Invest & Fund sees huge demand for newly-launched IFISA

Invest & Fund has seen huge demand from new investors for its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA), which was launched in June.

The peer-to-peer property lender launched its IFISA –  which targets returns of 7.5 per cent from residential property development loans – on a selected basis in November 2019, before bringing it to market in June.

Graham Martin, head of lender relationships at Invest & Fund, said the IFISA has attracted new investors to the platform and most lenders have been putting in the full £20,000.

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“We’ve been pleased with it,” he said.

“It’s been a challenging time to launch a new product but it’s performing well and we’re happy with it.

“We’ve had more and more subscriptions come in. It’s definitely been a useful string to our bow, having that additional product offering.”

Read more: Investors will look to IFISAs when the pandemic ends

Martin said that over the past few months Invest & Fund has been funding more drawdowns for developments, despite the pandemic.

The platform has also seen liquidity in its secondary market where lenders who want to sell are able to do so without any restrictions or interventions from the platform, Martin added.

Since lockdown restrictions have eased the lender has started to see a rise in enquiries and Martin said that although it is difficult to tell, Invest & Fund may benefit from the government raising the stamp duty threshold to £500,000.

This is because the platform typically invests in apartments and houses within this price range, and the stamp duty cut is expected to help these sales.

“I think the residential property market has held up well, which is where we are at, by luck or design, and is a good place to be,” Martin said.

“Most of what we’re hearing from the government is supportive of industry, getting houses built and getting the economy moving.

“There was the cut in stamp duty, Boris Johnson’s “build, build, build” recovery and the government allowed workers to open up constructions sites earlier than most of the economy if they implemented social distancing policies.”