According to CB Insights, real estate tech received $2.6 billion in funding in 2016 across 277 deals; the category is broad including companies providing technology to brokers, investors, lenders, mortgage providers, property owners, managers and buyers; given current run-rates total volume for 2017 is expected to increase; notable financings include Homelink, PropTiger, Placester, Knock, OfferPad and Nested. Source
Online real estate lender and crowdfunding platform Patch of Land has hired Matthew Zall to serve as its new chief investment product officer; the new hire occurs as Patch of Land plans to expand into the single-family rental market, identifying an opportunity to capitalize on the 24 million US single-family units valued at over $6 trillion; Zall's experience includes single-family loan structuring at Blackstone Group subsidiary B2R Finance; he has also worked as a commercial real estate trader at J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns; in comments regarding the new hire, Paul Deitch, Patch of Land's chief executive officer said, "The addition of Matt enables us to continue the expansion of our marketplace to fully serve the lending needs of more than 10 million Americans who directly invest in single-family residential properties and need consistent, reliable access to capital to fuel their businesses." Source
PeerStreet, a platform for investing in real estate backed loans, has now integrated with Personal Capital which is powered by the Envestnet | Yodlee data aggregation platform; customers will now be able to view their PeerStreet positions within their investment portfolio on Personal Capital; this is the third such integration as PeerStreet recently announced integrations with Wealthfront and Betterment; "Many PeerStreet customers have asked for this integration with Personal Capital. We're always working to improve the experience for our customers and provide greater control and transparency," said Brett Crosby, co-founder and COO of PeerStreet." Source
Online real estate investing marketplace RealtyMogul has announced it will now allow self-directed IRA investment through its MogulREIT I; provides the benefit of passive investment income through a retirement account; MogulREIT I will also now allow for automated dividend reinvestment which can help add to compounding returns for IRA accounts; the product has also announced the inclusion of two new property investments located in San Antonio, Texas and West Chester, Pennsylvania. Source
The Debt Exchange notes how US regulators are flagging some concern with commercial real estate investment concentrations, even as pricing shows steady demand for properties; regulators are finding bank ratios of commercial real estate loans to total risk-based-capital are approaching 300% in certain property markets (300% is possible through leverage) and loan-to-deposit ratios are approaching 100%, both flags on the risk side; the article notes that loan sales, to private investors as well as through securitizations, are an effective way to reduce these ratios. Source
LendInvest's retail bond began trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) this week, with the offering raising GBP50 million ($65 million) and promoted as the first to be issued by a fintech company; the underlying assets in the bond portfolio include property loans issued by the LendInvest platform; Christian Faes, co-founder and CEO of LendInvest, said: "We launched the bond program to make our asset class available to retail investors through an LSE listed offering because it is a well-established, robust structure that offers customers considerable protections. However, whilst the bond was popular with retail investors, some of the city's largest institutional investors also made significant investments."; the retail bond is the first in a multi-year GBP500 million ($650 million) bond program for LendInvest. Source
Chris Lustrino talks with the cofounders of PeerStreet in a blog post interview on Simple.Innovative.Change; Brew Johnson talks about how his legal experience with real estate and work on a tech startup with his brother led him to found the platform; additionally, both founders discuss the PeerStreet platform and its innovative market positioning. Source
The UK government has released a white paper discussing its real estate property development initiative; UK P2P lenders continue to support the initiative through alternative funding for real estate borrowers; the government will also manage a 1 billion British pound ($1.25 billion) fund for financing specialized real estate developers; the UK is targeting 200,000 new homes. Source
Roofstock, an online marketplace in the single-family rental sector, raised $20 million in Series B funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Nyca Partners, QED Investors and SV Angel; they plan to use the proceeds to ramp up national expansion, invest in product development and roll out an asset management platform as they intend to reach domestic and global investors. Source
Landbay will add Positive Lending to its distribution network; Landbay has a comprehensive suite of services for its intermediaries and is also supporting them in advance of the UK's September PRA portfolio landlord changes; Landbay is a UK specialist buy to let mortgage lender authorized by the FCA and involved with the P2PFA as one of its members. Source
