LendInvest fund inflows increase 40%
LendInvest has reported strong inflows to its flagship real estate debt fund during November.
Over the month, LendInvest secured £23m of new investment for its Real Estate Opportunity Fund, from an international group of investors including a Japanese bank and a Dutch insurer, in addition to a mixture of endowments, asset managers and family offices from across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
This brought the fund’s AUM in excess of £250m at the end of November 2019, up approximately 40% since the start of the year.
The LendInvest Real Estate Opportunity Fund is domiciled in Luxembourg and has always attracted a global investor base since its inception in 2014. Today the fund’s investor base is made up of institutional investors and family offices across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The fund aims to deliver income-driven returns to investors with downside protection through its short-dated lending strategy. All loans held by the fund are secured by UK real estate. November’s strong inflow follows the fund’s third biggest ever month for net inflows in October, despite the risk at the time that the UK might crash out of the EU without a deal on Halloween.
Rod Lockhart, head of capital markets & fund management at LendInvest, commented: “LendInvest continues to attract capital from all over the world on the strength of its platform and compelling investment proposition. Despite the distractions of Brexit and an unscheduled general election, the conditions for direct lending’s growth in UK property are good. The appetite to invest in the UK real estate debt is strong and investors are making well-judged decisions about where to allocate capital. On top of the strong market fundamentals and attractive yield, institutional investors are drawn to LendInvest’s more specialist and borrower focused, less transactional lending model. We firmly expect this trend to continue into 2020 and look forward to continuing to expand our institutional investor base.”
This caps a record year of fundraising for LendInvest, that has included a £259m RMBS securitisation (83% AAA-rated), and two £200m investments from National Australia Bank and HSBC. LendInvest has now raised almost £2bn ($2.6bn) from investors, confirming its position as one of the largest non-bank mortgage lenders in the country.
LendInvest is in the final stages of readying its first homeowner mortgage product, with is backed by a £200m investment by HSBC and will be launched officially in the new year.
