Family-Run Sevenoaks Letting Agency Helen Breeze Sold After 38 Years

An independent letting agency that has managed homes across Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells since 1988 has been sold to a national property management consolidator, in a deal announced this week.

Helen Breeze Property Management is a single-office business, run from 12 London Road in Sevenoaks since it was founded by Helen Breeze in 1988, with its lettings and management portfolio spread across Sevenoaks, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding villages. It has been acquired by Dwelly, adding around 400 fully managed properties to the buyer's portfolio. Partners Hilary Breeze and Diane Hopkins are selling the business but will stay on through a transition period before retiring. "Having been a family business and an independent agent for so many years, deciding to sell was never going to be something we took lightly," said Hilary Breeze, who described the business as "very well placed for the future" under its new ownership. "It was important to us that we found the right home for Helen Breeze Property Management and, in particular, that our landlords, tenants and team would continue to be well looked after."

The deal is Dwelly's eleventh acquisition of 2026, taking its total portfolio past 15,500 managed properties nationally. Announcing the deal on his own LinkedIn page, Dwelly's Head of Mergers and Acquisitions Sam Humphreys said: "Helen Breeze is a fantastic family run business with an excellent reputation across Sevenoaks and the wider Kent rental market. It's exactly the type of established independent agency we're looking to invest in, with a strong local presence, an experienced team and longstanding relationships with landlords and tenants spanning nearly four decades." He added: "Despite the challenges facing the private rental sector, we remain confident in its long term future and we're committed to investing in the independent agencies and people that make it successful." The acquisition is part of a broader consolidation trend in the lettings sector, where independent agencies are increasingly being bought up by larger operators as regulation and operating costs rise.

Dwelly is a London-based lettings consolidator founded in 2023 by Ilya Drozdov, Dan Lifshits and Dmitry Khanukov - former Uber and Gett executives who had previously built and sold their own tech-enabled lettings agency. Rather than replacing the independent agencies it buys, Dwelly says it keeps their branding, staff and local client relationships in place while adding its own AI-driven tools for payments, maintenance and compliance. The company raised a $170 million Series B in July 2026, backed by EQT Growth, General Catalyst and the CEOs of AI firms ElevenLabs, Legora and Synthesia, alongside a debt facility from Trinity Capital. Helen Breeze joins a growing stable of acquired agencies - including Lime Property, Gallant Richardson, Pennington, Parks Letting and Number 1 Letting - that continue trading under their own names within the Dwelly group.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Source: Sam Humphreys, Dwelly (LinkedIn)