Cavan savers urged to back developers to build new homes
Cavan investors looking to help relieve the housing crisis are being urged to invest in new homes in the county.
Propertybridges.com is a peer-to-peer lending platform for small-scale housing developments and it has opened its first scheme in Cavan to the public.
The scheme in Mullagh will see the construction of five new homes as part of a larger development in the town. The general public are being asked to fund a loan of €472,000 to a local Cavan developer to help complete the construction. The five houses will be four-bedroom detached properties running to around 2000 sq ft each. They are part of the Cluain Mullach estate in Mullagh. Building has already begun on the site and some of the houses are due for completion before the end of this year. The new houses have a guide price of €290k.
Propertybridges uses peer to peer lending as well as grants and other funds to help developers build much-needed new housing. According to the website, the Irish public has in excess of €100 billion in deposits and savings accounts earning little or no interest. Investors pledging to the Cavan development can expect to see an average return of eight percent on the money pledged. Investors can pledge amounts from as low as €500 up to €100,000. The lending platform has already helped fund new housing in Dublin, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford.
PropertyBridges.com plan is to lend across the country to 100 plus new housing development projects, totalling over €100m in lending with the support of over 10,000 Irish citizens lending on the platform in the next three years. The average loan size to construction firms & developers will be approx. €1.1M and lenders can lend into each loan from as little as €500 up to €100,000 or more and will return on average approximately eight per cent plus. The public's money will work alongside and in conjunction with institutional and private investment funds.
This business is being run by David Jelly, Michael Fitzpatrick and Marc Rafferty as well as several experienced property analysts and due diligence experts behind the scenes. David Jelly has over 10 years of experience in the finance sector in London and Ireland, supported by Michael Fitzpatrick with 15 years involvement in property development finance also in Dublin and London; while Marc Rafferty was one of the founding team and original investors in Ireland's biggest peer to peer business, Linkedfinance.com as well as another well-known business in Ireland, gocar.ie
Commenting on the model, Mr Jelly, CEO, said: “On returning to Ireland after several years living in London working in the finance industry, I realised how the peer to peer model could be a fantastic benefit to the Irish property landscape. The old property industry was an exclusive club in which ordinary investors had little or no access to. With technology and the peer to peer model we can provide access and transparency to this once opaque market. With the help of the NDRC (National Digital Research Centre) and Enterprise Ireland, we have the technology, research, contacts and business model in place to be a disruptive platform in the sector.
“Raising development finance has never been tougher for small to medium sized property developers. By investing in secure property loans, Irish savers can fund bright hard-working local property developers to undertake construction projects, provide much needed new homes and actually see their money at work in local communities; not to mention making returns of 8-10% on your investments while doing it.”
To find out more, log on to www.propertybridges.com