DUBLIN-based peer to peer lender PropertyBridges.com is bringing on further investment partnerships with Lagan Investments Ltd and Enterprise Ireland.
Lagan Investments, established last year following the successful sale of the Belfast-based Lagan Group to Breedon Group for £455 million, will become 10 per cent equity shareholders in the business and will supply up to €5 million of additional lending capital in support of future new housing projects to the Property Bridges platform.
Since its official launch in September, and with the initial support of the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) and Enterprise Ireland, PropertyBridges.com and its community of lenders has already helped with finance for new home builds in Dublin, Kilkenny, Waterford and Limerick.
The plan is to lend in every county across the country to more than 100 housing development projects in the next three years to the tune of €150m.
Property Bridges says it will achieve this with the help of the Irish public (it currently has more than 2,000 registered lenders with goal of 10,000 lenders in next three years).
"Aided by the new partnerships with Lagan Investments and Enterprise Ireland and combined with our growing community of online lenders, we are now in a better position to fund developers and reach our housing development goals," chief executive David Jelly said.
"With the financial support and expert industry knowledge of our new investment partners, PropertyBridges.com aims to become the number one online marketplace for property development investment in Ireland over the next few years.
"We will achieve this by investing further in their technology, diversifying their investment offering, growing to 20 plus employees in the next 18 months and improving their in-house credit assessment, project monitoring and due diligence capabilities."
John Lagan from Lagan Investments said: “We have a strong track record in real estate and are delighted to partner with Property Bridges, which we consider to be a truly transformational business, helping to deliver much needed homes across Ireland.
"The highly experienced Property Bridges team have demonstrated a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of property development and lending, providing a simple solution which will help to address residential housing shortages nationwide.”
Lagan Investments operates independently from Lagan Homes NI, Lagan Homes England and FastHouse, all of which are businesses retained by Kevin Lagan following the sale of the Lagan Group.
