Liar Loans Reborn

thequant

A lender offering controversial self-certification mortgages – a type of home loan banned by the City regulator – claims more than 4,000 potential borrowers have registered their interest following its launch on 18 January.

But there are question marks over whether the lender, Selfcert.co.uk, will be able to cope with the demand it has created.

On Wednesday afternoon its website was offline, with a holding message stating that it “won’t be able to satisfy demand for the vast majority of those that have already contacted us”, while its phone helpline carried a recorded message telling callers that “this mailbox is full”.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jan/20/self-cert-mortgage-lender-borrowers

catwoman73

More than 4000 people interested. One of the reports on this company said that they had an initial £30 million of funding.

Even if they rejected half those 4000 people, the average mortgage they would be able to offer the rest would be just £15k.

Or if they gave mortgages of an average of £100k, they would satisfy just 300 people, before the money ran out.

Nice idea, but doesn't really sound workable on the numbers quoted. Their investors would have to take substantially less than 2.5% return for the operation to be profitable and surely that's ridiculously low for something with risk attached?

mwpt

catwoman73 wrote: »

Nice idea

Really? I mean, P2P lending is great and all but....

but doesn't really sound workable on the numbers quoted. Their investors would have to take substantially less than 2.5% return for the operation to be profitable and surely that's ridiculously low for something with risk attached?

Yes, agreed, I previously said:

But it sounds a bit barmy from an investment perspective to me. That is unsecured lending, at ridiculously low rates to people for whom you have no risk profile. I think I'll avoid.

I'd actually really like it if this wasn't a dead end (it is) just to see what the outcome of P2P lending to homebuyers would be. We'd see just how high interest rates should be (*), rather than the state subsidised low rates we currently have.

(*) Higher, but even then I think people are bad at pricing risk.

dktreesea

The site is now up. It seems they have so little start up capital that they say they can only provide funding for 200 mortgages to start with.

DiggerUK

dktreesea wrote: »

The site is now up. It seems they have so little start up capital that they say they can only provide funding for 200 mortgages to start with.

After trawling through all the sites on the p2p forum, I spotted a few ways that platforms benefited by 'alternative' avenues for borrowers. The standard wording was something like this....'not everybody can benefit from our blah,blah,blah........and we can introduce you to our carefully selected associates'......the rates via the alternatives were telephone number amounts.

What I suspect this character is aiming for, is to get loads of enquirers and 'carefully select' them for his Genesis.co crowdfunding venture launching later this year........just musing. After all, 2% over base is nothing to shout about on unsecured lending, you would do better to see a financial adviser (did I really just say that!!!!)..._

Graham_Devon

dktreesea wrote: »

The site is now up. It seems they have so little start up capital that they say they can only provide funding for 200 mortgages to start with.

You'd have to be pretty stupid to sign up to anything with them anyway.

They lack even a set of terms and conditions on submitting your data to them. They lack a privacy policy too.

Basically simply handing your details to all and sundry.

Looks like they will be asking for documents too, looking at their list of e-mail addresses.

Pity the poor unfortunate who goes along with it all.

DiggerUK

Generali wrote: »

Interestingly they still seem to be offline:https://www.selfcert.co.uk/

Prepare for bumpy bumpy monday..._

Generali

DiggerUK wrote: »

Prepare for bumpy bumpy monday..._

Claiming to be back. We'll see.

Thrugelmir

DiggerUK wrote: »

After all, 2% over base is nothing to shout about on unsecured lending,

People would bite your hand off for rates at that level.

mwpt

Thrugelmir wrote: »

People would bite your hand off for rates at that level.

Borrowers or lenders? There is no way as a lender I'd touch something like this, without substantial yield return.

Our friend cells says he would invest at these low rates, if he wasn't too busy putting all his money into something more lucrative. Well, same here, like a regular bank account.