I will start with the evolution of my positions throughout 2018 by type of investment.
The distribution of my investments by category remains more or less constant. The most notable is the decline of my stock market investments due to the general decline in the markets.
During November, my investments in participatory platforms can be summarized as follows:
- I have begun to invest in two new platforms: NEO Finance and Twino. In a couple of months I will present my assessment of them.
- I increased my positions in Estateguru, Envestio, Linked Finance, October, Fast Invest and Swaper.
- The best platforms in terms of IRR are 1) Real Estate: Bricks & People and Estateguru; 2) P2B: Flender; and 3) P2P: NEO Finance, Finbee and Swaper.
The best returns for November have been 1) real estate: Estateguru and Crowdestate; 2) P2B: Envestio; and 3) P2P: NEO Finance, Finbee and Fellow Finance. Point out that the NEO Finance case is due to the very generous welcome promotion (40 EUR). Fellow Finance had been losing for several months, so even though it is positive news that my positions are beginning to recover, my opinion of the platform is still not too favorable.
Todos los intereses están calculados antes de descontar impuestos
The profitability of November exceed the levels of October with a 6.5% (versus 6.1%). Crowdlending P2P platforms and crowdfunding real estate have improved their profitability compared to September to 12.1 and 3.5%, respectively, unlike crowdfunding P2B, which have fallen to a half percentage point to 7.2%.
As for delays and defaults, the behavior of all platforms is quite acceptable:
Moment, when all long-term investments, do not begin to see returns in theory until December 2018. In any case, the returns offered are excellent (always above 13%) and historically have 0% of defaults, so I will continue to invest in all new projects. Unfortunately, the platform has two months without offering new projects.
- Of note is the second default of October in October, and delays fairly sleazy Linked Flender and Finance (from the same company: Irish Premier Golf Tours Limited).
- Delays and defaults Finbee fall within normal, being a platform without Buyback. Finance Fellow case is a bit more worrisome, since defaults are not compensated by the return on assets loans.
- The “delay” of real estate platforms like Housers or Inveslar not surprised – property sales take time and time delays are only a couple of months. For Privalore it is more worrying since they are already several months and affect 3 of my 7 active investments.
- Estateguru delays, which average around 5% of the loans have dropped to only 3%. In addition, so far (knock on wood), all end up being paid. Yes, three of them have higher than 60 days late.
- Crowdestate easily check does not allow delays. There are some, but it is difficult to define how unless we consult the projects one by one.
I only include platforms without Buyback
Real Estate Crowdfunding:
Bulkestate
Moment, when all long-term investments, do not begin to see returns in theory until December 2018. In any case, the returns offered are excellent (always above 13%) and historically have 0% of defaults, so I will continue to invest in all new projects. Unfortunately, the platform has two months without offering new projects.
CrowdEstate
Crowdestate continues to offer excellent returns. Some payments are delayed, but end up arriving (plus corresponding compensation for the delay). About half of my portfolio are projects that pay in full at the end. The monthly profitability and IRR should increase considerably in the coming months when the first projects that are paid in full at the end begin to settle.
A new feature of the platform during the month of November is the possibility of investing (or not) in projects. that are financed in several stages (“Multiple investing rounds”). I have decided not to invest in second rounds, since I consider that it is to go against my principles of diversification. Basically it would be investing several times in the same project.
My strategy is to continue investing in each new project. Profitability does not take off. It seems that I have reached the point where the benefits will allow me to invest in each project without the need for new contributions. Although I do not rule out making specific income if the number of projects increases, my intention is not to increase my position in the short or medium term.
Estateguru
Estateguru continues to behave excellently. Estateguru’s delays, which are usually around 5% of loans, have dropped to just 3%. Also, for now (let’s knock on wood), everyone ends up paying. Of course, three of them have delays of more than 60 days. As with Crowdestate, the monthly profitability and IRR should increase considerably in the coming months when more projects than are paid in full at the end begin to be liquidated. My strategy is to continue investing in each new project.
Housers:
Profitability fails to take off. I seem to have reached the point where the benefits will allow me to spend on each project without further input. Although not rule out making off revenues if it increased the number of projects, my intention is not to increase my position in the short or medium term.
For already a couple of months, I started investing half in the projects Madrid, who were clearly over-represented in my portfolio, reaching more than 50%, coupled with the continuous news from overheating housing market Madrid (and other big cities like Barcelona or Mallorca).
An excellent feature of the platform is the admirable punctuality when selling (and charge) investment projects. Generally they pay several months ahead of schedule and only two projects have delays.
Inveslar
In Inveslar, yields remain constant around 1.5% over a year ago. The low profitability moment because the majority projects are fairly long term (7 of my 12 projects are 36 or 60 months), and all interest received are for rent.
Projects 12-14 months, yet none has been finalized since I started investing, although there are two delayed a couple of months I am confident that soon sold to improve the TIR.
The platform, though no a lot of activity, is increasing the repertoire of projects. Two fixed-rate mortgage loans and the last, Eugenia IN, is a project carried out by an external promoter (rather than Inveslar as usual).
Privalore
Privalore, offering investment opportunities only (rehabilitation), it offers little constant returns. Since March 2018, the platform offers only opportunities in Madrid, whereas previously focused exclusively in Barcelona. The biggest drawback is that three of my seven active investments are delayed (two 5 and 7 months), so I decided not to invest in new opportunities until they catch up.
Crowdlending P2B:
Envestio
I have only been investing with Envestio for two months, but in the second month it has become one of the platforms with the best rate of return (16.8%!). All but one of the projects I invested in in November offered returns above 20%. Keep in mind that many of the projects that are appearing are actually new tranches of financing for the same project, so by investing in them, we do not increase our diversification. In fact, of the eleven new projects I invested in in November, only one was new. With the offered returns and Buyback (!), My intention is to increase my positions in the coming months.
Flender
Flender yields are excellent, increasing progressively until stabilizing between 8 and 9%. The current IRR is 18.4% thanks to a summer promotion that obtained 10% in cash from the amount invested. The only downside is the first non-payment in a Flender project. This is the Premier Irish Golf Tours Limited project, which was also funded through Linked Finance. Flender has started legal activities to recover it. But hey, it is normal. My intention is to continue investing in all new projects.
Linked Finance
The Irish platform is by far the most active of all the P2B platforms I use. The yields have been increasing progressively until stabilizing around 8% in the last months. The only downside is two projects (out of 279) with delays, one of which looks pretty bad (the Premier Irish Golf Tours Limited project that it had also funded through Flender). In any case, my intention is to continue investing in all new projects.
October (ex Lendix)
Lendix changed his name and likeness in October. The rest remains the same. The platform has performed well since starting to use it. The only problem has been confirmed in August and November Technofirst defaults (oddly my first project) and A & A Marketing Service. It remains to see whether the recovery agency gets something. Although falls within normal, these incidents have reduced my return virtually nothing (0.78% to be exact). I intend to continue to invest in all new projects and trust returns back to its course.
In November, October announced that start to operate in the Netherlands (as well as France, Italy and Spain).
P2P Crowdlending:
Dofinance
Dofinance is the maximum of simplicity in terms of handling. It works as if you were choosing a fixed-term deposit. The big drawback is that about three months ago, the maximum profitability offered by Dofinance fell from 12 to 9%, with which since then there has been a downward readjustment that has almost reached its goal (9.3% in November). 9% is a bit low for a P2P platform. A pity because the operation of the platform is really effective and simple. When the first contracted “deposits” begin to expire, I will consider whether or not to renew my positions. See if by then interest has risen again.
Fast Invest
Only two months, but it has already become one of my favorite platforms. Easy use and a continuous flow of loans at 15% has led me to increase my positions by 25% throughout November, so that the profitability obtained has not yet stabilized at its maximum. If the loan offer is maintained at the current level, I will continue to increase my positions in the coming months.
Finbee
Although the returns at the moment are excellent, being a platform without Buyback, I am still pending on how the platform evolves in the medium-long term once the defaults stabilize. Delayed and unpaid loans account for 9.6% and 6.3% of my portfolio, respectively. My AutoInvest selects only loans above 18%. In my opinion it would not make sense to invest in loans without Buyback below that figure, with platforms offering up to 15% with Buyback (Fast Invest and Grupeer). At the moment my strategy is to maintain (reinvesting the profits). In a couple of months, once I see at what levels the returns stabilize, I will decide whether to increase my position or withdraw funds.
FinBee has been working since early 2018 on DESICO a collective funding platform for worldwide companies market their securities issued and converted into tokens.
Grupeer
One of my favorite platforms, with consistent results. Unfortunately, during the last month the flow has been reduced quite a bit, generating still acceptable Cash Drag levels (only 21 loans in November). Also, the average interest on the loans acquired has been dropping considerably to 12.9% (which is still excellent), compared to interest rates above 14.5% from May to September. So the next few months will certainly see a drop in profitability. We will have to wait to see how the platform evolves in the coming months before deciding whether to maintain or increase positions.
In November, Grupeer has improved the AutoInvest modality, which allows programming up to ten different strategies and prioritizing them. Previously, AutoInvest had only two criteria: interest rate and term. Grupeer has added more criteria: type of loan, country, partner, type of payment schedule.
Mintos
When MINTOS present my results, I have divided depending on the currency. Red results combined platform, making each currency to euros (with the change of each month). TIR best (so far) for my investments in EUR (18.3%) and pounds (GBP – 16.1%), thanks to excellent promotions from February to May (Mogo, Getbucks and Lendo). In the past four months, the monthly returns (EUR and GBP) have stabilized.
Also the maximum returns offered by loans in euros every day, have been declining at a 11.5-13% during November. Since October, I started investing manually, both in the primary market and the secondary.
Interest loans offered by GEL and Tenges (KAZ) remained stable at 16% and 17-18%, respectively. There is usually always available both in the primary market and the secondary.
Loans in pounds sterling (GBP) have been really scarce during most of October and November, lower interest at 10%, but at the end of the month, the problem has been solved Drag Cash.
The profitability of loans in Kazakhstan’s Tenges (KAZ) had been extremely low for the past three months (below 10%, compared to the 17-18% that would be expected) due to the very high percentage of delays (sometimes more than half) of ID Finance’s long-term loans. Luckily, the three providers in KAZ pay the accrued interest for the days in arrears at 60 days, so in November, these delays began to be repaid, bouncing profitability to the expected ranges (23.3%). Besides, I have stopped investing in ID Finance loans.
During the month of October, it announced the possibility of investing in the secondary market AutoInvest from December 2018. I got access to the secondary market a few weeks before to meet certain conditions. The truth is that I failed to invest in the secondary market particularly favorable loans, imagine the high competition.
MINTOS has begun working with their first originator Asia: Cashwagon is an international financial services provider rapidly growing Singapore-based yoperaciones in five countries: Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines. It offers interest of up to 10%.
Another new originator, Tengo.kz offers short-term loans issued in Kazakhstan with interest of up to 12% on loans in EUR and 19% in Tenge (KZT).
The IuteCredit Group now offers personal loans to 11% for investments in Macedonia (plus IuteCredit personal loans issued in Albania, Moldova and Kosovo already on the market).
New personal loans issued by the subsidiary of Creditstar in Estonia (Monefit) with yields of up to 12% (plus the already available Creditstar loans in Poland, Spain, Czech Republic and Finland).
Placet Group has added personal loans from Lithuania with yields of up to 9% (on top of its loans in Estonia).
MINTOS has announced that in the future, add personal accounts (with IBAN) and debit cards. Personal account can make and receive payments around the world, or receive wages directly into the account MINTOS.
Peerberry
Without offering spectacular returns, Peerberry makes up for its amazing regularity (always returns around 11%), and zero minimum follow Drag Cash. I intend to keep my position while these features are maintained.
On October 31, Peerberry celebrated its first anniversary: 3000 investors from 59 countries, 240,000 EUR generated in interest, 8 originators of 5 countries.
The creator of loans Credit Plus Peerberry joined in October with an interest rate that has recently increased to 12% (compared to 11.5% with which they started). Peerberry has also begun offering short-term Russian Credit issued by Star (owned by Aventus Group) loans.
Robocash
Robocash is a platform that started with surprising returns, but was later seriously affected by a Cash Drag problem that lasted all summer, sometimes exceeding 50%. From the month of October the Cash Drag seem to have been solved thanks perhaps to the incorporation of new originators. As of November 19, all loans are at 12%, compared to 14% offered before summer. Another important point is that the interest on longer-term loans (180-365 days) is charged at the end, so the rate of return should increase considerably in the coming months, when the first ones begin to mature. At the moment, my strategy is to keep my current positions waiting to see how the platform behaves in terms of Cash Drag and offered interests.
Over the past few months, two new loan originators have joined the platform: LLP Z-Finance from Kazakhstan and MFC Zaymer from Russia. As of today, Robocash has reached 4,500 registered users, the volume of investments exceeds 4 million euros, and they have generated profits of almost half a million euros.
Swaper
Swaper continues to offer incredible returns, with returns above 16% for the last three months thanks to the 2 additional points of return for amounts invested above 5000 euros, which apparently amply compensate the permanent Cash Drag of the platform, which It is usually around 10% but can reach 20%. In November, I increased my position again (4.5% compared to 3.3% in October). I will continue to increase my positions if the behavior continues.
Viainvest
Another platform of moderate returns but excellent regularity, without Cash Drag and that requires minimal monitoring. Returns are constant between 10.2 and 11.3%. My intention is to maintain my position as long as performance is maintained.
Unlike other platforms, Viainvest withholds taxes. I present the results tax free to facilitate comparison. As of December 1, 2018, Viainvest has announced that such withholding will no longer automatically apply to income from investments in loans originating in Poland by VIA SMS PL Sp. For investments in loans originating in Spain or the Czech Republic, they will continue to practice withholding.
Viventor
Returns similar to those of Peerberry. Over the past two months, the amount of loans available above 9% has become quite uneven. I have had to change my AutoInvest several times and have started monitoring more regularly, manually investing in both the primary and secondary markets. At the moment it seems that I have managed to maintain, and even improve my profitability. I am quite satisfied with the performance so I will keep my position.