Lendy – The Property Platform: Five years young and counting

Paul Riddell (pictured), head of marketing and communications at Lendy, explains why investors and borrowers should join the peer-to-peer property lender’s community

OCTOBER 2017 marks five years in the history of Lendy – The Property Platform, having been founded in 2012 by two entrepreneurs with expertise in the e-commerce and financial worlds, who believed that property investing and borrowing should be easier, more accessible and rewarding.

Today, we are one of the fastest growing peer-to-peer property platforms, having lent over £330m via our 17,500 plus community of investors.

P2P lending has flourished since its fruition in 2005 and platforms have cumulatively lent out more than £10bn in the UK and almost £107bn worldwide.

The industry’s benefits are wide-reaching. In an era of historically low interest rates, P2P investors can enjoy highly competitive returns. Eligible borrowers who may struggle to obtain finance from high street banks for a variety of reasons can often find the funding they need. And P2P property lenders, such as Lendy, are playing an important part in helping address the housing crisis – arguably one of the most pressing issues affecting our society.

The platform specialises in offering bridging and development finance to property professionals, funded by our pool of investors.

It is fast and efficient, enabling developers to access finance more quickly than they would with a traditional high street lender. This speeds up the completion of housing development or building projects, providing much-needed real estate that can be sold or rented.

And by cutting out the middle man, borrowers get lower rates of interest on their finance as P2P lenders operate on a basic fee basis.

The benefits for investors are obvious. The process is straightforward and speedy, providing annual returns of up to 12 per cent, paid monthly into their bank accounts. It’s no surprise that Lendy’s investor base has almost doubled since 2016.

While there is a risk involved with all investments, Lendy’s loans are secured with a legal charge and the amount lent never exceeds 70 per cent of the property’s open market value.

This means that in the event of a borrower default, Lendy can typically sell the property and there will be sufficient money recouped to pay back its investors.

These are just some of the measures in place to mitigate risk for investors. The platform also offers robust credit checks, and a discretionary provision fund in the event of a defaulted loan.

With a milestone birthday celebration month, Lendy is one of the only profitable P2P platforms, thanks to a cautious approach and careful risk management strategy.

Our agile methods and low overheads enable us to pass the majority of the interest charged to borrowers back to investors, providing some of the best risk-to-reward ratio returns on the market.

The platform’s investors have collectively earned almost £30m in interest as of August 2017, which has helped to build, buy and restore thousands of properties across the UK.

Although we are still a relatively young company, Lendy also recognizes the importance of corporate responsibility and is keen to provide support, experience and financial help to a number of organisations.

In 2017 this support included the title sponsorship of Lendy Cowes Week for the first time, which brought many benefits to the world-renowned sailing regatta, and gave the company an opportunity to promote the benefits of P2P lending.

We have also sponsored two promising British tennis stars, Katy Dunne and Harriet Dart, at The Championships – Wimbledon this year, and are looking into a partnership with one of the UK’s leading homeless charities.

Lendy is very confident about the future, seeing UK property as one of the most secure financial assets, and one of the most able to weather the ups and downs of the British economy as we navigate a path through Brexit.

So, why not join our fast-growing group of investors and borrowers to help make some of the UK’s biggest and most diverse secured property ventures a reality.

For more information about Lendy, go to https://lendy.co.uk.