Shojin Property Partners closes partnerships in India and the Middle East
Shojin Property Partners has closed local partnerships in India and the Middle East and has set its sights on Europe, Australia, South Africa, Israel and Canada.
The peer-to-peer lending platform forms local partnerships in countries, whereby lenders there invest in its UK real estate loans, before planning to launch investment opportunities abroad.
So far, Shojin Property Partners is operating in Hong Kong, the Middle East and East Africa and has just closed partnerships in India and the Middle East.
In February, Shojin had revealed that it was working on agreements to distribute products through local partnerships in India and the UAE and raised over £850,000 for its first international project outside of the UK, in Malaysia.
Chief executive Jatin Ondhia (pictured) said that the platform often chooses where to expand based on referrals or recommendations from its network of people, such as one of its 200 shareholders who has a connection in another country.
He added that Shojin Property Partners only works on local partnerships abroad that fit its values of transparency and collaboration.
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“The way that we opened these international offices is by joining up with local companies that are very well respected in the local market,” Ondhia said. “We effectively form joint ventures and primarily act as partners to distribute in these countries.
“Everything is done online but culturally different countries have different ways of working so it’s always nice for people to have local connections or an office where they can chat about what Shojin does.
“Primarily it’s to raise money from investors in these countries to invest in the UK real estate market but eventually joint venture partners will introduce local projects that they can invest in.
“The best example where it works well is Hong Kong where we’ve had lots of coverage for several years. Almost half of our investors come from the Far East due to that local partnership. It’s a long-term goal for local deals and recently we introduced deals in Malaysia.
“We’re continuing to explore other countries as well. The beauty of this model is that it doesn’t hit our overheads here, as we locally fund everything. A few countries next on the hitlist are within Europe, we’ve made good connections. Australia is certainly on our hitlist, alongside South Africa, Israel and Canada.”