Relendex eyes SIPP market
Relendex is targeting the self-invested personal pension (SIPP) market through its new associated company Farringdon Portfolio, which is authorised to advise clients on loans and to manage portfolios on their behalf.
The peer-to-peer property development lending platform created Farringdon Portfolio to help its lenders to optimise returns and to take the effort out of due diligence when choosing loans to invest in. It takes into account the investor’s specific requirements by using an algorithm to invest in Relendex loans.
“You can invest your Innovative Finance ISA and there will be SIPP solutions,” Paul Sonabend, Relendex’s executive chairman, told Peer2Peer Finance News.
“The next thing we expect to see is Farringdon licensed as a fund manager.”
While plans are still at an early stage, he said the goal is to offer a Relendex fund via third-party SIPP platforms. As the platform supports sustainable methods of construction, the first fund launch is likely to have an environmental, social and governance focus.
These plans follow a strong 18 months for the platform. It moved into the black with a £136,000 profit over the year to the end of January 2021.
“We are profitable every month now, whereas we used to be profitable only some months,” Sonabend said. “Being profitable makes everything easier and more enjoyable. It helps to build confidence that we will be around forever and a day.”
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He said the biggest challenge the platform faces is that the loanbook is not as large as they would like because loans are being repaid early.
“So many large loans are being repaid early rather than late,” Sonabend said. “We have out of town developers who thought they would take 15 months to do the development and three to six months to sell. Two months into the development, they have pre-sales on virtually all of the development.”
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