LandlordInvest mulls move into development finance
LANDLORDINVEST is considering expanding into property development finance as the platform looks to grow its investor base over 2017.
Filip Karadaghi, co-founder of the buy-to-let focused peer-to-peer lender, said there is an “interesting gap in the market” for development finance.
“We have noticed quite a significant demand for development loans and believe that there is an interesting gap that could potentially be addressed, given that many larger lenders tend to stay away from development financing,” he told Peer2Peer Finance News.
“However, offering development finance loans would require us to ramp up our expertise including external hires, as development financing loans requires specialist knowledge, and may not be suitable for all investors as it requires that the investors are able to assess real estate developments to fully understand their risk.”
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Looking ahead, Karadaghi said attracting more lenders will be a priority.
“One of main challenges will be to continue to build an investor base, and establish our own niche in an industry that is quite saturated,” he said. “We will be actively communicating our unique selling points to the investor community and focusing on developing our business model’s strengths.
Read more: LandlordInvest’s IFISA customers invest 19pc more money
“Another challenge will be to continue sourcing and identifying loans that meet the platform’s criteria.
“Finally, compliance and security is of the utmost importance. We have to ensure that we run compliant operations at all times and that there are no data or IT breaches comprising the data that
we hold.”
Read more: LandlordInvest adds flexibility to IFISA