chainwright. Unlike traditional property alerts that expire when listings are removed, Chainwright maintains your connection to a property permanently. This means when a house you loved three years ago comes back to market, you'll know about it.

On the seller side, it's a way to build genuine interest in your property before you even consider listing and to manage your personal property search simultaneously.

For estate agents, Chainwright provides a free service they can offer to both their vendors and potential buyers. Vendors can track properties they love while their home is on the market, maintaining engagement throughout the sales process. Meanwhile, interested viewers who aren't quite ready to offer can stay connected to the property, creating a pool of warm leads that agents can nurture. When complete chains are discovered, agents are notified alongside their clients, enabling them to facilitate smoother, faster transactions. We also waive the verification fee for customers who are on the market with a verified agent.

How is Chainwright funded? Will you raise soon?

We're currently bootstrapped, which has allowed us to focus on getting the product right and testing it with early customers and agents. It’s also kept us very lean when it comes to costs. We're running trials to make sure we have the right engagement before looking to spend on marketing although we may raise funding for this when the time is right.

How does Chainwright make money?

We charge a modest £10 annual subscription for verified property owners, enabling them to share photos and details of their property and respond to viewing requests or offers. Additionally, we charge a £100 completion fee for transactions facilitated through Chainwright—either where we've introduced the buyer and seller directly, or where we've matched a successful chain.

Looking ahead, we see significant opportunities to expand our revenue streams through partnerships with complementary services that property movers need: mortgages, insurance, removals, and other services.

What feedback have you got since launch and what will you work on next?

What's interesting is the engagement we're seeing—people are not just saving properties they find on portals, but actively adding homes they've spotted wherever they go, building those early connections that could lead to future moves. What excites me about the bigger picture is the opportunity to help more of the market move when they want to.

We're currently enhancing our property matching technology to become increasingly sophisticated as our network grows. Our ability to reconcile properties across different platforms and maintain persistent connections gives us unique insight into market movements and opportunities. 

Perhaps most significantly, we're prototyping a personal AI assistant (agent) that will help customers navigate the complexities of property chains and negotiations. This assistant will understand your position in the market and help coordinate between multiple parties to facilitate smoother transactions.

What will the real estate journey look like in five years?

While it’s tempting to predict massive change with the rise of AI it might take longer than we expect. The legal/conveyancing process at least will become far more automated soon which is going to be a huge help in itself, startups like Conveyd in the UK are tackling this right now.

Virtual viewings and tools that help you visualize how you'd live in a space already exist and should get exponentially better. At Chainwright, we're particularly excited about the potential for technology to enable a more collaborative approach.

What should the industry be talking about that it isn't talking about?

The industry should be talking about how to make the process more positive. Moving home is stressful enough without it feeling like a competition to be won or lost.

Buying and selling have become terribly confrontational for customers. This has been particularly noticeable in the tone of some recent ad campaigns in the UK and it's understandable, moving home often does feel like a competition where you're either winning or losing—especially when you're caught in a chain. 

Property chains tend to create 'road rage' behaviour where people, isolated by their solicitors and agents, act towards each other in ways they never would face to face. Everyone in a chain wants the same thing, to move to somewhere that’s right for them with minimal stress, yet the process often feels adversarial rather than collaborative. 

Imagine if everyone in a chain could share and understand each other's needs and concerns at the outset and discuss their shared timeline and requirements together, building trust and understanding before taking the plunge together. What would that look like? What would that feel like?

We have an opportunity to safely bring buyers and sellers closer together and make moving home a more positive, human experience.