December 2019: Turbulence in the market

Happy new year everybody!

In this monthly update I’ll show you the returns and results of my crowdfunding and crowdlending investments. I did not have much time te prepare due to the holidays, so let get to the numbers right away!

Portfolio overview December 2019

Last month the interest payments I received totalled € 1,121.18 and my average rate of return over all platforms is 12.3%. The table below shows the details for each platform.

The XIRR column contains the annualized rate of return since my first deposit into that platform. Click on a column header to sort the table by that column, twice to reverse the sort order. I have an overview page for each platform, you can click on the magnifier glass to visit that page.

Interest income per month

Activities

To show you how little effort is involved when investion via crowdfunding and crowdlending I have added an overview of the manual actions in the last month:

I did check the platforms every now and then, but this was purely for fun. It wasn’t necessary to get these interest payments and return rates.

Platform updates

 Bondora

Next month Bondora announces how more people can get acces to the app. Is is in test now, and slowly get the opportunity to use it. Well, to test it as it is not finished yet. Personally the app is not that important to me. The interest rate (up to 6,75%) is really stable, so no need to check it every day. The important thing is that the Bondora Go & Grow option is the only option in the P2P market that allows you to withdraw all your funds whenever you like. Nothing is blocked, so it can be sent back to your personal bank account at any time.

My investments at Bondora returned € 29.45 last month, and my average return rate is 6.8%.

When you register through this link you’ll receive a 5 euro bonus. Just give their Go & Grow option a try for a few months, and don’t try the other advanced options.

 Brickstarter

I started investing via a new platform this month: Brickstarter. This platform is comparable to Reinvest24: the platform buys properties and allows you to participate in the investment, starting from very low amounts. Your get a fair share of the rental income, and when the property is sold in the future you’ll also get your share of the property value growth. A big plus is that Brickstarter does not charge acquisition like Reinvest24 does. Brickstarter focusses on high revenu vacation rental properties in Spain.

I have deposited 2,000 euro, and invested half of that in a penthouse in Alicante. I am saving the other half for a different project. The property in Alicante is already operational and bringing in rental income:

Brickstarter performs a thorough market analysis, and publishes this for every project, so you evaluate it for yourself:

 Bulkestate

This month I have deposited 500 euro to invest in a new project with an interest rate of 15%. I wasn’t the only one: within a minute 160,000 euro was invested. After 10 minutes the entire project was financed by 379 investors.

Another project will open on January 6th: ‘Martas Street’. Also 15% interest, and investing 10,000 euro will add an additional 1% to that. Invest 25,000 euro or more and the interest rate is increased by another 1% to 17%:

I intend to deposit another small sum and invest in this project. The interest rate of 15% is really good, plus all projects on this platform have the property as collateral via mortgages. This feels a lot safer for investors, in case of problems the property can be sold to refund the investors.

I expect this project to be funded just as fast as the last one. So I set a reminderin my calendar: January 6th, at 17:00 Eastern Europe time and 16:00 in the western part. It is probably best to start a few minutes early just in case.

My investments at Bulkestate returned € 14.62 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.3%.

 Crowdestate

Crowdestate has notified investors that they are obliged by Italian law to withhold taxes. Not just for Italian investors, but for all investors. This only applies to projects in Italy, but the tax rate is 26%. I have immediately excluded Italy from the auto-invest settings.

The 26% tax in Italian investments can be partially avoided, Crowdestate is adjusting the platform for that. A proof of tax residency in a country that has a double taxation agreement with Italy will lower the tax on received interest to 10%.

My investments at Crowdestate returned € 8.91 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.3%.

 Crowdestor

I received another huge interest payment at Crowdestor. The project ‘Renovation of eclecticism style building’ paid the interest for the first 6 months at once: 271 euro. From now on the project will pay the interest on a monthly basis. I walked past these properties when I was in Riga, and I hope to return there in a few months. I’ll definitely check them out again to have a look at the progress.

My investments at Crowdestor returned € 324.05 last month, and my average return rate is now 16.0%.

 Envestio

Envestio is an important pillar in my portfolio. I have invested quite a bit more here compared to most other platforms, so I should probably move some funds to other platforms, or use it to start investing in new platforms.

My investments at Envestio returned € 170.60 last month, and my average return rate is now 18.9%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a 5 euro bonus with your first deposit (minimum 100 euro), plus a bonus of 0.5% over all your investments in the first 270 days.

 EstateGuru

EstateGuru announced the full recovery of two defaulted projects. The Soku project was financed between November 2017 and November 2018, and the loans for this project were put in default in October 2019. After the successful sale of the collateral property investors were repaid and even made a 10% return.

The Koru põik project took a lot longer, it was placed in default in January 2018. The owner went to court to prevent the sale of the collateral, but EstateGuru won the process and in December 2019 the investors were repaid. Because of the long process the investors made a 4% return. A lot lower, but still a lot better than loosing money!

Since it’s start, EstateGuru has successfully recovered 15 defaulted loans. On average these loans resulted in a return of 11.3% for investors, which is really good news. Capital loss on the EstateGuru platform remains 0%. This is not a guarantee for the future, but it feels really comforting.

My investments at EstateGuru returned € 37.50 last month, and my average return rate is now 9.8%.

 Fast Invest

Fast Invest has really grown in the past year. The number of investors grow from 29,000 to 29,000 and the investments from 11,4 million euro to 42,5 million euro. The number of loans grew by 47% to 56,000.

The average return rate for all investors in 2019 was 12,04% and almost two-thirds of the investors had a return rate of more than 12%. Even more important: 100% of Fast Invest investors made a profit. So not a single investor lost money at this platform.

My investments at Fast Invest returned € 103.43 last month, and my average return rate is now 13.7%.

 Flender

New loans are published regularly on Flender, 6 in the past month. The interest rates vary from 8% to 13%, and principal is paid back each month. So no need to await the entire investment term to get your investment back.

My investments at Flender returned € 18.12 last month, and my average return rate is now 3.4%.

 Funding Circle NL

My investments at Funding Circle NL returned € 35.77 last month, and my average return rate is now 8.7%.

 Grupeer

The first week of december there was a cashback action at Grupeer: up to 1% cashback on loans of 4 originators. In that period a development project matured, so I disabled my auto-invest de day before. The next day over a thousand euros were returned into my account along with a lot of interest, and I immediately invested this in the applicable loans. This gave me an instant 5.45 euro cashback bonus.

On December 16th I received another email from Grupeer: until January 12th interest rate on loans placed by 3 originators (Finsputnik, PlanetaCash and Primo Invest) will be increased to 14%. I immediately updated my auto-invest to only invest in these loans. I also set a reminder in my calendar to update my auto-invest after the campaign finishes.

Three new real estate development projects were published on Grupeer, two in Sweden and one in Belarus. The projects have interest rates of 13% and 14%, but wat makes them attractive is the buyback guarantee: in case of problems both the principal and the accrued interest are repaid.

My investments at Grupeer returned € 92.52 last month, and my average return rate is now 14.6%.

 Iuvo

My return rate for Iuvo keeps dropping. Only loans with interest rates of 8-9% are available, where as 6 months ago this was 12-14%.

That is why I have decided to withdraw some funds from Iuvo, and move this to other platforms. This serves two purposes: I have invested a lot more in Iuco compared to other platforms, so this helps diversify my portfolio. It also gives me the chance to add another platform to review.

My investments at Iuvo returned € 81.52 last month, and my average return rate is now 11.8%.

 Kuetzal

Last month there were problems for Kuetzal and the ‘Marina Code SP’ project. It appears wrong information was provided to Kuetal on purpose. Kuetzal reached an agreement to terminate the loan, and investors have been refunded. This however seems to be only the tip of the iceberg.

On December 12th, Kuetzal sent an email to investors stating that there were also concerns regarding the ‘Alborg Project’ project. Kuetzal said they would invite an independent auditor to perform a company research on Alborg Petrol.

Next news was that not only the CEO, Alberts evers, but also the entire staff appears to have left the company. Even the office in Riga is closed. A fellow blogger spoke the new CEO, who indicated Kuetzal wanted to move the office to Tallinn to be closer to the owner.

Also, the terms and conditions have been changed. The “Portal Operator” is now just a facilitator, bringing together investors and borrowers, and investors are now themselves responsible for the due diligence of a project… Kuetzal said they have always performed, and will always continue to perform, it’s own analysis for all the projects on the platform and that the terms will be updated soon.

To me, these are serious red flags. Communication by Kuetzal is nearly non-existent these days. The only conclusion and advice I have is to leave Kuetzal.. Maybe in a few weeks it seemed like a storm in a glass of water, but for now the risk of loosing money seems to high.

My investments at Kuetzal returned € 66.85 last month, and my average return rate is now 18.6%.

 Lender & Spender

My investments at Lender & Spender returned € 9.12 last month, and my average return rate is now 4.0%.

 Mintos

Mintos is by far the largest P2P platform in Europe, over 4 billion euro worth of loans has been financed by 215,000 investors. The amount of loans that is financed in a single month is larger than most other platforms have financed in their entire existence..

This month news came out that the regulator in Kosovo withdrew the license of IuteCredit and Monego on December 6th. Mintos immediately froze these loans, and took legal steps to protect the interests of the investors.

The IuteCredit Group is active in 6 countries. IuteCredit Kosovo stopped issuing new loans, but continues to service the existing loans. The IuteCredit Group also confirmed its commitment to pay according to the provided group guarantee to ensure that Mintos investors are paid. Mintos expects that investors shall receive their money from investments in IuteCredit Kosovo loans in a timely manner and in full.

The payments for Monego are guaranteed by a third party: Finitera. This company was restructuring Monego and integrating it into Finitera. The first repayment transfer has been made to Mintos in the amount of EUR 293 985, and it is being directed to Mintos investors accounts.

My investments at Mintos returned € 50.75 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.8%.

When you register via this link you’ll receive a 1% cashback bonus over all your investments in the first 90 days.

 Reinvest24

This month I was able to invest the other half of the funds I deposited at Reinvest24. There is quite some time between published projects, but I did not want to invest everything into a single project.

The new project, office space in Rocca Al Mare (the upcoming area overlooking the sea) comes with an 8 year notarized rental contract with an Estonian car wash chain: Jazz.

Because of the existing rental contract, the investment starts generating income immediately: the estimated net annual rental income is 7.4%. In addition to that, the estimated earnings from the increase in property value over time is 5.8% (an estinated 13.2% in total).

ReInvest24 takes 2% from the investment amount to cover property acquisition expenses, and also charges up to 10% from rental revenue generated by the properties to cover various property management related expenses. That is the rreason my return rate is now negative. But from now on the rental income should change this, and it should be positive within a few months.

My investments at Reinvest24 returned € -7.07 last month, and my average return rate is now -9.6%.

 Robocash

In december, the regulator in The Philippines revoked the license of hundreds of companies, including the Philippine branch of Robocash (Robocash Finance Corp.).

Robocash claims this happened prematurely, as the law wasn’t in effect yet, and the company was still trying to comply with the new rules.

Robocash notified investors that no new Philippine loans would be published, and that all commitments for the existing Philippine loans will be guaranteed by the Robocash group. That is good news for investors. Philippine loans make up 12% of all loans of the entire Robocash group.

The same email states that the Philippine company will continue to exist, and that the Robocash Group sold it’s stake in the company to other shareholders.

When I checked I saw that most of my portfolio is invested in Philippine loans, so I’ll keep a close eye on it to see how things will progress.

My investments at Robocash returned € 2.25 last month, and my average return rate is now 7.6%.

 TFG Crowd

I’ll try to withdraw some funds from TFG Crowd as a test. This platform also has superhigh interest rates, just like Kuetzal, but I haven’t received any negative news regarding this platform yet. That’s why I’ll investigate it a but more thoroughly: a test withdrawal, looking into the projects, etc.

My investments at TFG Crowd returned € 21.74 last month, and my average return rate is now 15.7%.

 Twino

Twino keeps being a very stable platform, it is also one of the oldest. The return rate is ‘just’ 11%, but compared to other platforms I find this OK now. A savings account still pales in comparison..

My investments at Twino returned € 52.77 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.9%.

 Viainvest

I started 4 months ago at Viainvest, and the return rate is slowly climbing. According to my dashboard the return rate should end up around 11.5%, but my own calculations showed it stayed at 10% this month.

Viainvest also offers business loans now, with interest rates from 8% up to 12%. The buyback guarantee does not apply to these loans however, so if you want to have the guarantee for all your loans you should exclude the business loans from your auto-invest settings.

My investments at Viainvest returned € 8.28 last month, and my average return rate is now 10.0%.

And finally…

That was it for this monthly update. You can subscribe via the contact page and you’ll receive an email the moment a new update is published. Or just visit again next month, that’s up to you.

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Below you can also find the link to my previous posts, where you can find my tips and results of the previous months.