New P2P property lender launches in Ireland
PROPERTY Bridges, a new Irish peer-to-peer property lender, is hoping to help SME developers that are still struggling for finance following the country’s property crash a decade ago.
The platform officially launched last Friday to raise money for small developers, medium-sized construction firms and private companies looking to develop housing and match them with thousands of lenders “from the ordinary citizens of Ireland”.
It is aiming to fund over 100 projects, totalling over €100m (£88.7m) of lending in the next three years. The average loan size will be approximately €1.1m and investors will be able to put in as little as €500 up to a maximum of €100,000, for returns of around eight per cent.
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The first loan – a €250,000 Dublin housing project – has already gone live on the site and to date has raised €45,000. It has a loan rate of 8.5 per cent on a 12-month term.
A second loan is expected to go live in the next 10 days.
“We want to re-energise the small development and construction industry in Ireland,” said founder and chief executive David Jelly.
“The Irish public has over €90bn sitting in deposit and savings accounts doing nothing, making zero or next to zero return. At the same time, we have a housing and property development crisis. What if we matched these two situations together and had a platform to allow them work together for a Win-Win solution?”
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Property Bridges is planning to offer different products within the Irish market such as site acquisition, refurbishment and bridging finance. It also plans to expand into other European countries that are undergoing similar difficulties with development finance.
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