The House Crowd reports its developments are ‘heading back to normality’
Developments funded on The House Crowd are set to return to action by the start of May, the peer-to-peer property lending platform has revealed.
Frazer Fearnhead (pictured), chief executive of The House Crowd, said the majority of its sites are already operating either as normal or at 80 per cent capacity.
He said developers have been supported during the lockdown period to ensure they don’t go bust and now many are following the wider housebuilding sector by returning to work while following the social distancing rules.
“The government was keen that construction projects continued throughout the lockdown where possible,” Fearnhead said.
“Shutting some sites was necessary so that various health and safety and social distancing measures could be put in place, and this has now been done.
“All sites, bar two, are now operating either as normal or at 80 per cent capacity, while the remaining two will re-commence work at the start of May.
“We have worked closely with, and fully supported, our developer borrowers throughout this difficult period to allow for the delays in construction.
“It makes no sense for developers to go bust and leave a scheme half-finished which would be detrimental to both developers and our investors.”
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Fearnhead said some developments may be delayed, which will have a knock-on effect on sales.
“We have used this interval period productively and have helped developers to generate a healthy sales pipeline by implementing innovative lead generation campaigns on social media, and pleasingly, they have received a number of reservations from virtual viewings alone,” he added.
“We are cautiously optimistic that the shutdown may in fact lead to the release of many months of pent up demand followed by a flood of property sales when normality resumes.”
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