Proportunity, the UK startup giving first-time buyers a leg up the property ladder, confirms a debt capital injection of around €8.2 million to manage record demand following the post-lockdown housing boom. The move will allow it to help more first-time buyers, fuelling Proportunity’s recent growth – a doubling of its last 2-years’ portfolio in just the past 2 months.
Founded in 2016, Proportunity provides home buyers with a deposit boosting equity loan of up to £90K (around €100K), enabling them to afford the home they love with only a 5% cash deposit. This is indeed a timely product in a housing market currently witnessing its biggest first-time buyers demand in a long time.
Alongside 2 of the top 5 UK mortgage lenders, Proportunity has helped finance over 24 million worth of properties since it started lending in 2018. To help as many of the aspiring homebuyers seeking a Proportunity Loan as it can, the digital mortgage lender had to implement a waitlist and a £90K (around €100K) cap on newly issued home equity loans. But unlike mortgage lending from many high-street banks, cash is flowing smoothly into borrowers’ pockets.
The lion’s share of the new debt funding came from Conister Bank. Douglas Grant, Director of Conister, commented: “Conister aims to support aspirational and high-impact businesses in a time where other players have retrenched and borrowers need liquidity the most. The UK’s SMEs have shown an incredible amount of adaptability and resilience in the face of changing consumer behaviour as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we are pleased to be able to support Proportunity as it seeks to positively contribute to the dynamics of the UK housing market following the lockdown and to help its customers realise the dream of owning their home.”
Vadim Toader, CEO and co-founder of Proportunity commented on recent market dynamics: “When the pandemic hit, we were able to leverage our property market technology to quickly adapt lending decisions, increasing our portfolio’s resilience and continuing to issue loans, where others lenders were forced to pull back mortgage products or put lending on hold entirely. That’s made us the only 5% LTV lender in the UK. Our number of loans has since grown exponentially, and we’re expecting to double our lending book every quarter for the next 6 months. I want to personally thank Conister and their team, including Kai, for believing in us. Without them, this would not be possible.”
A good chunk of Proportunity’s growing new business is coming from mortgage brokers sourcing solutions for buyers left out-of-pocket by the market, having onboarded over 200 new intermediaries during the previous quarter. As such, the lender has launched a new intermediaries platform.
Proportunity was also recently selected to join Tech Nation’s Fintech 3.0 cohort, a growth programme that supports the UK’s rising star fintechs, known for spinning-off finance challengers now turned household names, such as Monzo and Revolut.