Exclusive: P2P property lending nears £5bn
Peer-to-peer property lenders have lent out almost £5bn to date, exclusive new research from Peer2Peer Finance News has revealed.
Among the 23 P2P property platforms currently operating in the UK, just over £4.865bn in cumulative lending had been reported by August 2022.
The largest lenders are Assetz Capital, which has loaned £1.5bn to date; and property bridging and development lender Sancus, which has loaned £1bn. Assetz Capital has returned more than £200m to investors in interest payments alone, since it was established in 2012.
“Assetz continues to play a significant and indeed growing contribution to the UK small- and medium-sized (SME) housebuilder sector,” said Andrew Charnley, managing director of Assetz Capital.
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“Our success to date and what underpins our future ambitions, is our deep knowledge of the UK market, the depth of experience which our colleagues have and the close working relationships with both our customers and wider stakeholders.
“Whilst the next 12 to 18 months will certainly provide challenges, Assetz will continue to provide high levels of support and funding to the sector in order to ensure that regional housebuilders are able to not only meet demand for new housing but also support the communities in which they work and sustain a wide range of trades. In so doing, we directly contribute to UK Plc.”
Folk2Folk has a total loanbook value of just over £500m, with more than half of this – £275m – going to fund UK properties.
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Four property platforms have recently passed the £200m loanbook milestone: CrowdProperty, SoMo, Kuflink and CapitalRise.
These four platforms are all in scale-up mode at present, with CrowdProperty recently expanding into the Australian market, and Kuflink aiming to double the size of its loanbook within the next 12 months.
Another three platforms are hot on their heels. Invest & Fund has lent out £196m to date, while Downing Crowd has arranged £182m of debt facilities.
Over the past 10 years, alternative property lenders have helped thousands of SME housebuilders, landlords and homeowners carry out billions of pounds worth of improvements, renovations and new builds.
Read more: CapitalRise secures new funding line to boost lending
CrowdProperty – the fourth largest property lender with a cumulative loanbook of £241.7m – has estimated that its loans have helped to fund £557m worth of properties, and created more than 2,500 homes.
These calculations suggest that the P2P property market has contributed far in excess of £5bn towards the UK economy, helping to get essential funding to the property sector even during the turmoil of the Covid-19 lockdown era.
And the sector is showing no signs of slowing down. Last month, both CapitalRise and Assetz Capital announced that they had secured new funding lines, enabling them to scale up their lending further. CrowdProperty, Assetz Capital, EasyMoney and SoMo have all reported new lending records in recent months, while Shojin and Kuflink are among those platforms expanding into new areas, both geographically and sectorally.
This suggests that P2P property lenders are ready to meet the challenges of the housing crisis and ramp up their lending even further, while delivering market-beating returns to investors.
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