© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
© 2025 News On The Block. All rights reserved.
News on the Block is a trading name of Premier Property Media Ltd.
Over the last 18 months, brands have felt the pressures of the pandemic to ensure customer safety, while providing a similar service virtually. Build-to-rent provider, Sigma Capital Group plc is no exception and has been working hard to offer innovative ways to keep its customers happy.
Sigma’s rental brand, Simple Life, has introduced its own manufactured and managed ‘My Simple Life’ mobile app, available to residents across all of its developments in the UK. Within its first month, over 1,100 customers nationwide had downloaded and used the app across its regions. My Simple Life has since provided residents with all rental necessities at the click of a button, from the ability to view their tenancy agreements and inventories, the ability to keep on top of their statement by making payments through the app, to tutorials on carrying out at-home checks and repairs.
All handbooks, manuals, tenancy agreements and more are available at customers’ fingertips in the ‘My Home’ section of the app, as well as the ability to report any issues through ‘Fix Flo’ the maintenance reporting system. Exclusive offers and discounts are a further perk of the well-received app, some of which are UK wide, while others are region specific for each development.
Commenting on the success of the app, marketing director, Vicky Hurcomb, said: “We were keen to build our own mobile app so it is completely tailored to our homes and our residents. We also wanted the freedom to continually develop and improve in-line with our own business plans. There are already plans in place to continue to add to the app as Simple Life continues to pioneer the build-to-rent industry. We see this as an ongoing and ever evolving platform, providing everything within reach for all our residents.
“The response so far has been fantastic, and we encourage all our residents to continue to use the app and provide any feedback they have so we can enhance the user and rental journey as we go.”
A further health, wellbeing and community building initiative that has been introduced to 10 Simple Life developments, is the addition of ‘book boxes’. The miniature libraries have been installed with a variety of books, suitable for a range of age groups and interests.
The idea is to take a book, read and return it for someone else to enjoy, with the option to donate additional books as well. Each book box has a volunteer resident ‘book guardian’ who has come forward to oversee and maintain the handcrafted addition to the development.
Since the first book boxes were installed in August, there has been even more interest, with 21 book guardians coming forward, providing over 2000 households with access to free books.
The feedback has been nothing but positive with book guardian forums being set up on the app and regular book swapping and sharing taking place.
One customer said: “We have just done our first book swap at Brookside Grange! So glad this is here, we’ve got a room dedicated to books in our house!” Another has come forward saying what a lovely addition this has been to their front garden and estate, and a third resident said: “I was so excited to arrive home to our book box fitted and ready to go…I’ve topped it up with books and going to get it all painted up, so it’s nice and inviting! Can’t wait for my neighbours to start using it!”