The UK government has released a white paper discussing its real estate property development initiative; UK P2P lenders continue to support the initiative through alternative funding for real estate borrowers; the government will also manage a 1 billion British pound ($1.25 billion) fund for financing specialized real estate developers; the UK is targeting 200,000 new homes. Source
AlphaFlow has announced the launch of AlphaFlow Managed Portfolios; created by Ray Sturm, co-founder of RealtyShares, AlphaFlow has been managing real estate investments that allow investors to invest in loans across multiple real estate crowdfunding platforms since its launch in 2015; the introduction of the AlphaFlow Managed Portfolios is an effort to better meet the needs and demands of the firm’s investors; the new platform will provide investors with a real estate portfolio of 75 to 100 real estate loans; the portfolio will be driven by AlphaFlow Advanced Analytics and targets returns of 8% to 10% with a 1% fee on assets under management. Source
OfferPad is a real estate platform to help homeowners sell their homes; investors include private funds managed by LL Funds, LLC and an investment management firm in Philadelphia; company plans to expand to additional markets; similar to competitor Opendoor, OfferPad buys homes from homeowners; current markets include Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Tampa and Orlando; the company has 100 employees and will launch in Los Angeles soon. Source
PeerStreet, a platform for investing in real estate backed loans, has now integrated with Personal Capital which is powered by the Envestnet | Yodlee data aggregation platform; customers will now be able to view their PeerStreet positions within their investment portfolio on Personal Capital; this is the third such integration as PeerStreet recently announced integrations with Wealthfront and Betterment; "Many PeerStreet customers have asked for this integration with Personal Capital. We're always working to improve the experience for our customers and provide greater control and transparency," said Brett Crosby, co-founder and COO of PeerStreet." Source
Vesta Equity is a home equity marketplace that allows homeowners to access their equity without borrowing while providing tokenized, residential real estate investment opportunities. And it works because of its owners’ faith in the future of blockchain technology and Web3.
Coming up with a 20% down payment on a home can be quite a challenge, San Francisco based Unison is looking to offer help to these prospective buyers; a Unison deal typically involves the homebuyer putting down 10%, Unison putting down 10% and the remaining 80% would be borrowed; Unison charges a 2.5% fee and shares in 35% of future appreciation or depreciation; this allows for the homebuyers to keep payments lower and save on private mortgage insurance (PMI), which is required if the loan to value exceeds 80%; "We are partnering with the homeowners by investing alongside them in the house," Unison Co-CEO Jim Riccitelli told the San Francisco Chronicle; the Unison offering looks to replace local bay area assistance programs offered to lower income household and first time buyers. Source
Online mortgage lending has helped to revive the market for mortgage loan securitizations; new online mortgage lenders are providing a new wave of mortgage loan securitizations for the market specifically with fix and flips; these loans are attractive to investors because of the high yields and offer investors shorter duration investments because of the fix and flip focus; despite defaults and structuring inefficiencies created from the 2008 financial crisis, institutional investors are placing confidence in these investments; LendingHome has been leading the market with steady issuance of fix and flip loan securitizations and the products have been performing successfully for investors indicating the niche investments could begin to scale more broadly. Source
There have been many bank partnerships with marketplace lenders however there haven't been any done with real estate crowdfunding platforms; Allen Shayanfekr, CEO of Sharestates, predicts banks will partner with real estate platforms in 2017; says banks could lower costs and require less investment in new products by partnering with real estate platforms; Allen Shayanfekr outlines three types of scenarios for partnerships including: bank as originator, bank as capital provider and white labeling. Source
Roofstock, an online marketplace in the single-family rental sector, raised $20 million in Series B funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED Investors and SV Angel; they plan to use the proceeds to ramp up national expansion, invest in product development and roll out an asset management platform as they intend to reach domestic and global investors. Source
Money360 has reported another milestone in the nascent online lending commercial real estate market; the firm has originated $100 million in new commercial real estate loans in the past six months, doubling its total from August 2016; four recent loan closings for a total of $38 million helped the company reach its $200 million milestone; Money360 says it expects to exceed $500 million in loan transactions by the end of 2017. Source