CapitalRise reports growth in loan volumes despite pandemic
CapitalRise has facilitated 37.5 per cent greater loan volumes in the first five months of this year, compared to its total lending over its first 18 months of operation.
The prime property lender told Peer2Peer Finance News that it has seen a 90 per cent increase in funding requests from property developers recently, as many other lenders have withdrawn from the market.
It closed three loan facilities totalling over £5.4m within the first few weeks of lockdown.
10 of CapitalRise’s live loans are funding ongoing developments and all of the platform’s sites have remained open during lockdown whilst implementing social distancing and increased hygiene.
It expects minor delays to these projects due to the pandemic but these will be absorbed into its standard time contingencies.
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“I believe this is the time for the new breed of alternative, agile lenders which can manoeuvre with the situation and aren’t weighed down by large, incumbent structures or overheads, to take more ground,” said Uma Rajah (pictured), chief executive of CapitalRise.
“Since lockdown began, we’ve completed three deals and the demand from developers is still very strong. As standard, our loans are structured to withstand significant amounts of stress – we’ve had zero investment losses or investment defaults to date and don’t see any on the horizon.
“We have been successfully lending in an uncertain market ever since we founded the business and we’re proud of our ability to carefully select and expertly underwrite only the finest quality lending opportunities.
“We continue to focus only on high-quality opportunities that meet with our rigorous due diligence standards and our investors are only ever offered investment opportunities in loans that have met our strict criteria.”
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Rajah said the prime property market, which CapitalRise operates in, has always proven to be the most resilient part of the UK property sector and will be less affected by Covid-19.
“While we expect an impact on all areas of the property market, we expect the prime property market to be less affected, and expect it to bounce back significantly faster,” said Rajah.
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