Visit The CrowdProperty Website

What is CrowdProperty?

CrowdProperty (not to be confused with Property Crowd, which is a totally different company) is a Peer to Peer lender based in the United Kingdom specializing in property secured bridging & development loans with low LTV’s.

All loans have 1st legal charge on the assets being loaned against. Meaning should the loan default, CrowdProperty’s investors are first to get capital repaid once the asset is sold. Before other lenders who may have extended credit with a lower legal charge.

Loans also all have LTV’s less than 70% of the starting value of the development site. This means in the event of a default, the site in question would only need to sell at 70% of it’s valuation in order to pay back investors funds from the loan. 

CrowdProperty is laser-focused on low-risk loans, and benefits from a lending team with over 100 years of lending experience. Loans are vetted very thoroughly, evidenced by the fact that to date, all loans have been fully repaid. No lender has lost money in the time they have been in business. You can check current statistics here.

Moreover, founders of the company have a wealth of experience in property development, and are quite capable and willing to step in and manage a development to completion and sale, should that be necessary.

Loan flow is very reasonable for loans of this quality, issuing between 5 & 10 loans per month. This means an investor will be able to get well diversified over time and also should be able to distribute a good amount of capital reasonably quickly. 

Easy-Info Table^©– CrowdProperty Review

My Overall Investment Experiences…..

I have been investing with CrowdProperty now for over 3 years. At first I was very impressed with them, however over time I have become less-so.

There are a few issues that irritate me, the main one of which is they advertise returns of up to 8% however my XIRR over 3 years has been closer to 5%. This is not a terrible number compared to the whole P2P industry, however the fact that it’s impossible to exit loans once you’re in (no secondary market) and also it’s a lot of work getting into loans as you have to be sat by your computer when loans are released and rush to get in before they fill up makes for a lot of work.

The other issue that’s really irritating is that many of their loans now go to auto-invest only. This wouldn’t be a problem if their auto-invest actually worked well to distribute capital, but it doesn’t unfortunately. It only puts a small amount of each investors capital into each loan. The last few loans I tried I had £20k+ waiting to be invested, but the auto-invest only put in £50 into each loan. That’s going to take a long time to get capital distributed and meanwhile we have cash sat in the account making nothing..

In summary, I still like CrowdProperty for smaller investment amounts and diversification, but for the work (for me personally) it’s not worth the return. I’ll be moving most of my withdrawn capital from CrowdProperty to Kuflink, easyMoney & Assetz Exchange.

My latest lending experiences can always be found in my Monthly Portfolio Updates.

Visit The CrowdProperty Website

My CrowdProperty Investment Strategy.

I will be drawing down my main CrowdProperty account as loans are paid back and eventually just leaving my ISA there (a little over £10k) as hopefully that amount will be able to stay invested using auto-invest.

Latest Update & Current State of Account

I’m drawing down most of my CrowdProperty account. Please see the “Overall Investment Experience” section above for more information on why.

Account Screenshots

Latest Screenshots from my personal account.

CrowdProperty Return Charts

(Click on image for interactive chart)

Detailed Overview – CrowdProperty Review

When Did CrowdProperty Launch? History

CrowdProperty’s Peer to Peer platform was founded in November 2014. As of the date of this CrowdProperty review, they have lent over £125m on properties with overall values of over £256m. They currently have over 15,000 investors all of whom have been paid back on time. You can see current statistics here.

CrowdProperty is quite unique in that it has built relationships with a large market of property developers to which it has direct, exclusive access to loans from. This means it doesn’t have to pay loan brokerage fees which can be very expensive so overhead and loan costs are kept down for the platform, borrower and investor.

In 2018 the platform just about broke even, and by 2020 they were showing profitability. This adds to the stability of the company considering most Peer to Peer lenders are still operating at a large loss.

Are CrowdProperty Regulated?

CrowdProperty are authorised & regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with full permissions under FCA number 723959  

They gained FCA permissions in September, 2017.

It’s important to note in this CrowdProperty review that the FCA is not the same as the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme), so capital is not protected as it would be in a bank.

How Many Loans Do CrowdProperty Offer?

One of the things I really like about the CrowdProperty website is the ability to scroll down and see their loan pipeline. This can change, but it gives an idea of what loans are coming, and more importantly, when. So you can plan to be at your computer to grab a piece of them.

Who are we lending to with CrowdProperty?

CrowdProperty is a true Peer to Peer platform.  Lenders are lending directly to borrowers who are typically very experienced property developers. Many of whom the company knows & trusts as they are return clients who have taken out loans for other developments.

Loan agreements are directly between the lender (investor) and the borrower. The platform just acts as a middle man, managing loans, payments and debt collection etc. The platform does add an extra layer of safety which needs to be mentioned in my CrowdProperty review; their ability to take over and manage projects to completion and sale, should it be required. This is much better than having to repossess a defaulted property which can take years to gain ownership over and dispose of. Instead developments could be completed and sold in a matter of weeks or months.

Loan Security – Is CrowdProperty Safe?

I consider CrowdProperty to be relatively safe (relative to other Peer to Peer lenders offering bridging and development loans). All loans are property secured with low LTV’s and 1st legal charge. They provide very detailed information about their loans, including detailed descriptions of the deal and valuations of assets etc. to help you make your own lending decisions. All documents associated with the valuation. Plans, maps and multiple photographs of everything to do with the loan are freely available. Remember though; this is Peer to Peer lending and nothing is 100% safe. Economics can change at any time as can borrowers financial situations.

Also available is a copy of the Pre-launch webinar if you were unable to attend it live. There are many launch videos freely available on YouTube if you search for “CrowdProperty Video”.

Do CrowdProperty Loans Amortize?

Some loans amortize, meaning you receive capital and interest payments every month. Many loans are interest only though, and many are all capital and interest returned at the end of the loan term. Nothing on a month-to-month payment schedule.

This is quite common with shorter term bridging & development loans as it allows the developer to focus on finishing the project without having to find the capital for a large loan repayment each month. It is one of the reasons these loans, although safer and more secure than most, still pay the higher interest rates.

When loans amortize, it typically reduces loan risk compared to a non-amortizing loan, in which nothing is received until the end of the loan period, or only interest is received monthly and then the capital repaid at the end of the loan period.

Does CrowdProperty have a Provision Fund?

There is no provision fund available with the platform as of the date of this CrowdProperty review.

You are relying on their ability to seek out safe profitable loans, and your due-diligence on each loan. Asset security on the loans are very good though so even if a loan were to default, chances are you would still get your money back eventually.

Does CrowdProperty Offer a Tax Efficient ISA Account?

While researching this CrowdProperty review, I found that the CrowdProperty ISA (Innovative Finance ISA) was launched in February 2018 for UK residents enabling tax free investments for Peer to Peer lenders.

Does CrowdProperty offer Auto-Invest?

In this CrowdProperty review, we can see that loans can be invested into automatically if you are not able to sit glued to your computer for each loan release. I have yet to invest through auto-invest but it is quite simple to set up. You just deposit your capital into the auto-invest portfolio, and tell it how much to lend into each project.

A nice feature is; you can choose to “skip next project” which allows you to do due diligence on each project before auto-investing. So if you don’t like it, you can skip it.

The only thing I’m not fond of with auto-invest is that it will only invest up to a maximum of 20% or your overall portfolio value. This is not a problem once you get a few loans under your belt, but at first it means you might see a bit of cash drag with auto-invest.

I chose to do select-invest loans at first, then I’ll switch to auto-invest once I get a few loans under my belt.

How does CrowdProperty work?

How Can I Signup with CrowdProperty?

While researching my CrowdProperty review, I found that opening an account is fairly easy. Just the usual ID and anti-money laundering checks.

You’ll need to send them a copy of your passport or driving license, and a utility bill or bank statement less than 3 months old.

Any resident of the UK or EU who is 18 years old or over can signup with CrowdProperty if they can pass the ID & anti-money laundering checks.

A UK bank account is also required to signup. If you don’t have a UK bank account, see my Wise review as their Borderless Account might help. 

How Can I Make Deposits & Withdrawals with CrowdProperty?

Deposits are made by bank transfer from a UK bank.

Typically deposits will show up in your account the same or next working day.

Withdrawals are directly to a UK bank and can typically take 1 – 2 business  days.

How Long Does it Take to Invest with CrowdProperty?

They have both manual self-select and auto-invest portfolios available. If investing manually, loans must be selected and invested into individually. Therefore the amount of time to become invested is purely based on how many loans you want to invest in, and how much capital you want to put into each loan. It will also be based on if you are able to sit by your computer when a loan goes live. And also how quickly you can make a pledge. Loans go in a matter of minutes as mentioned previously.

Something interesting to note here is that you can pledge to a loan without needing to have the capital in your account. Sometime before the loan goes live, CrowdProperty will then contact you and request the funds be deposited into your lending account to cover the pledge. This enables investors to be able to invest in loans quickly without needing a lot of cash sat about in their lending account waiting for loans to become live.

Manual investment is just a case of going to the “View Live Projects” screen, then making a pledge. The screenshot below only shows a fully funded project as I have not managed to take a screenshot of a live loan yet (I’m too busy trying to get invested into them). I’ll see if I can snap one moving forward.

How Can I Sell Loans and Withdraw Capital from CrowdProperty?

There is no CrowdProperty secondary market, so once you have lent out capital, you will need to stay the full loan term before you are able to withdraw it. The good news is that most loans are less than 24 months, and many are only 12-14 months, so you won’t need to wait too long.

How are Loans Diversified with CrowdProperty?

With self-select loans, diversification is a manual process so you decide how much you pledge for each loan. With auto-invest, you can set the maximum amount you want to put into a single loan. So you can diversify automatically as much as you choose.

How Easy is the CrowdPropery Website to Use?

CrowdProperty’s website is not well thought at at all. Getting loan information on current loans is very difficult, and the messaging system is terrible (they basically sent you an email telling you that there’s a message in your account, then you have to visit their website to look at the message).

Finding information on anything can be difficlut & the website is prone to bugs (like you can give instufction for auto-invest to do a certain thing, and it does something completley different

Summary – CrowdProperty Review

Overall I think CrowdProperty’s loans are an option for diversification of an investment portfolio if you have nowhere else to put your money, although return rates have been falling recently and a lot of loans are overdue. One piece of good news is that generally CrowdProperty’s loans are well secured, typically with good LTV’s, below 70% with 1st legal charge. So even if a loan were to default, you would likely still get your capital back, but it may take a while and eat into any profit you may have made.

Personally I have decided to sell out of CrowdProperty, so as loans are repaid, I will withdraw capital and invest it in other platforms like Kuflink, Loanpad or Assetz Exchange.

Points to Consider Before Investing

Thumbs Up Points

• Good History – 6+ years in the P2P industry
• Good Loan Flow- good number of high quality loans – good diversification
• Good asset security – 1st charge on all loan..
• Company Profitable – profitability is a good sign, and adds to the safety of investments.
• Tax Efficient Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) – the CrowdProperty ISA is available for tax efficient investing.
• Financial Conduct Authority – (FCA) Regulated.

Thumbs Down Points

• Returns not as promised – after 3+ years investing my XIRR is closer to 5% than the platforms touted 8%.
• Loans Funded Fast – can be difficult to get in to self-select loans.
• No Secondary Market – once you enter a loan, you’re in for the 12- 24 month term.
• Auto-Investing Cash Drag – auto-invest portfolio allows maximum 20% of portfolio value to be lent out. So there could be some cash drag at first.
• Many loans now auto-invest only – (no chance to manually invest) so the previous point is compounded.
• Website Difficult to Use – very difficult to find loan information and updates.

Obvious Investor Risk Rating*

– 5/10 -Medium

Is CrowdProperty Safe? I consider them to be in the middle area of the risk scale.

Loans are property asset secured with low LTV’s, and the company has a good trading history. All loans have been repaid thus far, and no investor has lost money. The company is at break-even and staff have over 100 years combined experience in the property bridging and development arena.

However, they have many late loans currently, some caused by COVID that have not yet recovered, and some more recent that have stopped paying. It remains to be seen if they can catch up with payments or if they will go into default and need to be taken over by the CrowdProperty team.

Who Can Invest with CrowdProperty

UK and EU residents with a U.K. bank account can invest with CrowdProperty. Contact them for further information.

CrowdProperty Cashback Offers & Signup Links**

No CrowdProperty Cashback Offers Currently.

Check for New CrowdProperty Cashback Offers >>

Signup for CrowdProperty Standard Account >>

Open CrowdProperty ISA >>

Similar Lenders to CrowdProperty

 Kuflink, Assetz Capital

Other UK Peer to Peer Lender Reviews