Peer-to-Peer Lending That Builds on Banks!

Hundreds of UK property developers with attractive products are crying out for investors to plug the gap left by the banking crisis.

Big deal, you say. But possibly too big.

The hefty sums needed to fund a new factory or office block are simply out of the reach of most investors unless you go through REITs or collectives. But then you lose control and the thrill of involvement.

So for most of us, the grim reality of investing in property is slogging away at small residential stuff, shops and industrial units – with the attendant headaches of borrowing from banks, PGs and management headaches – not to mention the equity risk.

But a new service launches this week that might give you a considerable leg up into the headier heights of property Nirvana.

It’s the brainchild of two experienced former North-West bank managers who specialised for decades in the property industry. It’s called CapitalStackers, and it’s a brilliant solution to the small investor’s dilemma.

Very often, banks will lend 55-65% towards the cost of a viable project, but no more. The developer will obviously have some equity of his own, so it just needs someone to plug the gap between the two.

Obviously, that in itself is too big a leap for most investors. But here’s the clever bit.

Simply put, CapitalStackers “stacks” private funding on top of bank lending in order to reach the level required to finance a property scheme – in other words, it actually works with active banks rather than pushing them out.

Investors can then choose where in the “stack” of finance they’d like to invest – picking their own level of risk and return, which management team they prefer, which projects they’d like to get involved with – and they can even spread their risk at different levels within the same project.

It typically brings in returns of between 5% and 20% – and one of its most attractive features is that the investment is secured against the underlying property assets being financed.

It’s certain to be of interest to people looking to invest through their pension funds at a sensible risk/reward ratio. In addition to the bank’s due diligence process to get the project off the ground in the first place, the CapitalStackers team perform comprehensive risk analysis and ongoing monitoring of your investment.

Which means investors benefit in the following ways: (a) the lending risk analysis process is doubled up; (b) phased funding of ongoing construction is more suited to a bank than individual investors whose cash goes in first and gets an immediate return; (c) senior debt gearing means you can use your cash to access more or larger deals; and, (d) cheaper senior debt enhances the return on your investment.

So for the investor seeking more attractive risk-weighted rewards, this could be the future of property investing.