CrowdProperty expands into Australia

Having issued £120m of loans to SME housebuilders in the UK, CrowdProperty is expanding its international footprint to offer its P2P lending platform to new markets.

The company said Australian developers face “very similar pains” to those faced by SMEs in the UK who struggle to secure financing for their projects. Since launching in the UK in 2014, CrowdProperty has funded the development of 1,400 homes.

CrowdProperty Australia will be led by CEO David Ingram, co-founder of fintech startup Split It, a platform that helps consumers compare and sign up for household utilities and financial services. Ingram also has strategic advisory and operations exprience in a number of industries, including property, in both Australia and the UK.

Ingram’s team includes:

• Ian Bell, CMO and co-founder
• Tony Zulli, COO and director
• Daniel He, property director
• Jamie Millar, head of marketing and growth

UK CEO Mike Bristow will sit on the CrowdProperty Australia board alongside Bell, Zulli and He.

Bristow said: “The model that we have proven with great success in the UK is a perfect fit for the Australian market. We’re a company founded by people who have long experience developing property and working in the finance sector, built entirely around the customer.

“We intimately know the pain developers experience when trying to fund projects and have built a lending business to deliver speed, ease and certainty of funding for these developers, who can spend up to a third of their time working to secure finance for their property projects.

Ingram added: “We know that property developers can spend up to six months waiting to secure finance for a project, with lenders often changing the terms of the loan at the very last minute.

“CrowdProperty can take that process down to a matter of a few weeks, with no hidden fees nor surprises that plague more traditional funding options. This gives developers working with CrowdProperty a significant advantage: firstly, they can move quicker when competing for good projects (which is what vendors want). Secondly, they’re working with property people providing property finance who understand their vision, are there to support throughout the project and want to build a long-term partnership.

“Our solution matches investor capital more directly to the developer using it to add value, enabling greater returns, meeting the major needs of both sides of the marketplace.”