Michela Hancock, Co-Founder and CEO of Hilltop Property Partners – Why the Squeezed Middle Matters in UK Housing

This week, I sat down with Michela Hancock to unpack the journey from psychology graduate to property entrepreneur, and how she helped pioneer institutional build to rent in the UK long before it was widely accepted.

Michela is the Co-Founder and CEO of Hilltop Property Partners. Before launching Hilltop, she worked across US and UK real estate, including early exposure to multifamily housing in the United States, and later bringing that institutional rental mindset into the UK market at a time when many believed renting would never become a lifestyle choice.

In this conversation, Michela shares how growing up in a family business shaped her entrepreneurial mindset, and why she made the difficult decision to pivot away from a career in clinical psychology after years of study. That willingness to change direction led her into real estate development, where she combined US multifamily experience with a long term conviction around UK rental housing.

We explore the early days of institutional build to rent in the UK, when pension funds and advisors were sceptical, and Michela was repeatedly told that everyone in Britain wanted to own rather than rent. She explains how she built conviction around demographic change, quality rental supply gaps and the concept of renting as a lifestyle choice.

The conversation then moves into Hilltop's strategy, targeting the so called squeezed middle and key worker demographic, where the need for high quality, attainable rental housing is most acute. Michela outlines the viability pressures facing mid market rental delivery today, and why building now into a supply constrained environment could create long term opportunity.

We also discuss capital raising in a global market where UK development competes for attention and allocation, and why resilience, persistence and finding the right partner can be more important than finding hundreds of investors. Michela shares candid lessons on entrepreneurship, including the advice she received that starting a business is like being in a rowboat with no oars, and why she chose to do it anyway.

This is a conversation about conviction, mid market housing, entrepreneurship and building through difficult cycles.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode

✅ From Psychology to Property

Why Michela pivoted careers after years of study and what that taught her about risk and conviction.

✅ Early Institutional Build to Rent

How she introduced US multifamily thinking into a sceptical UK market.

✅ Renting as a Lifestyle Choice

Challenging the assumption that everyone wants to own.

✅ The Squeezed Middle Opportunity

Targeting key workers and mid market rental housing in a viability constrained environment.

✅ Raising Capital in a Global Market

Why alignment and persistence matter more than volume.

✅ Building Hilltop Property Partners

Entrepreneurship, partnership and long term platform thinking.

✅ Resilience and Founder Mindset

The "never leave your chair" philosophy and showing up every day.

And of course, I asked Michela the big question:

Who are the People, what Property, and which Place would you invest in if you had £500 million to deploy?

If you have thoughts or questions about this episode, drop them in the comments. I'd love to hear your take.

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