EstateGuru sees strong summer performance after tightening credit policy
EstateGuru has reported a bumper summer, with investors putting €18.9m (£16.2m) into the platform over July and August, financing 200 new property projects.
The European peer-to-peer lending platform said that it repaid investors €30.4m over the period, including €3m in earned income.
Read more: EstateGuru recovers €500k from defaulted German loans
“We saw some investors becoming more cautious in the fall and winter, but now they are back and actively investing money in new projects,” said EstateGuru chief executive Mihkel Stamm.
“The increase in their lending activity has largely been in the same rhythm as the increase in activity in the real estate sector.”
EstateGuru has been grappling with high default rates in its loan book, following a “turbulent” 2022 due to macroeconomic pressures. The platform, which slashed its international workforce by more than a third last year and reduced its external development costs to sustain the business, has taken measures to reduce investor risk.
“The selection of projects has become even stricter, we have increased the LTV requirements for guarantees, and since July, the projects we offer have a rating based on Moody’s assessment,” said Stamm.
And last month, EstateGuru revealed that it had reduced the upper borrower limits on new loans and had decided to “no longer engage in large-scale development projects, ensuring a prudent and focused approach to project selection.”
EstateGuru has seen €66m invested into its platform this year to date. It has 160,000 users worldwide, with 7,000 of them joining in 2023.