Property Bridges has said it remains committed to the retail peer-to-peer lending sector as it marks a number of milestones this month.
The Irish property peer-to-peer lending platform has reported surpassing 6,000 lenders and hitting £60m of lending, made up of £34m from retail backers and £26m from institutional.
David Jelly, founder of Property Bridges said he is still expecting the retail side of the business to grow but added that institutional may take up a larger share of funding due to its size.
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“We launched the business to give retail investors a fair deal, it is our company DNA,” he said.
“We expect the retail side of our business to grow steadily, 15 to 20 per cent per year.
“Just given the scale of institutional investment, we would expect this to grow by 50 per cent to 60 per cent over the next three years.”
Jelly added that Property Bridges recently submitted its crowdfunding service provider application to the Central Bank of Ireland with the hope of being approved by November 2023.
“The regulation process was a huge undertaking, we would not have applied for it if we did not have a strong commitment for retail investors,” he added.
Jelly said interest rates on the platform have “never been as high as they are now,” with rates at 8.5 per cent to nine per cent compared with 6.5 per cent to seven per cent a year ago.
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“While the Irish property market is not immune to inflation and higher interest rates, the fundamentals remain strong,” he added.
“This is driven by a huge supply demand imbalance, the fastest growing population in Europe, very strong employment figures and underpinned by government incentives for social housing and first-time buyers.
“Property Bridges has demonstrated an excellent track record since our launch in 2018 and with the new regulations, investors should have more confidence than ever that we will deliver strong fixed returns for our investors.”
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