Uown

After observing with interest the slow uptake of the first 24 hours of the 36 hour flash sale promotion, my big fear with Uown is whether the platform has a viable, sustainable business.

I presume the intention of this promotion was to complete the funding of their first property (hence the targetting of just E*** G*****), but so far it seems to have taken them from around 64% to just 72%. The 2 other properties that have also been on the site for months and have managed just 29% and 32% ! I'm starting to doubt these will ever fill and then my mind turns to wondering what will happen if they don't?

AIUI, the 3 properties are all currently owned and managed by 'a strategic partner' of Uown's (P******e P******?), so they are not being advertised for sale anywhere else. What I would like to know is what are the Strategic partner's intentions if they don't fill? Are they happy for the current relationship to continue (managing the partially owned properties on Uown's behalf, and paying out proportionate monthly rents) or will they eventually say 'enough's enough' and pull the plug ? Do they have a cut-off point or time? And if they do, what happens to our invested cash? I seem to remember Uown saying somewhere on these boards it will simply be returned to Uown investors as cash? This presumes of course that whoever is currently holding the cash (Uown or the strategic partner?) still has it available to pay back?

Strikes me that I'm probably not alone in thinking along such lines, which might explain the poor uptake of this latest offer from current investors. Seems to me, what Uown really need is new investors to give some traction and get the properties closer to completing. IMHO the new customer promotion earlier this month didn't ask investors to commit enough (wasn't it £10 for £20 invested or something?) and a more significant referral scheme, similar to ones used in the past by other crowd/P2P platforms (£50 each to referrer & referee for £1K invested), would have had a more significant impact on the properties and potentially be less costly than the 25% deal (10% on £1k v a straight 25% on any amount?). Property Partner have used such a promotion in the past to great success, and Brickowner, a platform arguably at a similar stage in development to Uown, with just 4 offerings too, are currently using it and completing their fund raises successfully as a result. In the case of E***, they would need approximately 50 referrals at £1K to get this over the line at a promotional cost of £5K.

I don't know if I'm alone in thinking like this, but some answers on the above from uown would certainly put my mind at ease somewhat and might even make me at least consider adding to my current investment, but until I do get some definitive answers to the above I'm unlikely to do so, however tempting the offer.

The current promotion has tempted me to sign up and throw £1000 in there - just need to hope the funds clear in time before the promo ends. There could easily be another 10-20 people like me that have been tempted in over the last 24 hours, which could push funding on this property > 90%, and then being that close other current members may be prepared to chuck a little more at it to get it over the line. 

I'm sure once one property is "live", then that will give more confidence to invest in others.

OK - I'll take my rose-tinteds off for now and wait to see where things stand next week !

Did not exactly make great progress up about 10% to 80, so less the 15,000 invested during the promotion.

I received an email on 5th September pointing out that 5th is when rental income is paid.

Its all a cunning plan by uown . Dont allow people to reinvest small sums of interest, then run a bonus share promotion so people are encouraged to top up their account to at least £20 to invest to get the bonus shares. Genius.

I also get emails telling me its interest payment day. There was also an important one about certifying your investor type to comply with FCA regs.

Its just awful isn't it, that lonely £3 just sitting there doing absolutely nothing!

Tbh I really don't think it unreasonable to have a minimum share price of £10 or £20.