Loanpad P2P - Reviews, experiences, info or updates, post them here. I'm having a dabble.

redpete

JamesRobinson48 said:

Despite financial reservations, I could see the ethical purpose of having a dabble if my money was being lent directly to households that aspire to own a dwelling but somehow can't quite satisfy mainstream lenders. Lending to HMO landlords seems slightly different, given their (very natural) profit motive, although obviously everyone needs housing and HMO may be the best or only option for many.

Dunno what the right answer is, but thanks OP for spotting and highlighting this.

I think I'll stick with REITs for the modest real estate exposure in my own investment portfolio.

Seems a bit of an idealistic spin that funding developers of flats, new builds or conversions is any more "helping households to own a dwelling" than funding developers converting properties to HMOs.

Either might be helping people into accommodation.

I'm undecided on the risk factors of HMO developments compared to others.  Rental income from an HMO would be less lumpy (a single property is all or nothing, with HMOs you are likely to have some rooms rented all the time). There are potential effects of government legislation that could affect the viability or either.  HMOs might be less susceptible to general economic conditions. 

At the moment the record of Loanpad is enough to offset the lower rate of return compared with other P2P schemes - but not enough to increase my investment there relative to others.

Sea_Shell

To me it's about 2-3-4 bedroom homes being taken out of circulation and converted to 6+ unit HMOs.

Whether they would have been to buy or to rent, that's yet another house that's no longer available as a family home. 😞

Today, another 2 new loans, both for 3 bed terraces to be converted to 6 unit HMOs.

masonic

Sea_Shell said:

To me it's about 2-3-4 bedroom homes being taken out of circulation and converted to 6+ unit HMOs.
Whether they would have been to buy or to rent, that's yet another house that's no longer available as a family home. 😞
Today, another 2 new loans, both for 3 bed terraces to be converted to 6 unit HMOs.

Worse than that, it's 6+ individuals or couples packed into what must be pretty unpleasant living conditions.

cfw1994

Sea_Shell said:

cfw1994 said:

Sea_Shell said:

Any thoughts on the above from those of you who have posted on this thread previously and are either in Loanpad or other P2P platforms (what are other platforms doing with regards HMOs?)

@Aceace
@Albermarle
@cfw1994
@redpete
@where_are_we
@arsenepenguin
@older_and_no_wiser
@longleggedhair

Well, we have a tiny amount in Kufflink, & they continue to do what they say on the tin.
Not sure about the HMO point - we really only have a teeny tiny sum invested.  Every now & then feel I should pop some more in, but something, for some reason, stops me 🤷‍♂️

How transparent are Kufflink about how your money is invested (lent)?   Are they moving towards HMOs?   What does it say on their "tin"?

I have a modest (but less than average) amount with Loanpad, and my individual investment on one of the loans mentioned above is about £25, so not much...but if their loan book is moving towards 50% HMO, obviously it's cumulative.

They are generally smaller loans though, individually, so will likely make up less in £££ than in numbers. 

I’ve always felt their details were pretty thorough, but as I say, we only have a small amount.
I’ve been impressed with them over the years, but I guess the fact it is P2P perhaps put me off investing more.  They also offer IFISA as a mechanism for the investments.

Sea_Shell

masonic said:

Sea_Shell said:

To me it's about 2-3-4 bedroom homes being taken out of circulation and converted to 6+ unit HMOs.
Whether they would have been to buy or to rent, that's yet another house that's no longer available as a family home. 😞
Today, another 2 new loans, both for 3 bed terraces to be converted to 6 unit HMOs.

Worse than that, it's 6+ individuals or couples packed into what must be pretty unpleasant living conditions.

Would you want to live next door to one too?

Sea_Shell

@Aceace
Do you have any insight as to why LP have gone from 7 to 8 digit Loan IDs?

Is there any significance between the two?

masonic

Sea_Shell said:

masonic said:

Sea_Shell said:

To me it's about 2-3-4 bedroom homes being taken out of circulation and converted to 6+ unit HMOs.
Whether they would have been to buy or to rent, that's yet another house that's no longer available as a family home. 😞
Today, another 2 new loans, both for 3 bed terraces to be converted to 6 unit HMOs.

Worse than that, it's 6+ individuals or couples packed into what must be pretty unpleasant living conditions.

Would you want to live next door to one too?

I live within 100 meters of a huge student block. Converted from an old care home that closed down - another type of project funded by P2P money. And yes at times the late night thumping music and drunken wailing gets a bit much. But I would be much less happy living in a HMO. Living next to one, who knows? Suspect a neighbouring 6 unit HMO would be better than my current situation. Bad neighbours are generally the problem and those can be found anywhere. So naturally my first thoughts are sympathy towards those being pushed into such a living situation by exploitative landlords. Clearly you and your sister's priorities lie elsewhere. Each to their own.

When I was active in P2P, it was almost exclusively self-select loans. So I could avoid investing in things that didn't sit right with me.

Aceace

Sea_Shell said:

@Aceace
Do you have any insight as to why LP have gone from 7 to 8 digit Loan IDs?

Is there any significance between the two?

It changed to 8 digits as part of the recent (April 2025) website refresh. I think that all of their loan numbers have always started with a nine, so that seems like a wasted digit. Even ignoring the leading nine would have given them a million loan numbers, so I've no idea why they felt the need to add an extra digit. 

Sea_Shell

Thanks.

They're only at #976 😉

If they wanted 7/8 digits (for some reason) they could have just started numbering from 9000000.   Would've lasted them a while.

Would make it much easier to see which loans are oldest/newest too.

Does "commencement date" get ported if you download the loanbook?   I'm not at my laptop, so can't see if that's one of the headings...i seem to think not.

Aceace

They've already used much higher numbers than that. No idea if there's a pattern. Perhaps certain ranges for certain lending partners. 

No, there's no loan start date in the loanbook download.