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Post by jono75 on Oct 6, 2020 10:05:42 GMT
I keep hearing good things about Loanpad, I'm not an investor. I agree with you guys though, I like having liquid cash available just in case. I've moved some money into the best fixed rate I could find with FSCS protection so I am not tempted to be greedy, and left the rest in easy access account. Best fixed FSCS I have running is 2.75% at Gatehouse I took out last year (I checked and I took it for five years (no crystal ball involved), wish I could have put more in, downside is it doesn't compound.)
I will look at LP and P2P again next year. Is 3 or 4% worth the risk at the moment, how long can property developments do well, especially with winter coming up with bad weather to add to delays? Hope that doesn't sound too negative. I really want them to keep doing well, as with the other P2P companies.
The new investor bonus is a bit naff too, however I can see why at the moment, maybe they'll make it better again next year sometime.
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Post by Ace on Oct 6, 2020 13:36:17 GMT
I keep hearing good things about Loanpad, I'm not an investor. I agree with you guys though, I like having liquid cash available just in case. I've moved some money into the best fixed rate I could find with FSCS protection so I am not tempted to be greedy, and left the rest in easy access account. Best fixed FSCS I have running is 2.75% at Gatehouse I took out last year (I checked and I took it for five years (no crystal ball involved), wish I could have put more in, downside is it doesn't compound.) I will look at LP and P2P again next year. Is 3 or 4% worth the risk at the moment, how long can property developments do well, especially with winter coming up with bad weather to add to delays? Hope that doesn't sound too negative. I really want them to keep doing well, as with the other P2P companies. The new investor bonus is a bit naff too, however I can see why at the moment, maybe they'll make it better again next year sometime. Your question: "Is 3 or 4% worth the risk at the moment, ..." is a fairly subjective one. It really depends on your financial situation and risk appetite. The closest you can get with FSCS protection is currently about 1.1% with 90 days notice. You can get 4% on Loanpad with an average 30 days notice if you use the rolling withdrawal request technique, obviously not guaranteed, but they've been well tested by Covid19. They haven't been tested by a property slump yet, but average LTVs of 33% are one hell of a cushion. The main subjective point here is, how much do you trust them to get the LTVs right. I've been watching them closely and feel that they are suitably cautious (though you shouldn't put much store by the opinion of a retired software engineer). So, the answer for me is, yes, 4% is worth the risk. Its way less than I would have accepted a couple of years back, but times have changed and I'm learning to be a bit less greedy. Yes the referral bonus isn't as good as it used to be, but they don't really need to attract funds right now. I wonder how long it will be offered at all. You effectively get an extra 1% for a year if you invest £5k or £10k, giving a total of 5%. You can also refer you partner/friends/relatives for further bonuses and a 1 year interest rate boost for each referral, so plenty of scope to increase returns. Also, you get a slightly higher rate if you reinvest your daily interest via the compounding effect. I.e. the rates quoted are for simple interest, effectively assuming that you withdraw your interest payments.
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Post by brightstart on Oct 13, 2020 15:58:24 GMT
I’ve been looking at depositing funds with Loanpad and before doing so I’ve been carrying out some research which by chance involved speaking to one of their borrowers. What I’ve find out has made me very nervous, more with the ability to withdraw funds rather than losing the lot. Below are my discoveries, any feedback from existing investors would be welcome.
90% of Loanpad loans are the senior tranche of development loans made by HandF Finace. Borrower X has given me some insight into his dealings with HandF Finance. Typically, they are charging the borrower a 1% arrangement fee, 1.1% per month and 1% exit. Their own liquidity has come under pressure as completed developments have taken far longer to sell due to Brexit, General Election and now Covid. HandF have therefore subordinated debt from each site to keep themselves afloat.
According to borrower X the setup at HandF is odd to say the least. There are 3 people there and none of them have any construction experience and unlike most other lenders they don’t use a surveyor to check on progress before issuing the next tranche of the loan which means they have no understanding as to the LTV during the build process.
When you look at loans such 9129586 the picture is even more perilous. The total loan is £4.3m with a GDV of £5m. What’s not clear is if the loan figure quoted includes the interest accumulated to date which I assume would now exceed the GDV.
The more I look through the existing loan book, the more the story seem to be repeated, HandF selling of chunks of debt to raise money and the LTV been obscured by GDV valuations that are several years old and no clear picture of the developers financial situation with regards to interest due.
Obviously with Loanpad holding the senior charge its unlikely that the investors will lose their money but the chance of being able to withdraw funds any time in the near future looks remarkably shaky?
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Post by Ace on Oct 13, 2020 19:45:43 GMT
I’ve been looking at depositing funds with Loanpad and before doing so I’ve been carrying out some research which by chance involved speaking to one of their borrowers. What I’ve find out has made me very nervous, more with the ability to withdraw funds rather than losing the lot. Below are my discoveries, any feedback from existing investors would be welcome. 90% of Loanpad loans are the senior tranche of development loans made by HandF Finace. Borrower X has given me some insight into his dealings with HandF Finance. Typically, they are charging the borrower a 1% arrangement fee, 1.1% per month and 1% exit. Their own liquidity has come under pressure as completed developments have taken far longer to sell due to Brexit, General Election and now Covid. HandF have therefore subordinated debt from each site to keep themselves afloat. According to borrower X the setup at HandF is odd to say the least. There are 3 people there and none of them have any construction experience and unlike most other lenders they don’t use a surveyor to check on progress before issuing the next tranche of the loan which means they have no understanding as to the LTV during the build process. When you look at loans such 9129586 the picture is even more perilous. The total loan is £4.3m with a GDV of £5m. What’s not clear is if the loan figure quoted includes the interest accumulated to date which I assume would now exceed the GDV. The more I look through the existing loan book, the more the story seem to be repeated, HandF selling of chunks of debt to raise money and the LTV been obscured by GDV valuations that are several years old and no clear picture of the developers financial situation with regards to interest due. Obviously with Loanpad holding the senior charge its unlikely that the investors will lose their money but the chance of being able to withdraw funds any time in the near future looks remarkably shaky? Interesting points brightstart . I'm tagging Loanpad for comment. As far as your comment "...but the chance of being able to withdraw funds any time in the near future looks remarkably shaky?": My experience has been that withdrawals have been actioned on time (next day) each time I've tested them, even when there appeared to be no/little cash available during Covid19. There is current approximately £800,000 of unlent cash on the platform available for withdrawals. 33 loans have repaid so far. There are a further 33 extant loans, of which 5 are either extended (2), overdue (2) or defaulted (1).
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Post by Badly Drawn Stickman on Oct 13, 2020 20:35:15 GMT
I’ve been looking at depositing funds with Loanpad and before doing so I’ve been carrying out some research which by chance involved speaking to one of their borrowers. What I’ve find out has made me very nervous, more with the ability to withdraw funds rather than losing the lot. Below are my discoveries, any feedback from existing investors would be welcome. 90% of Loanpad loans are the senior tranche of development loans made by HandF Finace. Borrower X has given me some insight into his dealings with HandF Finance. Typically, they are charging the borrower a 1% arrangement fee, 1.1% per month and 1% exit. Their own liquidity has come under pressure as completed developments have taken far longer to sell due to Brexit, General Election and now Covid. HandF have therefore subordinated debt from each site to keep themselves afloat. According to borrower X the setup at HandF is odd to say the least. There are 3 people there and none of them have any construction experience and unlike most other lenders they don’t use a surveyor to check on progress before issuing the next tranche of the loan which means they have no understanding as to the LTV during the build process. When you look at loans such 9129586 the picture is even more perilous. The total loan is £4.3m with a GDV of £5m. What’s not clear is if the loan figure quoted includes the interest accumulated to date which I assume would now exceed the GDV. The more I look through the existing loan book, the more the story seem to be repeated, HandF selling of chunks of debt to raise money and the LTV been obscured by GDV valuations that are several years old and no clear picture of the developers financial situation with regards to interest due. Obviously with Loanpad holding the senior charge its unlikely that the investors will lose their money but the chance of being able to withdraw funds any time in the near future looks remarkably shaky? Interesting points brightstart . I'm tagging Loanpad for comment. As far as your comment "...but the chance of being able to withdraw funds any time in the near future looks remarkably shaky?": My experience has been that withdrawals have been actioned on time (next day) each time I've tested them, even when there appeared to be no/little cash available during Covid19. There is current approximately £800,000 of unlent cash on the platform available for withdrawals. 33 loans have repaid so far. There are a further 33 extant loans, of which 5 are either extended (2), overdue (2) or defaulted (1). Borrower X? I wish now we had been smart enough to look at HandF. Well at least not stopped before finding out their shoe sizes. Interesting first post.
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Post by Loanpad on Oct 14, 2020 10:02:31 GMT
I’ve been looking at depositing funds with Loanpad and before doing so I’ve been carrying out some research which by chance involved speaking to one of their borrowers. What I’ve find out has made me very nervous, more with the ability to withdraw funds rather than losing the lot. Below are my discoveries, any feedback from existing investors would be welcome. 90% of Loanpad loans are the senior tranche of development loans made by HandF Finace. Borrower X has given me some insight into his dealings with HandF Finance. Typically, they are charging the borrower a 1% arrangement fee, 1.1% per month and 1% exit. Their own liquidity has come under pressure as completed developments have taken far longer to sell due to Brexit, General Election and now Covid. HandF have therefore subordinated debt from each site to keep themselves afloat. According to borrower X the setup at HandF is odd to say the least. There are 3 people there and none of them have any construction experience and unlike most other lenders they don’t use a surveyor to check on progress before issuing the next tranche of the loan which means they have no understanding as to the LTV during the build process. When you look at loans such 9129586 the picture is even more perilous. The total loan is £4.3m with a GDV of £5m. What’s not clear is if the loan figure quoted includes the interest accumulated to date which I assume would now exceed the GDV. The more I look through the existing loan book, the more the story seem to be repeated, HandF selling of chunks of debt to raise money and the LTV been obscured by GDV valuations that are several years old and no clear picture of the developers financial situation with regards to interest due. Obviously with Loanpad holding the senior charge its unlikely that the investors will lose their money but the chance of being able to withdraw funds any time in the near future looks remarkably shaky? Hello brightstart Thank you for your interest in Loanpad - we will try to address each of your points. Handf Finance is an extremely experienced, owner-managed lender with over 40 years’ experience. The firm’s track record of successful lending should speak for itself as can be viewed by publicly available financial statements dating back to 1980. As you will note, all their lending is fully self-funded (aside from Loanpad’s participation) with no leverage at all. We therefore fail to see how they could have any solvency issues that you seem to infer. In addition, there is a very large pipeline of new loans currently in legals so there is certainly no concern with liquidity either. If anything, the opposite is the case i.e. too much cash held currently. In respect of their construction experience, Handf has lent against property developments for over 40 years and has significant experience in assessing developments and the monitoring thereon. Furthermore, Handf has also completed their own developments providing further first-hand knowledge of the process. Therefore, we believe it is wholly untrue to suggest that they lack construction experience. Despite being a small team, they personally visit almost every development on a regular basis and naturally use monitoring surveyors as required. On the specific loan you refer to, neither we (being at 15% of market value) nor Handf have any concerns. Approximately half the units (~ £3m) are already either reserved or exchanged. Building completion is expected very shortly after which the sales can commence. We (and we believe our investors too) are therefore very happy with our partnership with Handf and we hope to see that grow substantially over the coming months. On the subject of Loanpad’s liquidity, as noted by other investors, we have met all withdrawal requests on time since launch including during the current pandemic. Whilst we can never guarantee liquidity, we do not currently foresee any issues in this regard. If you have any other concerns please feel free to get in touch.
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Post by Financial Thing on Oct 14, 2020 13:07:35 GMT
I've visited Handf. They seemed very experienced to me, if they aren't, they were great actors.  . I was little surprised at the high LTV of the mentioned loan however I thought there must be a good reason why. Thanks Loanpad for the prompt answer. |
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Post by nooneere on Oct 14, 2020 17:01:02 GMT
I’ve been looking at depositing funds with Loanpad and before doing so I’ve been carrying out some research which by chance involved speaking to one of their borrowers. What I’ve find out has made me very nervous, more with the ability to withdraw funds rather than losing the lot. Below are my discoveries, any feedback from existing investors would be welcome. I don't know if you are a Led Zeppelin fan brightstart but I would say you have come in to P2P through the out door. The purpose of investment is at the least to create some security in life, and a balance needs to be drawn between the investor's personality and the possible reward. Anyone who is made "very nervous" by one of the low-risk P2P platforms, which has functioned perfectly well through coronavirus, should not be considering any P2P investment. Period. Have you looked through the threads in the "P2x Sites No Longer Open for Investment" section of this site? That is where even I start getting nervous.
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withnell
Member of DD Central
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Post by withnell on Oct 29, 2020 11:42:38 GMT
Noticed that movements between accounts are now happening at 11:00, but believe that the interest run is still at 12:00 - don't believe I've seen any comms about changes but may have missed them?
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Post by Ace on Oct 29, 2020 12:05:58 GMT
Noticed that movements between accounts are now happening at 11:00, but believe that the interest run is still at 12:00 - don't believe I've seen any comms about changes but may have missed them? Presumably slipped an hour when the clocks changed. Looks like it's back to 12 now though, as its running as I type at 12:06.
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benaj
Member of DD Central
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Post by benaj on Oct 29, 2020 13:17:54 GMT
Noticed that movements between accounts are now happening at 11:00, but believe that the interest run is still at 12:00 - don't believe I've seen any comms about changes but may have missed them? Presumably slipped an hour when the clocks changed. Looks like it's back to 12 now though, as its running as I type at 12:06. Don’t worry, I spoke to Loanpad earlier this week about the maintenance, it is a routine operation. It takes about an hour for the system to resume ’normal’ operation. I managed to withdraw ££££ on Monday, money in the bank same day. 😊
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alibaba
Member of DD Central
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Post by alibaba on Oct 29, 2020 13:30:41 GMT
Presumably slipped an hour when the clocks changed. Looks like it's back to 12 now though, as its running as I type at 12:06. Don’t worry, I spoke to Loanpad earlier this week about the maintenance, it is a routine operation. It takes about an hour for the system to resume ’normal’ operation. I managed to withdraw ££££ on Monday, money in the bank same day. 😊 set previous instruction to transfer 10k from premium to cash, had email today from Loanpad advising me that this transfer had taken place, very impressed with their communication and reinvested.
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withnell
Member of DD Central
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Post by withnell on Oct 29, 2020 13:30:42 GMT
Just means you have to be careful what you put - I put in for a transfer from Classic to Premium, showing as pending for 11:00 on 30th - it processed through in the 12:00 batch today, 29th. No biggie but confusing if you need to know when your money is moving!
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withnell
Member of DD Central
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Post by withnell on Nov 2, 2020 11:22:05 GMT
Today's interest run has happened just after 11am rather than the usual midday, Loanpad is this an ongoing change? |
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Post by Loanpad on Nov 3, 2020 10:26:29 GMT
Today's interest run has happened just after 11am rather than the usual midday, Loanpad is this an ongoing change? Hi withnell - apologies, we put a note on the platform yesterday as follows: Due to a technical glitch, interest/transfers were processed today (02/11) at 11:00. It will be back to midday tomorrow, as normal. Apologies for any inconvenience.
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