Peer-to-peer lending sites: MSE guide discussion

Aceace

Otis71 said:

Evening all,
Newish P2P dabbler here, so still looking across various operators so I can spread the platform risk.
One I've looked at is Kuflink, which I recall getting some decent reviews in the past. However, looking at the Companies House records of the various group companies, their accounts are VERY overdue - the last ones filed are for June 2018.
I'll be avoiding them for now of course, but is there anything on the grapevine that I've missed?

Hi @Otis71, I've had some small investments with Kuflink over a couple of years now. I've had 17 loans complete successfully. A few repaid late, but that's to be expected with development loans, and were handled satisfactorily by Kuflink. One of my current loans is in default/administration, but it looks like the security will very easily make a full recovery of capital and interest.

As for the CH issue, it would be worth asking Kuflink the direct question. I've found then responsive to questions in the past. Please keep us updated if you do.  I'm an avid reader of the P2P forums and haven't heard anything relevant. 

If you like Kuflink then CrowdProperty or Loanpad might be worth a look. Good luck. 

keyboardworrier

In my opinion , it might be better to wait until the current situation has passed before investing into P2P loans - they are risky at the best of times.

Albermarle

If you fancy a punt , Then with Assetz Capital , there is a facility to buy loans at a discount from lenders trying to get their money out . Current discount is around 7 to 8% . Although the platform is most likely going to survive ( in my opinion ) it is not clear whether this discount is high enough for the ( difficult to assess ) risks involved . Most of the loans are related to property development , which sounds difficult in the current situation. On the other hand the building industry is very busy/buoyant at the moment .

Froggitt2

I was invested in Landbay, a Property P2P. They fully repaid all their retail investors earlier in the year, saying that they could not make money giving 3% to 3.5% interest to investors.
Kuflink are giving generally around 7%, plus all sorts of cashback incentives. I've moved my money out of Kuflink.

Aceace

Froggitt2 said:

I was invested in Landbay, a Property P2P. They fully repaid all their retail investors earlier in the year, saying that they could not make money giving 3% to 3.5% interest to investors.
Kuflink are giving generally around 7%, plus all sorts of cashback incentives. I've moved my money out of Kuflink.

Landbay operated at the very safest end of the P2P sector. They lent £450m over 6 years with no losses. If they reopened to retail investors in today's environment they could probably attract significant deposits at 2.5%. The nearest P2P Operator still open to retail lenders today is probably Loanpad. They aren't directly comparable as Landbay offered BTL loans at low LTVs whereas Loanpad offer a mix of bridging and development loans (also at low LTVs) but offer a higher rate. Having said that, the difference isn't as great as that makes it sound as the development loans on Loanpad are mostly on developments that are near to, or at, completion.

Kuflink operate higher up the risk/reward curve, mainly lending on development loans at an earlier point in the development lifecycle, hence higher risk. They've shown themselves to be competent and professional thus far. I'm happy to lend with them, but they certainly have some loans that I wouldn't lend on as I think they don't offer sufficient rates for the risk,  particularly on their higher tier loans. 

Froggitt2

Another property P2P, Bricklane. I'm glad I didn't invest in them a few years ago. Their main portfolio, Regional Capitals, has 127 properties, generally flats, of which 85 need the EWS1 external wall certificate - the one following the Grenfell fire. I would expect current investors to be sitting on a significant loss of capital, both now (if they could sell) and once remediated - stories in the national newspapers talk about remediation costs between £50K and £100K per unit.
Having said that, their "current valuation assumption" is that new investors wouldn't bear any remediation costs, however I would want that signed in blood before even thinking about investing.

Otis71

Aceace said:

Otis71 said:

Evening all,
Newish P2P dabbler here, so still looking across various operators so I can spread the platform risk.
One I've looked at is Kuflink, which I recall getting some decent reviews in the past. However, looking at the Companies House records of the various group companies, their accounts are VERY overdue - the last ones filed are for June 2018.
I'll be avoiding them for now of course, but is there anything on the grapevine that I've missed?

Hi @Otis71, I've had some small investments with Kuflink over a couple of years now. I've had 17 loans complete successfully. A few repaid late, but that's to be expected with development loans, and were handled satisfactorily by Kuflink. One of my current loans is in default/administration, but it looks like the security will very easily make a full recovery of capital and interest.

As for the CH issue, it would be worth asking Kuflink the direct question. I've found then responsive to questions in the past. Please keep us updated if you do.  I'm an avid reader of the P2P forums and haven't heard anything relevant. 

If you like Kuflink then CrowdProperty or Loanpad might be worth a look. Good luck. 

Had a reply from Kuflink ...

"Our accounts being filed are currently overdue, this is because of Covid-19 has caused various delays both our end and with our auditors.

We anticipate filing to be completed over the next few weeks, as we are working closely to get this completed."

Desm0nd

RateSetter are still only working in releases from the Access account made on 13th March so it’s going to be a long time before people will see their money.
At the moment Zopa are still allowing weekly repayments to be put into your holding account for withdrawal.

royroberts322

I have a rate setter account instant release at 1.5%. I requested release of some money not all in June this year. I am still waiting and am 16000 in the queue. got to be some serious off course matters going on in ratesetter. 

DireEmblem

I wonder if any p2p houses will share any statistics - this year is a really good stress test for the product.