£100M-Plus Birmingham Property Lender Steps Up As Banks Step Back
Birmingham-based property lender CrowdProperty has been named as one of Europe’s fastest growing companies, as alternative lenders step in where banks fear to tread.
CrowdProperty, which signed for offices in Edgbaston last year, were a new entry in the Financial Times’ list of fastest growing European businesses, placed at 134th.
The peer-to-peer property lender uses a tech platform to match investors with SME property professionals. Founded in 2014, it specialises in short-term loans, so far facilitating 13,612 investors lending £116M.
Its growth comes as clearing banks withdraw from a swathe of property lending opportunities amidst uncertainty about the economy. Data from the Business School at City University showed that lending was down 34% in the first six months, with a fifth of all lenders staying out of the market entirely.
This has created an opportunity for private equity backed new entrants such as Silbury, backed by U.S. private equity giant Oaktree, and Precis Capital, backed by TowerBrook Capital Partners. It has also opened the door to fast-moving lending platforms.
“We’re on a trajectory to continue growing as rapidly as we have done, underpinned by a highly scalable, in-house built, proprietary technology platform, scalable capital sources and deep expertise in exactly the asset class being lent against,” CrowdProperty co-founder Michael Bristow said.
In November CrowdProperty announced it had paid £50M back to investors as loans were repaid or refinanced by borrowers. This followed the October 2020 announcement that it had agreed £100M total lending, enabling more than £200M worth of property development.
