Greystar

Services

Platforms

Overview

Slashing digital time-to-market with multi-site factory

As a global leader in rental housing, Greystar has always understood the value of delivering exceptional living experiences. But with a UK portfolio of assets under management worth $15.6 billion and over 30 property brands and a growing footprint across Europe, the company set out to build something bigger: a digital ecosystem that could evolve alongside its residents.

From student accommodation to family homes, the goal is to support renters through every stage of their housing journey with personalized, connected experiences that grow as they do.

In just five months, we built Greystar a “multi-site factory”: the foundations to create new and consistent digital brand experiences across its portfolio at pace. This has been used to launch fresh digital experiences for five Greystar brands, with more to follow. The multi-site factory’s design system, reusable components, and centralized governance frameworks mean each new launch takes just eight weeks – substantially faster than under Greystar’s previous model.

Reinventing real estate

Watch Ben Parkinson, Senior Director of Digital at Greystar, and George Smith, Regional Managing Director (MEIA) at Horizontal Digital, as they unpack the strategy, challenges and transformation behind Canvas World at Sitecore City Tour London 2025.

The situation

A fragmented digital landscape that slowed innovation

Scaling a world-class digital experience across dozens of brands required more than a new look. With a patchwork of content management systems, siloed marketing teams, and inconsistent user experiences (UX), new property sites were costly and time-consuming to launch. Keeping them up-to-date was then labor-intensive. And there was no opportunity for centralized governance or brand control.

Greystar needed to reimagine the way it delivered digital, to unlock the unified, renter-first journeys it aspired to.

The response

The multi-site factory: Built once, launched everywhere

With a five-month runway to deliver the first new brand experience, Horizontal hit the ground running. The team kicked off with UX audits and deep-dive stakeholder workshops to align on Greystar’s goals and define a clear roadmap.

At the heart of the solution was Greystar’s vision to build a “multi-site factory”: a systemized, scalable approach that consists of reusable website components, consolidating platforms and team alignment. This model reduces cost and dramatically accelerates time-to-market for additional brands, while ensuring consistent, high-quality experiences across every segment.

Key moves included:

Component-first SitecoreAI build: A multi-site framework to support faster future brand and site launches.
Tokenized Figma design system: Reusable, brand-flexible components built for speed and consistency.
Custom middleware layer: Streamlined integration with Greystar’s existing property management systems and Salesforce, enabling real-time data capture, lead routing and performance analytics to power smarter marketing and sales engagement.
Global agile delivery: Cross-functional teams across the UK, US, South Africa, India and Dubai working in sync.

The outcome is a composable digital experience platform built for scale, launched with the Canvas World brand as the exemplar, and subsequently scaled out across Greystar’s portfolio.

We didn’t just launch a site – together we flipped the switch on a smarter, faster way to scale globally. The initial site went live in five months, but the real milestone is what it unlocks: consistency, flexibility and a blueprint for lifelong digital engagement.

Senior Director of Digital | Ben Parkinson

The results

A blueprint for continued growth

Greystar now has a global platform that enables it to personalize, optimize and scale renter experiences across every stage of life. Key achievements included:

On time, on budget: Multi-site factory delivered in just five months.
Faster time-to-market for additional brands: The multi-site factory has enabled Greystar’s District Living, Momento, Accolade, and Sailmakers brands to launch at speed, each taking just eight weeks – freeing up substantial amounts of team time for strategic work.
Enhanced cross-regional collaboration: A single platform for multiple countries and languages, with centralized governance.
Streamlined content management: Consistent, modernized management platform and processes across the business, resulting in greater marketing agility.
Improved UX: Consistent brand experiences, faster load times, better SEO.
Smart, reusable middleware connecting to major booking platforms including Entrata, Yardi, StarRez, Mews.

And the groundwork is laid for what’s next: brand-aware AI agents that deliver intelligent, human-like interactions, evolving with each renter from their first lease to their family home and beyond.

This vision looks well beyond today’s booking needs. The long-term ambition? To create a “digital twin” of each customer – a living profile that helps Greystar anticipate and respond to needs over time, unlocking tailored, AI-powered experiences at every stage of the renter journey.

Immediate outcomes

169%Increase in booking conversions
1.2xImproved engagement rate in less than one month
45xFewer 404 errors in less than one month
26xIncrease in traffic in just three weeks post launch

Let's chat

Need help building a digital experience that scales and converts? Horizontal can help. Reach out and let's get started.

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