The team at UK-based Blend Network, a peer-to-peer lending platform, notes that it’s “no secret” that the country suffers from a “structural under-supply” of housing.
Blend Network writes in a blog post that the UK government has said it’s committed to providing 300,000 homes every year by the mid 2020s. But this target is “far from being reached,” the P2P lender revealed.
Covid-19 has created new challenges to this target: “according to estimations by Savills published in June 2020, last year (in 2020-21) 171,000 new homes will be built in England, 66% of the number built the previous year,” Blend Network noted.
They also mentioned that a recent report released in May 2021 indicates that even though new homes completions in England are “unusually high” at the beginning of 2021, the number of homes delivered in the year to Q1 2021 in England “was -13% below the previous year at 220,726, and that higher rates of delivery over the last three quarters have not made up for the disruption of the first lockdown in Q2 2020.”
Blend Network also noted that amid this structural under-supply of housing, the P2P lender is committed “to help SME property developers unlock the funding they need to build more homes.”
For instance, the loans they funded during the first seven months of 2021 should assist with funding the construction of almost 160 residential units and more than 100 HMOs across the United Kingdom.
During Q2 2021, the loans they funded will help with the construction of 69 “much-needed residential units and two 6-bed HMOs across the UK.” Blend Network further revealed that their lenders are glad “to invest in 8-12% return p.a. loans but helping developers unlock funding to build more homes is also an important motivation for lenders.”
Blend Network added that if you’re also interested in learning more about how you are able to invest in property-secured loans with the platform, then you may check here
