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New investment project in Latvia announced by Bulkestate – Launch 6 july 2018

By MPI5th July 2018News, Peer-to-Peer Lending, Real estateBulkestate, invest, investing, investor, Latvia, mortgage, project, real estate investments

Bulkestate announced today that it is preparing to launch a new investment project in Latvia.

Launch time: Tomorrow / 6 July 2018 / 16:00 (EEST)

The property is a 2200 m2 large land plot on Lūku Street, in Mārupe district. The land plot is intended for private house construction. Mārupe is one of the closest private housing areas to Riga.

Interest rate: 13%

Investment target: 35,000 EUR
Loan period: 6 months
Loan to value: 49%
Security: Mortgage

5 essential steps to invest buying a property

By MPI4th July 2018Real estate, Smart moneyinvest, investing, investor, loan, maintenance, market, property, real estate, real estate investments, rent

Real estate invest

The first steps as an investor in the real estate world can be risky and complicated. Like any new approach, there is a learning process and by allocating time and studying the problem, the results will be positive. Before you buy a property, here are some steps to keep in mind.

Prepare the advance and set the rates for the loan

Financing through a loan an investment in a property is not the same as the financing of your own home. If you decide to invest and buy a property, expect a fairly important advance. Get ready the advance and study bank lending offers. Funding conditions are very important.

Decide if you want to rent or sell the property

Renting or selling an investment involves different strategies, so it is important to know what method you intend to apply. If you bought a property and you want to sell it after you arrange it, it is a quick way to earn capital. Renting requires shorter repairs and smaller investments, but it has a much lower return. The gains accumulate over time and the investment is amortized over a long period of time. Rental properties involve long-term commitments to keep tenants, but provide a long-term secure income.

Understand the local economy

Studying the current situation may be helpful. If you intend to rent, it is important to think long-term. Is the city potentially economical, or is the local economy declining? You need an economy that attracts potential tenants who will pay for long-term rent or you can always find quality buyers. Researching this economic situation will take time. Nobody knows the situation better than a local. Create relationships to understand if it is advisable to rent or sell a property. You can start investing in real estate in an area that will be familiar, close to your resentment.

Study the market

If you like a building, look for similar properties on the market. It is helpful to orient yourself according to the market price. Make a comparative study to see at what price you could rent your property, compared to other similar properties. Do not focus only on pricing. Verify if certain properties are for long available for sale on the market, then there are reasons why they are not leased. If real estate agents offer discounts, this indicates a market with few buyers. If the prices are high and few properties are available then the market is weak in quality offers and there are many buyers, that is, you have to compete.

Find out the costs for repair and maintenance

When buying a property, you also have to estimate the costs for repairs and improvements so that it is suitable for rent or later sale. Call a specialist who can find hidden building defects. If you intend to resell, evaluate correctly what costs are involved in the arrangement of the building. External repairs, painting, overhauling are much cheaper as structural defects or electrical network reconfiguration. Take into account not only repairs but also maintenance costs. If you want to resell, then you have to include these expenses in your plans, so you will not to lose. If you want to rent, avoid major repairs and renovations. Renting will bring long-term income, and the investment should not involve large expense.

The Mintos Refer-a-Friend Program is back! Get 1% cashback bonus!

By MPI4th July 2018News, Peer-to-Peer Lendingbonus, bonus program, cashback, Mintos, peer-to-peer lending, Promo code, refer-a-friend

Mintos Refer-a-Friend code can not be used on blogs (for general public) anymore, instead please use the affiliate link. If you invest for the first time on Mintos don’t forget that you can get 1% cashback bonus for your investment made in the first 90 days. To get the 1% bonus please use THIS LINK.

Mintos peer-to-peer lending marketplace have re-launched the Refer-a-Friend Program for a limited period of time.

How the program works?

In order to get the 1% bonus a promo code must be entered in the “Promo code” field during registration.

The promo code is: MINTOSCLUB.B7B9D7

Mintos will then reward both us and you with 1% of your invested amount. The reward will be calculated based on your average daily invested balance over a 3-month period – 30, 60, and 90 days after the registration date – and paid in three instalments.

For example, we refer Sara, who starts investing in loans via Mintos marketplace. After 30 days, the average balance Sara has invested over the period is EUR 3 500. Mintos will credit 1% of EUR 3 500 (EUR 35) to our investor account, and another EUR 35 to Sara’s investor account. After 60 and 90 days, Mintos will review the average invested balance again and, if it increases, credit both our and Sara’s investor account accordingly.

For other bonuses visit our Cash-back & Bonuses page.

Fast Invest peer-to-peer lending marketplace overview

By MPI1st July 2018Peer-to-Peer LendingAuto Invest, buyback guarantee, consumer loans, default guarantee, Fast Invest, investment, investor, peer-to-peer lending, portfolio

Fast Invest is an innovative FinTech company that offers its customers the chance to invest in consumer-based loans issued in European countries. All loans in the marketplace come with Buyback and Default Guarantees.

They firmly believe that everyone should be given access to the digital investment world. Technology has evolved so much over the past few years creating a smoother, faster and more reliable money flow. Their mission is to enable cross-border investing for every European citizen. The goal is to achieve this by building a stable, secure platform that makes it possible for users to invest in different countries, loan types and loan originators. Users can select from the pool of listed loans and invest in those that match their preferences.

Fast Invest’s business model provides access to investors and makes secure investing simple and accessible for anyone interested in investments and innovative ways of earning. Users can select from the pool of listed loans and invest in the one’s meeting their preferences, earning up to 14% in interest.

Fast Invest can offer better terms than traditional banks because they exclude unnecessary intermediaries from the process, thus allowing investors to save money that would have been otherwise spent on commissions and fees for third party services.

Overall FinTech (Financial Technology) companies are more flexible in terms of rates and operational costs than other organisations in the traditional banking sector. FinTech companies operate in diverse groups and incur fewer expenses than the traditional banking sector, thus providing the opportunity to give back more significant returns to the people.

How does the Fast Invest platform work?

A person applies for a loan at a loan originator and prepares all the necessary documents and fills in the appropriate forms. The loan originator checks the applicant’s credit score, evaluates risk and grants the loan.
Credit institutions provide the granted loans for investment. Fast Invest’s Compliance and Credit Risk Department then approves the conditions of the credit agreement and puts them on our Loan List for investment.
The borrower makes monthly repayments according to the terms in the credit agreement and the payment schedule. Payment instalments are divided proportionally according to the amount invested in that particular loan for every investor.
As soon as the borrower whose loan you have invested in repays his loan, you will start receiving payments of both the principal sum and the interest for that investment period. Funds are automatically transferred to your Fast Invest account. You can reinvest those funds in any available loan using the Auto Invest tool.

Opening a Fast Invest investor’s account

Fill in the investor’s registration form.
Add funds to your Fast Invest account.
Choose a loan to invest in from the Loan List.
According to the loan payment schedule, you will start receiving both repayments on the principal and the interest. Funds will be transferred to your Fast Invest account.

*NOTE: The investor must confirm his/her identity in order to request the immediate withdrawal of funds from the Fast Invest account to a personal bank account.

Investors must be at least 18 years old, have a valid email address and a personal bank account in their name in the European Union.

For the identification purposes, you must provide a national identification card (scanned or photographed both sides) or a passport (scanned or photographed).

There are three steps for Fast Invest client verification:

The client must send a copy of his/her national identification document. If there are any questions or concerns relating to the identification of the client, the Compliance Office support team will request a second identification document and bill to successfully identify the client;
The client receives an email which must be confirmed via the included link;
The client must verify his/her phone number by entering the SMS code sent directly to his/her phone.

Companies cannot register with Fast Invest platform, or make investments.

Investing with Fast Invest platform

Right now, the platform provides consumer-based loans issued across the European Union.

All listed loans are 100% pre-funded by the Loan Originator. Moreover, the Loan Originator keeps at least a 5% stake in every single deal, proving they have “skin in the game”.

On the Loan List, you can manually filter all listed loans, and manually pick the ones aligning with your preferences by determining: term, currency, amount, interest rate, and loan origin.

By using Auto Invest, you can create a portfolio, specifying specific parameters (portfolio size, maximum investment per loan, projected interest, time to maturity, etc.). Afterwards, the A.I. system will automatically select loans that meet your specified criteria and invests in available funds continuously. You can alter the settings or stop the portfolio at any time by visiting the Auto Invest portfolio list in your account.

You can check your investment portfolio at any time from the My Investment page or check the Account Statement page for full information on account transactions.

Auto Invest loans are marked with the symbol.

What is the buyback guarantee?

If you decide to stop investing in the selected loan and sell the investment (at any time before the scheduled full payment date), Fast Invest will buy back your investment in 1 business day, guaranteed.

To sell your investment, just log in to your Fast Invest account, click the My Investment section, select the loan you would like to sell and click “sell”. After the Account Management Support Team has approved it, you will receive the funds in your Fast Invest investors account.*

*Note: always remember, when selling your investment ahead of time you will lose all interest earned through the process. However, you will get your invested funds back. An icon indicates these payments secured by the BuyBack Guarantee.

What is the default guarantee?

If a payment instalment is overdue by 3 (three) or more days, the Default Guarantee will settle the arrears. The icon will mark these payments as paid by the Default Guarantee.

On the Fast Invest platform, there are no investment limits for individual investors. You can start investing with 1 Euro.

How does the currency exchange work?

The Fast Invest platform supports 4 fiat currencies – European Euro (EUR), United States Dollar (USD), United Kingdom Pound (GBP) and Polish Zloty (PLN).

The currency exchange is a simple and easy process.

On the exchange page, select which currency you want to convert to.
Enter the desired amount in one of the input fields.
Confirm the transaction.

Currency exchange rates are calculated via rates from the European Central Bank.

Real estate projects – unused potential of investments in the Baltic States

By MPI28th June 2018Peer-to-Peer Lending, Real estate, Smart moneyBaltic States, Envestio, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, peer-to-peer lending, portfolio, project, real estate investments

In Envestio portfolio you will find some projects wich are located in Baltic States. Is it safe to invest in these projects? First of all it depends on economic growth and economic growth forecasts in these countries.

What are forecasts of economic development of the Baltic States?

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as open economies gain profit from rapid cyclic acceleration and growth of world trade. Based on the IMF World Economy report, it is expected that annual growth both in 2018 and in 2019 will achieve record of seven years or 3.9%. Global recovery currently happens much more steadily and has solidified all over the world, besides global entrepreneurship confidence level is record high, which respectively affects further rise of the internal demand an d improves the labour market.
Only geopolitical tension and risk of political uncertainty are two factors that may cause potentially negative effect on total positive external demand of the Baltic States. Despite strong prospective of growth, Europe is directly affected by Brexit. However, direct influence of the United Kingdom’s trade links on the Baltic States still remains limited. Speaking about risks, conflicts about trade can also decrease record high level of economic optimism and global trade.

Unusually powerful rise is forecasted for the Baltic States, providing that the growth rate will only normalize starting from 2019.

On the favourable external background, in the last year Estonia and Latvia achieved growth rate of over 4% (4.9 % and 4.5 % compared to the previous year, respectively), and Lithuania showed stable annual growth of GDP – 3.8 %. Similarly to other countries of the Eurozone, cyclic recovery has gained speed, and it is forecasted that the biggest contribution to the growth of countries in the next year will be provided by the domestic demand.
Eurozone annual growth in 2018 will be 2.3%, it supports the growth rate in the Baltic States that will be above the maintained long-term rate, however it will gradually slow down due to basic effects and exhausting of yet unused reserves of resources. It is expected that export growth from the initial powerful acceleration will come to the normal level and will include both products and services, providing that increased growth will take place exactly in sector of services. Growth restrictions will first be reflected in the labour market, while lack of qualified labour grows.

Economic bases of the Baltic States are still stable, finances of the countries are almost balanced and public debt levels are the lowest in the whole Eurozone. Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian main future challenges mostly are of structural nature and are related to challenges in acceleration of productivity and growth of added value.

Baltic States will still be ones of the most rapidly growing Eurozone countries, with shrinking significant income difference compared to the European trade partners.

In this long-term adventure we must avoid temptations in respect of excessive domestic stimuli. Quite the other way, long-term growth is based upon complex choices, for instance, in the smart specialization, development of innovations and technologies, in order to promote export and profit. Increase of research and development (R&D) expenses in the private sector, strengthening of the ecosystem of small and medium companies and new companies and especially investments in human capital are examples of modern solutions that must be further used, in order to gain maximum benefit from the next decade’s global technological and digital bull race. Revenue of sectors of globalized technologies will still exceed forecasts.

Real estate projects – unused potential of investments in the Baltic States

Today we can say with confidence that investments in real estates of the Baltic region are the most profitable and efficient way to not only keep, but also multiply cash assets.
Situation in Europe also slowly improves. Stress caused by the refugee crisis decreases, besides economic factors of the European countries also slowly improve. Since main investors in the Baltic States come from the EU countries, their opinion of further growth prospective has increased and optimism slowly grows. In truth the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU is still ahead. However, it will probably cause investors to look for new places to invest money and create new companies in the EU. And one of the most prospective opportunities is the Baltic region.
Latvia still has many unused opportunities to invest in housing – Luminor bank has expressed its opinion at the conference “How will real estate market develop in Latvia?”.

Approximately 85% of homes in Latvia are not encumbered with credits, this means that opportunities to borrow for investments in housing are wide. Compare – for instance, in the Netherlands all homes have mortgage liabilities. In the Eurozone average proportion of mortgage loans to the gross domestic product is 40%, and in the Baltic States – just 16%. In turn, ability of the Baltic residents to purchase homes is assessed as good.

Housing market in Estonia and Lithuania is currently close to maturity, while in Latvia activity in the housing market is still quite slack. In turn, crediting cycle is relatively new and will only gain speed.
The whole Baltic Sea region currently sees rapid growth, and from the point of view economics this is a good time to invest in the Baltic region’s projects and gain from it guaranteed profit.

Find profitable investment projects in Baltics with Envestio

Metroktredit loan originator from Russia just joined Mintos peer-to-peer lending marketplace

By MPI27th June 2018News, Peer-to-Peer Lendingbuyback guarantee, Central Bank of Russia, EUR, invest, investor, loan portfolio, loans, Metrokredit, Mintos, Russia, Short-term loans

There are now even more opportunities for investment on Mintos as Metrokredit has just launched on the marketplace and offers its short-term loans for investment in Euro (EUR).

Metrokredit was established in 2017 in St Petersburg, Russia and it is regulated by the Central Bank of Russia. The company offers short-term loans in RUB of up to RUB 30 000 to citizens of Russia. Metrokredit offers its borrowers a fast and convenient service. All loans are issued solely online via their website and for first-time borrowers, they can receive a loan in just five minutes once approved. For repeated borrowers the time is even shorter – they can have funds in their account in only one minute. The approval process is also very fast as the company uses an advanced self-developed scoring model. This allows the company to evaluate the creditworthiness of a borrower within 10 minutes. It is because of this fast and friendly service that the company has already attracted more than 14 000 customers.

The average Russia-issued short-term loan the company has placed on Mintos is around EUR 112. The repayment period is 30 days and borrowers repay their loan in a single instalment. You can expect net annual returns of up to 13% for its loans listed in EUR.

All loans placed on Mintos by Metrokredit have a buyback guarantee and will be repurchased if the loan is delinquent for 60 days or more. The company will also keep 15% of each loan it places on the marketplace to maintain its skin in the game.

As of May 30, 2018, Metrokredit had a net loan portfolio of EUR 725 000. Since its establishment, it has originated 21 000 loans worth more than EUR 2.2 million. The company has a steadily growing revenue increasing monthly by 25 to 50%.

This is a great opportunity to diversify your portfolio and invest in Metrokredit’s loans listed in EUR .

Simbo.dk joins Mintos and offers for investment short-term loans from Denmark

By MPI25th June 2018News, Peer-to-Peer Lendingbuyback guarantee, consumer loans, DKK, EUR, invest, investors, Mintos, Short-term loans, Simbo.dk, Toms Jurjevs

There are now even more investment opportunities from Denmark on Mintos, as Simbo.dk has just launched on the marketplace. Simbo.dk is one of the leading consumer loan providers in Denmark and now offers for investment its short-term consumer loans listed in euro (EUR) and Danish krone (DKK).

Launched in April 2017, Simbo.dk operates completely online and offers its customers a simple and fast way to receive a loan. The company prides itself on its high-quality customer service, which is reflected in its strong rating of 9.3 out of 10 on Trustpilot. Above all else, Simbo.dk ensures complete transparency with its loans – there are no hidden fees or interest. The efficient application process takes just one minute, and customers can have the funds in their account in 10 minutes.

“We are excited to begin this collaboration with Mintos and share our strong performing portfolio with investors on the marketplace. We believe Mintos will allow Simbo.dk to grow at an even faster rate and allow us to reach a larger customer base in Denmark, which is our goal,” says Toms Jurjevs, CEO of Simbo.dk.

Denmark-issued loans from Simbo.dk are listed on Mintos in both EUR and DKK. The average loan from the company on the marketplace is around EUR 500 and DKK 4 300. The repayment term on average is 30 days, and borrowers make their repayments in a single instalment. You can expect a yearly return of up to 13%.

Simbo.dk guarantees the buyback of all loans that are delinquent for more than 60 days. To maintain its skin in the game, the company will keep 10% of each loan placed on Mintos on its balance sheet.

Since its inception, Simbo.dk has experienced strong growth. As of the end of April 2018 the company had a net loan portfolio of EUR 4.1 million.

The rapid growth of Simbo.dk can be attributed to the extensive experience of the management teams within the fintech industry. The founder and CEO of Simbo.dk, Toms Jurjevs, has 8 years experience in top executive positions with online short-term consumer lending market leaders. He has overseen businesses in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia and Romania. In addition, the local Managing Director for the Danish market, Stefan Agergaard Hansen, has executive experience from multiple short-term lending providers including in the peer-to-peer industry. He has overseen operations and business development in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Poland and Finland.

Investments made through Mintos into ID Finance’s Kazakhstan-issued loans gain 10 % yield in one and a half months

By MPI21st June 2018News, Peer-to-Peer LendingAlexander Pak, ID Finance, invest, investor, Kazakh Tenge, Kazakhstan, KZT, Mintos, peer-to-peer lending

Investors who used Mintos to invest in the loans of ID Finance Kazakhstan, denominated in Kazakhstani tenge, received returns in EUR terms 7.2% above the declared rate due to appreciation of the Kazakhstan tenge (KZT) against the Euro (EUR). Moreover, investors received a 17% annual interest as investment earnings – one of the highest rates on Mintos. This return rate is normally 10.5% for investments in EUR.

ID Finance Kazakhstan has been working with Mintos since April 12, 2018. In one and a half months, the exchange rate of KZT against the EUR has increased by 7.2%. This means that investors at Mintos gained almost a 10% holding period yield.

“The high yield of this instrument is explained by fundamental factors: the main force behind the growth of the KZT is oil prices, which have been increasing throughout the whole year, and this is a long-term trend,” explains Alexander Pak, CFO of ID Finance in Kazakhstan.

He adds that the advantage of investing in KZT is that alongside a high nominal yield investors may gain optional profits due to currency appreciation.

Alexander Pak says that by using Mintos, ID Finance is planning to fund loans worth EUR 6 million on an outstanding basis before the end of the year, with 40% of that sum in the national currency of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The historical performance of KZT does not predict its movements in the future and the FX gain is not in any way predictable or even more so guaranteed.

Get 0.5% cashback bonus for your investments made on EstateGuru

By MPI19th June 2018News, Peer-to-Peer Lending, Real estate, Smart moneybonus, cashback, EstateGuru, investing, investor

EstateGuru now offers a 0.5% cashback bonus for your investments made during the first 3 months from the registration.

How the program works?

In order to get the bonus you first must register by following THIS LINK.

The investor who completed a registration will get a 0.5% cashback bonus for the investments made in the first 3 months. Calculated bonus amounts are transferred to the investment account of the EstateGuru investor.

For other bonuses visit our Cash-back & Bonuses page.

A look into EstateGuru’s loan portfolio – June 2018

By MPI19th June 2018News, Peer-to-Peer Lending, Real estatebridge loans, business loans, development loans, EstateGuru, investing, investor, loan portfolio, mortgage, real estate investments

Since the beginning of EstateGuru, already 367 projects with a total sum of €60 094 383 have been funded on the platform. All these projects have been done in 5 countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Spain. In the following blog article, we give an overview of the EstateGuru loan portfolio in a short and informative analysis.

The EstateGuru loan portfolio is mostly divided into 3 types of loans: bridge loans, development loans and business loans. Bridge loans are defined as short-term real estate loans that provide the property owner the necessary capital until a permanent solution for financing has become available. A development loan is used to develop the property, that ranges from construction works to excavation works, i.e. development of area infrastructure, including utilities and roads. A business loan is a mortgage loan that is used to finance the capital needs of a company’s expansion, secured with a collateral that the company owns.

EstateGuru – outstanding loan portfolio by loan type (%)

Over a half of EstateGuru’s outstanding loan portfolio are bridge loans, with nearly a quarter of business loans and a bit over 1/4 of development loans. This shows the popularity of bridge loans to finance the capital needs of real estate developers and entrepreneurs.

Now let’s take a closer look at EstateGuru’s outstanding loan portfolio by country

EstateGuru – loan portfolio by country (%)

Since EstateGuru started its journey in Estonia and only later expanded to other countries, it might not come as a surprise that the highest amount of loans had been funded in Estonia. The country is currently enjoying an economic boom, which ensures that a lot of property developers are using the opportunity to get financing on good terms. 77% of EstateGuru’s whole loan portfolio has been done in Estonia, with Lithuania trailing at 11% and Latvia coming third at 9%. In 2018, EstateGuru also expanded to Finland and Spain, with the first projects on both respective markets already funded.

EstateGuru – loan portfolio by loan status (%)

Already 148 loans of 367 have been repaid on the EstateGuru platform as of today with a total principal returned amount of €23.7 million. This makes up about 36% of the whole portfolio. 2 loans with a combined sum of €360 000 are currently listed as “defaulted” with the sales processes of the collaterals ongoing. 1 defaulted project was recovered and investors gained a 13,72% return from this project.

EstateGuru offers secured loans

All of the projects on the EstateGuru platform are backed by a collateral. This ensures that in case a borrower is not able to repay his loan, then EstateGuru is able to take steps to make sure that the investors still receive their money. The main security against this is ensuring that the loan has a 1^st or 2^nd rank mortgage attached to it.

EstateGuru – loan portfolio security types (%)

As seen on the graph, a majority of the projects on EstateGuru are secured with a 1^st rank mortgage as only 7% of the whole portfolio is secured with a 2^nd rank mortgage. This means that in most cases, EstateGuru has all the rights to the underlying collateral.

Furthermore, all of the collaterals are either commercial real estate, residential real estate or land, which leaves the liquidity of the collaterals at a high level. This can be proved further on the following graph.

EstateGuru – loan portfolio collateral types (%)

61% of the projects on the platform are secured by residential real estate – be it a private house or apartments. A quarter of all loans are secured by a land plot and 14% are secured by commercial real estate like office spaces or a warehouse.

In conclusion, EstateGuru’s loan portfolio is already over €60 million and growing every day. The average return for investors today is 12.32%. In 2018 they are looking to open up even more investing opportunities for the investors by expanding into new countries and increasing the number of projects in the Baltics as well.

Source: EstateGuru.co