Assetz Capital exits retail peer-to-peer lending, to focus on institutional funding

Property lender Assetz Capital will run off its retail investment loan book over the next five years as it plans to exit the retail peer-to-peer (P2P) lending space.

Assetz has been increasingly shifting its funding base to institutions over the last few years and says that since 2020 80 per cent of its lending has been funded by institutional capital.

According to Assetz, the decision is a result of “once-in-a-generation inflation, war in Ukraine and turmoil caused by 2022’s political and economic policy events, interest rates have moved upwards on what now looks like a semi-permanent basis, negatively impacting the retail investment proposition”.

The announcement yesterday makes Assetz the latest in a long line of lenders to cease their retail peer-to-peer offerings, including ThinCats, Zopa, Fluro (formerly Lending Works) and Landbay to name just a few.

“We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved in partnership with our retail investors,” said Stuart Law, CEO of Assetz Capital, announcing the change.

“Given market conditions, retail investors now have more choice over bank savings products than at any time in the last decade and this has reduced their investment appetite as a result.”

“We have therefore taken the decision to make permanent the temporary pausing of new lending through retail investor capital. We understand this might be frustrating for some retail investors and we will do all we can to support them, provide timely and clear information, and facilitate their withdrawals as quickly as possible.”

The company said winding down its retail P2P offering won’t have any impact on current lending, nor will it impact planned new lending.

Law added that the decision wouldn’t deter the company from working towards it second billion pounds worth of lending in the “near future”, with the additional goal of funding a quarter of SME-built new UK homes in the years to come.