The Viventor platform has been announced as under construction. The new site is being launched by a company called Prestamos Prima, which claims to be one of the largest “alternative finance groups” in Spain. But whereas Prestamos Prima is a borrower facing outfit, Viventor (a secured peer-to-peer proposition) will specifically target individual investors.
Viventor’s core borrowers will be those seeking a mortgage, with real estate developers in the pipeline – placing the platform in a not dissimilar territory to the UK's LendInvest. The team behind the platform is clearly excited by the opportunity presented by the P2P model, but also by the extreme growth of P2P within the real estate space in recent times. In reflecting that growth, Viventor cited the Massolution report – which seems to be the go-to source of optimism for nascent P2P players in the real estate sector.
Viventor’s launch is planned for Fall 2015. The platform will not initially feature a borrower interface, meaning that it will be keeping origination operations offline to begin with. The platform will carry a minimum investment amount of €500, and investors may invest selectively, or via an Autoinvest tool. Investment opportunities will be open to “EU investors”, who will invest from the outset in loans secured against Spanish mortgages.
Viventor will clearly strive to differentiate itself by offering investors a low-risk proposition. The platform has suggested that some kind of investment insurance will feature. We also understand that in no instance will the LTV of a listed Viventor loan exceed 50%. Furthermore, Andris Rozenbahs, CEO of the Prestamos Prima Group, outlined Viventor’s plans to adopt a skin-in-the-game approach to lending:
"We are set to make tremendous efforts to ensure security and credibility. Our goal is to provide quality investment opportunities, no junks. All the loans will be secured by mortgages carefully evaluated, and Viventor will keep its stake in all the loans listed."
Spain’s P2P scene at present features a pair of up-and-coming business lenders – Comunitae and LoanBook – that have between them facilitated upwards of €25m in lending to date. Upon launch, Viventor will not have any immediately obvious competitors within the Spanish real estate space.
We’ll be keeping an eye out for the platform's launch.
