Landlords could soon be paid their rent via payment cards rather than bank transfer after a Spanish company said it plans to launch in the UK.

Silk, which enables tenants to get cashback when paying their rent, recently raised some £700,000 in funding from investors and predicts it will reach a monthly turnover of £2.8 million by summer 2025.

Its CEO Miguel Linera (main image) says the firm, which launched in late 2023 within Spain, is now eyeing both Berlin and London as new markets to introduce its service, which is accessed via a smartphone app.

Cashback

The company’s app is claimed to be the first of its kind in the world to offer tenants ‘cashback’. It enables those who pay their rent to accumulate points which can then be redeemed against goods and services including food and drinks, clothing, footwear and tech from some 150 companies.

High profile partners include Marriott, WeWork, Nike, Adidas, Miravia, AliExpress, Samsung and Dyson.

Tenants are required to pay their rent via a dedicated Silk payment card, so when it does launch in the UK landlords can expect to face requests from renters to pay this way rather than through bank transfers.

40,000 tenants

Silk says that its card will be launched during early 2025 at the latest and that it is hoping to reach 40,000 tenants during its first 12 months of full operation.

The company, which is at an early stage of development having test launched this Spring, is similar in many ways to Bilt, a tenant rewards scheme that has been running since 2021 in the US.

Tenants in the UK can earn rewards through other services too, including CreditLadder, which enables tenants to report their rent payments to the big credit referencing agencies such as Experian and Equipfax.