A Yorkshire-born businessman who launched a startup on the other side of the globe is now returning to the UK to expand his company’s reach.
Chris Smith, once a senior mortgage strategist at Yorkshire Building Society and the Bank of New Zealand, is spearheading Bloxx as he looks to revolutionise how people access home ownership.
Drawing on his lived experience growing up in social housing, Smith is aiming to dismantle traditional mortgage barriers and offer a scalable, private-market solution focused on equity.
From social housing to home ownership
Having grown up in social housing, Smith remembers rent as a constant worry. It wasn’t until he landed a staff mortgage at his first job – with no deposit, no profit, and repayments akin to rent – that he began to build a future.
“Six months in, everything changed,” he recounted. “Home ownership felt completely different to renting. We put down roots, invested in our home, and became part of the community.
“Financially, the shift was even greater. Our home stopped being a cost and became our primary investment.
That early experience not only changed his family’s life but also his ambitions and views.
Smith now sees home ownership not as a dream, but as a right and believes there’s a way to get people out of the ‘rental trap’.
A ‘Matrix moment’
Smith spent over 20 years in banking, rising to senior ranks in large organisations before hitting a turning point eight years ago.
He said: “In 2017, I had a painful realisation: even as CEO, I wouldn’t be able to change the system.
“It was too entrenched. That was my ‘Matrix’ moment.”
Leaving behind aspirations of becoming a bank CEO, he committed himself to create Bloxx – a FinTech platform geared to democratise home ownership.
Rethinking the norm
Smith’s formative banking years, particularly during the 2008 financial crisis, revealed to him that banks primarily act as intermediaries.
He explained: “What if we could create a new type of intermediary? One that doesn’t lend, but enables a different way for money to flow into homes?”
That is now what his startup does, as it is offering a commercial, scalable route to owner equity without debt, while delivering returns to businesses and benefits to buyers and communities.
Do mortgages still work?
According to Smith, the UK home ownership model, reliant on mortgage debt, is now failing its citizens.
“There are two major failures: affordability and supply,” he noted. “Globally, this is a consistent theme.
“Before 2008, easy lending created false demand. After the crash, low interest rates turned housing into an investment vehicle.
“Now homes cost over eight times the average salary. In the past, it was three. That gap is locking people out.
“As interest rates normalise, the system’s fragility is exposed. Build-to-rent models and generational renting are symptoms, not solutions.
“Meanwhile, not enough homes are being built. Bloxx is designed to tackle both issues head-on: to make ownership affordable again, and to stimulate supply.”
Building Bloxx
The model of Smith’s startup aims to bridge the gap between renting and full mortgage ownership, providing security and agency from the outset.
£12m funding reduces Wrisk for InsurTech as it expands into EU
Smith explained: “Bloxx replaces debt with equity. You become an owner from day one with just 1% down.
“We buy the home with you, then you build your equity each month through fixed payments.
“It is a similar amount to rent, but builds ownership. No mortgage, no interest, no loan repayments.”
The Tinder of property
Technology underpins Bloxx, enabling the business. In the future, the company plans to use it for financial education, community connections and integrating web3 tools to create home ownership ecosystems.
“Crucially, Bloxx is tech-enabled, not tech-led,” clarified the former Yorkshire Building Society figure.
“The innovation lies in the model itself. We’ve built a digital system that matches customers with homes, based on data points like income, budget and family structure, key among them being their true affordable budget. Think of it as the ‘Tinder of property’.”
Ready to scale in the UK
Bloxx piloted in New Zealand, validating nearly NZ$2bn in housing demand without marketing. For Smith, that signalled urgency and a plan was put in place to scale elsewhere.
He said: “Bloxx has always been built with our customers. That trust has created a powerful connection, and when we share the model, people immediately see its value.”
He is now on the search for institutional partners in the UK who share Bloxx’s mission as much as its commercial logic.
Scaling without an exit in mind
Smith describes Bloxx as more than a FinTech, but more of a movement without an end date.
Bootstrapped from day one, the company spent two years building institutional-grade infrastructure before launching in New Zealand.
Now, with UK foundations set – legal frameworks, a local team and a live UK transaction under its belt – it is gearing up for national rollout.
“We’re dealing with life’s biggest purchase, a home,” he said. “That takes trust, rigour and care. It also requires a capital model capable to finance the purchasing of up to 100,000 homes demanding a more deliberate, mission-focused strategy.”
“This is not a business being built for a quick exit; I want to lead Bloxx for the rest of my career.
“Talking to our customers’ and understanding the profound effect that a lack of housing access has on their lives has forged an unbreakable bond.
“We are not merely building a startup; we are building a movement with the very people who need us to succeed and we now need to bring the values aligned institutional investors into that relationship.”