The House Crowd was founded in 2011 by Frazer Fearnhead and Suhail Nawaz. It was the first property crowdfunding platform in the world and has helped give rise to an industry that is forecast to grow to $250 Billion by 2020.
Our mission is to enable our clients to build a financially better future for themselves through the provision of market-leading property investments that deliver predictable and consistent returns.
Our Vision: our vision is to be recognised as the best provider of property crowdfunded investments in the UK
We strive to do so by presenting what is basically a dry financial product in a light-hearted, ever so slightly irreverent way, whilst educating and entertaining you along the way.
We do not believe investing needs to be boring so we try and liven it up a little. But, rest assured, we know that 'money isn't funny' - beneath the colourful cartoons, we take our business and your money very seriously indeed, working exceptionally hard to deliver the best returns to you we can.
The House Crowd 'CRISPS' Charter
We don't do insurance backed credit default swaps or other confusing banking style shenanigans. We provide straightforward, easy to understand investments with predictable returns.
Yes, we like making money, but we do it in a way that helps others by building and renting good quality housing. Emma, our SRO, also ensures that all staff help do their bit by volunteering and raising money for local charities.
People generally assume that because development finance pays high returns it must be very risky. Whilst every investment carries an element of risk, we believe that our unique development finance product offers an excellent ratio of risk to reward.
3. Planning permission will already have been acquired.
One of the biggest risks with development is taking the chance that planning permission you want will be granted. The planning permission process, as you may be aware, can be problematical. Councils can be very awkward and, even permission is granted, it may be subject to appeals and other long delays. Having experienced a wide variety of problems with acquiring planning for our early projects, we now, wherever possible, only offer developments which have full planning permission in place. This, again, significantly reduces one of the major risks with developing.
If they go over that deadline they are obliged to pay significant penalties. We believe this will lead to a more efficient, streamlined investment product with greater predictability as to return of your capital. In fact, since we adopted this approach only one development has fallen behind schedule and that was because once works started it was discovered that the architect’s plans (for the conversion of Frodsham Old Library) were unsuitable and had to be amended. Issues like that highlight why we prefer new builds over conversions!
Additionally, we employ a RICS qualified quantity surveyor as fund monitor – Ken Jones of Jones Melling. He is highly experienced and also acts for several banks as fund monitor. Ken supervises the employer’s agent on behalf of our lenders and provides an extra layer of checks and balances to ensure all work is done to the appropriate standard before monies are drawn down.
Equity returns are also more variable – they may be more or less than you were expecting. We want to be able to provide consistent and predictable returns for our investors which is why we offer a fixed interest rate – usually 10% p.a. Not only is this a very attractive return but it means that if the houses take longer to sell than anticipated and you have to wait longer to be paid, you can at least take comfort in the fact that you will be earning a very good rate of interest whilst you await payment.
The exit (i.e. the mechanism for paying investors their capital and returns) with development deals is dependent on selling the properties. We try and make off-plan sales as early as we can so the investment terms are as short as possible. We pay back investors in tranches as each batch of properties is completed and sold. This batched sales process can, with larger developments, take several months.
We choose developments in popular areas that fall in the mid-market £200-£400k region as they appeal to first time buyers, families and downsizers thus giving us the best chance of selling the properties quickly and paying you your returns as quickly as possible. We also have the governments Help To Buy on developments, wherever possible, which helps enormously with sales.
The House Crowd offers simple, transparent property investments that remove the uncertainties usually faced by small investors and enabling virtually anybody to build a property based investment portfolio that delivers predictable, consistent returns. We believe in diversifying your investments and therefore we offer a range of products with varying levels of risk and reward for you to invest in.
You can invest in long term or short term projects, peer to peer loans secured against property, equity investments, i.e. shares in companies that purchase buy to let property and develop to sell projects. Some of these investments will enable you to take advantage of annual tax free allowances for CGT or dividend income. Our peer to peer secured loans offer short term investments with fixed return so you know exactly what to expect. Returns on our buy to let investments (equity investments) may vary and will depend upon the actual rents received and/or the amount received when the property is sold.
The House Crowd Limited (FRN 725648) is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The House Crowd Limited nor any of their affiliates or group companies provides any advice or recommendations in relation to this website. If you have any doubt about the suitability of any investment marketed by The House Crowd Limited, or you require financial advice, you should seek a personal recommendation from an appropriately qualified financial advisor that does give advice.
