The House Crowd targets institutions as it looks to raise £50m

THE HOUSE Crowd is looking to raise £50m over the next 12 months as it targets institutional money for the first time.

The property peer-to-peer finance platform has recently secured £1m from an equity fundraising among its 1300-strong investor base, which it will use to galvanise its expansion plans.

Part of the proceeds was used to hire Paul Stallard as chief marketing officer, who is in charge of attracting institutions such as family offices to invest in the platform.

Stallard, who started his new role on Monday 3 October, has previously held the role of head of business development at fund supermarket Hargreaves Lansdown.

“We’re hoping to raise half of our £50m target from institutional investors. We’re just getting started with our strategy, but it will be a major part of the business if we can get them involved,” said founder and chief executive Frazer Fearnhead (pictured).

“It’s the right time; we’ve been around for five years, we’ve proven we can get solid returns and no-one has lost any capital.”

The Cheshire-based platform will also use the £1m raised to launch an income property fund by the end of the year, which will come under the self-invested personal pension (SIPP) umbrella and offer eight or nine per cent returns for retail investors.

The House Crowd offers secured loans against property, which give investors returns of around nine per cent, as well as development loans for housebuilding projects in the North West of England, which offer returns between 10 and 13 per cent.