Kuflink’s ‘Practical, Common Sense Approach’ Funds Complex Deal

“Throughout the process Kuflink were contactable, honest and worked through every issue alongside us to get the result that the client needed.”

– Loans Warehouse

At A Glance

Location: Forest Hill SE23

Loan amount: £217,920

Term: 6 months

Purpose: To repay money borrowed to purchase the security

Security: 1st Legal Charge on a Commercial Property – garage workshop, MOT testing bay, reception, office and a small yard to the front

Loan to Value: 65% LTV

How Kuflink Helped

The Kuflink Bridging team was recently approached by Loans Warehouse with a complex, time-sensitive client that urgently needed funds to repay existing indebtedness. Christmas was only weeks away and the client was worried that no lender could complete fast enough to help them. The client is an experienced property professional who is currently in talks with the council to secure planning permission in order to convert the commercial security into seven residential properties.

Kuflink took the time to carefully assess the application and find an affordable solution for the borrower that not only provided fast funding, but also took a weight off their mind and meant they could enjoy Christmas without worrying about business!

Feedback from Loans Warehouse

“When I first picked up this case, I knew that it was going to be a difficult deal to complete, as the purchase of the property was dragged out over a few years and included so many different parts that it was difficult to comprehend. The client needed to complete a refinance of the property to repay existing debts before Christmas and thought that it could not be done due to the complicated situation.

I cannot praise Kuflink enough for their practical, common sense approach to lending that took a very complicated case and completed it in a relatively short timespan. The importance for a lender to be able to take a view on a project and see it for what it is, rather than rejecting a deal based on a tick box, cannot be reiterated enough. Throughout the process Kuflink were contactable, honest and worked through every issue alongside us to get the result that the client needed.”

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Kuflink Investor Survey: Results Revealed

The vast majority of investors plan to increase the amount they invest this year despite challenging market conditions, according to a recent survey of our investor community.

Although experts had forecast a downturn for the year ahead in the wake of Brexit, this doesn’t appear to have deterred many of you from getting more from your money! 91% told us that they plan to invest either the same amount (49%) or more (42%) during 2019.

The rise of online investment platforms such as ourselves has broadened public awareness of and access to higher returns on their money – it’s easier than ever to build and manage an investment portfolio, and as a result many mainstream savers are turning their backs on the big banks. 47% of investors have been investing less than two years, with just over a quarter (26%) revealing their primary reason for investing was to supplement their savings. Planning for retirement (24%) and to supplement income (21%) were the other common factors.

Lower minimum amounts have also proved attractive for new customers, with 40% of investors surveyed investing a relatively modest amount of between £1,000 and £10,000 a year, and preferring to commit funds on a monthly basis (48%) rather than in one lump sum.

Rate of return was by far the most popular factor respondents looked for when choosing how to invest (83%), with risk involved (68%) and company reputation (60%) also at the forefront of their financial decisions. The lender also found that customers were keen to stay with platforms that they had already seen results from, as 95% of Kuflink’s existing customers revealed plans to continue investing with them in the long-term.

“Thousands of people across the UK are waking up to the fact that they don’t have to leave their money to stagnate in a savings account, earning rates well below inflation and actually losing value.” Explained Narinder Khattoare, Kuflink CEO.

“Gone are the days when you needed to be a finance expert to earn decent returns on your money – now all you need is a computer, a few spare minutes to sign up and £100 first-time minimum investment.”

Figures based on 452 responses, data collected December 2018.

How to Earn More from Your Money: A Beginners’ Guide

Our recent survey found that 42% of you consider yourselves beginners when it comes to investing – welcome aboard! With that in mind, we’d love to help you start off on the right foot by sharing some of the knowledge our team of property investors has built up over their combined 200 years in the industry.

Here are the 5 key pieces of advice we’d give to any new investor:

Get to Grips with the Vocabulary

You’ll find lots of useful information available on our website for each opportunity, such as loan to values, security charges and valuation reports, to help you decide if the investment is right for you. We try to keep things as simple as possible but there are some terms you may not be familiar with as a new investor – not to worry, as we’ve created this simple guide to help you get started.

Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket

One of the most effective ways to spread your risk is to spread your investment across different opportunities, companies and asset types. We can’t stress how important it is to do this – no investment strategy is 100% safe, but it makes your money less vulnerable in the event of market fluctuations, business and borrower losses. If you prefer a hands-off approach, many platforms have a product that automatically diversifies your cash across a number of investments, such as Kuflink’s Auto-Invest and IF-ISA products.

Keep an Eye on Property Market Trends

Every Kuflink opportunity is secured against UK property, so it’s a great idea to keep track of how the property market is progressing. You don’t need to become an expert overnight – simply keeping up to date with the news should give you enough information, or you can check the regular online reports released by estate agents such as Foxtons or Rightmove.  We’ve even put together an ‘at a glance’ guide to UK property for the year ahead, available here.

Look Beyond the Returns  

Understandably, most of us are looking to earn as much as we can from our investments, and a fantastic headline rate is a great way for companies to attract new investors. However, you need to make sure that you fully understand what security is in place, what credentials the company have and how much risk is involved.

In case you were wondering – Kuflink is FCA Regulated, HMRC Authorised ISA Managers and our CEO sits on the board for the Association of Short Term Lenders. We’re proud to state we have zero losses for our investors to date and will continue to apply our stringent lending criteria to ensure the best chance of keeping this in place!

Do Your Research

Before investing with any platform, it’s good to gather experiences from real people that have tried and tested the company. If you know people that you can talk to, that’s great, but even if not there are online forums, trust pilot reviews and a huge range of trusted bloggers that can all be useful sources of information.

Consumers to ramp up investment in 2019 despite Brexit woes

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Investors remain upbeat despite economic uncertainty

Investors plan to increase the amount they invest this year despite challenging market conditions, according to recent research conducted by peer-to-peer investment platform Kuflink. 

Peer-to-Peer Property Investment Jargon Buster

When it comes to peer-to-peer (P2P) investing, some industry terms can sound a little confusing, especially if you are just starting out.

We try to keep things as simple as possible here at Kuflink, since our goal is to make sure everyone can take advantage of our fantastic returns. With this in mind, we’ve pulled together a handy jargon buster to help ensure you’re up to speed and ready to invest when a P2P investment opportunity next catches your eye!

Peer-to-Peer Lending in the Property World

Let’s start with the basics… Peer to peer, sometimes written P2P, is a type of investment where you can lend money to fund property-backed loans of your choosing. You can choose the amount of a deal you wish to fund, based on the details provided against each property. It’s important to understand your capital is at risk and there is no security against your investment, such as the Financial Compensation Scheme, in the event a loan is not repaid.

Bridging Loans

Think of bridging loans as finance used to ‘bridge a gap’ – they are a quick way to secure funding, which usually acts as an interim measure whilst borrowers explore longer-term options. All loans available to invest in through the Kuflink platform are bridging loans.

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

The Financial Conduct Authority is the regulator for more than 56,000 financial services firms in the UK and focuses on protecting customers, enhancing market integrity and promoting competition in the interests of consumers. Kuflink is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, which means you can rest assured that our platform meets the highest security standards, and we are compliant with industry regulations.

Loan-to-Value

The loan-to-value, or LTV, is a percentage of the amount we have lent against the value of the security property. So, if a borrower had a property worth £100k and took out a £50k loan against it, the LTV would be 50%. The lower the LTV, the more popular an investment opportunity tends to be, as the risk of not being able to recover the full loan amount is lessened (although it’s important to remember nothing is guaranteed).

Loan to Gross Development Value

LTGDV works in the same way as a standard LTV figure, except it is measured against the expected value of a development once it is complete. All estimated development values are provided by independent surveyors.

Anti-Money Laundering Check 

As part of our FCA regulation, Kuflink must confirm the identity of each investor by requesting their driving license or passport details – our AML check is fully automated and can be completed online in just a couple of minutes. It’s not a credit check and won’t appear on your credit history.

First / Second Legal Charge

Having a legal charge over a property simply means that, in certain circumstances, you have a right to take possession of, or sell, the property. It might be helpful to think about this in terms of a mortgage – the borrower is the legal owner of the property, but the mortgage provider can take possession of the property if the borrower fails to keep up the agreed payments.

A first legal charge means that you are first in line to take possession of the property, and a second legal charge means you are second in line (i.e. some finance is already outstanding against the property).

Default

If a borrower falls behind on their payments, we call this ‘defaulting’. Most platforms give a grace period before they officially class a loan as being in default, to give the borrower some time to pay. A loan being in default obviously isn’t great news for investors, but platforms and borrowers can often work out a solution in good time – don’t assume all is lost!

We take a number of tried and tested steps to minimise the risk of a borrower defaulting on their loan. We assess each borrower and only ever lend to those who we believe will comfortably meet their repayments, which has helped us to achieve our impressive £0 losses to date!

Put your new knowledge to great use, sign up to Kuflink’s online platform today. View our live opportunities and invest now to start earning up to 7.2% interest pa*.

*Capital is at risk.

Kuflink strengthens underwriting team

Peer to Peer Property Lender Kuflink Adds Underwriter Following “Huge Spike”

Kuflink, a peer to peer property lender for short term finance, has expanded its lending team following increasing platform activity.