History has shown so far that when P2P lending sites, close, few of them end up paying reduced returns to lenders as a result of closing down and winding down loans until they’re repaid. (Although, as usual, you can suffer losses from bad debts after…
CrowdProperty has just made a lot of changes to its terms and conditions. Apart from simplifying them a lot – they really are an awful lot easier to read, which is great – there are substantive points that I want to bring to your attention….
4thWay® has a Panel of Peers to govern our website on your behalf. These are individuals like you who lend their money through P2P. They are one of many safeguards we have in place ensuring that 4thWay® keeps your interests at the heart of what…
Proplend’s Tranche A, 5-50% LTV Lending Against Property Mostly Receiving Rent has earned an Exceptional 3/3 4thWay PLUS Rating. These loans have been paying interest after lending fees and bad debts. Proplend’s other loans (called tranche B and C) are also 3/3 rated and paying…
When it comes to the risks of losing money, the main peer-to-peer lending risks are: Yourself (psychological risk). Not enough diversification (concentration risk). Losing money due to bad debts (credit risk). Losing money due to a P2P lending site going bust (platform risk). Losing money…
When loans fall into arrears or even turn bad – i.e, they “default” – you continue to earn interest. Most of the time, even if the borrower’s property ultimately needs to be repossessed and sold, lenders get all their money back as well as all…
Peer-to-peer lending websites and IFISA providers that do not appear to have the correct permission from the financial regulator are the ones that are most likely to turn out to be the real monsters that cause panic, fear and financial loss to individuals. Below, you…
In China, the number of websites offering lending platforms once reached more than 2,000. For a long time after that, 80 of them were being closed down every month due to peer-to-peer lending fraud or incompetence. The UK is far from China in more ways…
Loanpad’s Premium Account/Premium IFISA received an Exceptional 3/3 4thWay PLUS Rating. This account has been paying interest with zero losses. Visit Loanpad* or keep reading the Loanpad Review.
You have dozens of choices when it comes to peer-to-peer property lending. As far as we know, we’re listing every single one of your choices on this page that we at 4thWay consider to be P2P lending. The majority of P2P property lending websites offer…
The number and type of P2P lending companies operating from the UK changes regularly. We keep this page updated every quarter. On this page, you’ll find: Full alphabetical list of the peer-to-peer lending companies in the UK. Which includes: – What types of lending they…
I realised recently that 4thWay focuses so much on getting enough information, data and access to key people for ourselves that we don’t always remember to provide you with enough information about what you are told directly by the online lending platforms. I’m looking to…
In 2025, while P2P and online lending made “just” 6.77% after costs and write-offs, the stock market returned a huge 24.5%(1) for investors, after estimated investing costs. Plus, the 4thWay P2P And Direct Lending Index (PADL) now has two new constituents – Somo and CapitalStackers….
You’d think that learning from mistakes and improving would be a given for those who are finding and offering investments to you, but it really isn’t. But I have here an example of a provider called AxiaFunder that is well and truly learning from the…
With double-digit realised gains so far, returns of 20%+ highly possible, and being unaligned with recessions and property crashes, why wouldn’t you consider this opportunity? Before you read on, AxiaFunder is available to you only if you have invested at least £10,000 in unlisted investments…
We have nagged the taxman’s notoriously tight-lipped officials, talked the financial regulator, and chased down accountants, IFISA providers and even 4thWay’s own skilled experts to give you answers to all your IFISA questions – as well questions you never thought to ask. This guide is…
HNW Lending’s Manual Property & Asset Lending Account, averaging LTV after directors taking first loss, received an Exceptional 3/3 4thWay PLUS Rating. That lending account is paying around interest and the average lent is just of the valuation of the borrowers’ properties. Its auto-lend account pays…
CapitalStackers’ Property Lending Account/IFISA has earned an “Exceptional” 3/3 4thWay PLUS Rating. We forecast that lenders who start lending today will earn an average interest after bad debts, most of the time, although this will vary depending on your specific loans. Visit CapitalStackers* or keep…
LandlordInvest’s Bridging & Development Loans are currently unrated. LandlordInvest’s own data shows it hasn’t approved a new loan for 18 months and almost all loans have been repaid in full. Visit LandlordInvest or keep reading the LandlordInvest Review. Note that, as of 2026,
Blend’s Development And Property-Secured Business Loans are unrated, due to lack of information. These loans have been paying lenders around . Visit Blend or keep reading the Blend Review.
Through Blend, you are lending to fund residential property developments. The developments usually require millions of pounds in funding through Blend to complete.
Blend has also done short-term property (bridging) loans. I believe these are still rare, but we currently have few details.
With some loans you receive monthly interest and with others it’s all paid to you at the end.
Blend has completed £108 million since 2017.
Blend takes a unique approach with its auto-lend option, in that it favours the most loyal and long-term investors. The longer you have had auto-lend switched on, the higher in the lending queue you’ll be. However, you need to leave enough money in your account to take part in a loan, or you will lose your place in the queue.
A potential downside to leaving auto-lend switched on is that you will be auto-allocated all loans, including further tranches of loans to borrowers you are already lending to, which can concentrate more of your funds with fewer borrowers on the same development projects.
Blend is one of relatively few P2P lending companies to share at least some of the higher rate charged to borrowers when they fall late, if Blend decides to charge them extra. You receive the equivalent of approximately three percentage points per year over-and-above the rate you’re already earning.
Unusually, lenders selecting loans for themselves can question the borrowers directly.
Blend focuses on the quality of the property security as opposed to the quality of the borrower. This is typical of a lot of short-term lending.
Although I would have liked to have heard more unprompted enthusiasm about the record of the property developers it allows as borrowers, it does consider their experience in approving loans and setting rates. Its record of zero losses so far with a sound outstanding loan book wouldn’t likely be achieved if it didn’t take borrower experience seriously.
In loans such as these, lenders might normally see a number of bad debts among the loans they make, but they should generally expect that all or most of those bad debts will ultimately be recovered. So far, Blend has only been tested by one bad debt, which is recovered in full.
Still today, Blend only does lending where you are first in the queue (ahead of banks and other lenders to the borrower) to get your money back. That’s in the event the borrower is unable to repay and the property needs to be forcibly sold.
Blend has not shared with us its latest criteria and so I don’t know if it’s currently maintaining standards. A few years ago, it appeared to loosen its criteria to 75% of the hoped-for future sale price when it comes to developments. I don’t know where the maximum is now, but hints suggest it could be a lot higher than this – albeit probably for a minority of loans. BLEND currently tells borrowers that over half of its loans are for 65% to 75% of the expected sale price.
As of the beginning of 2026, the average loan size is probably in the region of £500,000 – but there are multiple loans (actually called “tranches”) for each development project. It appears that total development funding requirements can easily hit £3 million to £5 million, and even go up to £10 million.
Most of this section is now substantially out-of-date as my colleagues and I have not had a chance to interview Blend for some years, as its team has evolved.
We haven’t had access to interview key people for a long time, but last time it didn’t appear to lack talent in development, development lending, credit risk, surveying and legal expertise.
Blend’s team has been stable over the past year and more, up to the beginning of 2026.
Its managing director joined in 2022. While I haven’t interviewed him or conducted follow-up background checks, he apparently has a few decades experience that is highly relevant.
In 2024, Blend added two new important hires, padding out its internal team further. One is a lending director who we know has substantial experience and who also used to work with the managing director. It is uncertain how many hours he devotes to Blend, but his experience is nevertheless likely to be valuable.
Another former colleague was taken on as head of credit and he too appears to have substantial experience, although again we have not interviewed or background-checked him.
Since we haven’t had access and documentary evidence from BLEND for a long time, there’s not much I can say about their current processes.
Developers receive their money in stages, only get chunks of cash after a monitoring surveyor has assessed progress on the development. That is essential in this kind of lending to contain the risks.
However, the money is also raised from lenders as-and-when needed, not up-front, which can lead to unforeseen difficulties in funding the development to completion. The risk is that developers might suddenly be unable to raise later tranches to complete a development and sell for the expected price. For example, if lenders suddenly became doubtful of the quality of loans through Blend.
4thWay is unable to conduct its own assessment of the risks today or in the event of a serious recession and property crash, as we receive no data and little information. Therefore, there is not a lot of substance that I say.
While we can’t attempt to verify this, Blend indicates on its own website that just one or perhaps two developments turned bad by its own definition.
Its statistics on loans that went over 180 days past the initial completion date are confusing, not least because the number has gone down since last time I updated this review. Even so, it appears most likely to have just been a handful of loans.
It seems likely that lenders have received pretty much every penny they expected in interest and loan repayments. Lenders currently expect 8.43% after allowing for potential losses in normal times of about 1% of loans.
In recent years, BLEND has been forecasting losses of 3% of loans issued each year as its “best estimate” of eventual losses. However, I think this might be a conservative guess.
Blend doesn’t currently provide 4thWay with information, data or access, so we can’t do a proper assessment of the risks or the risk-reward balance. It sometimes responds to our ad-hoc questions.
Blend provides some information through its public website on its people, processes and results. Blend’s statistics table for individual lenders who are browsing its website offers perhaps a nice little summary, but it leaves unanswered questions.
For example, it sometimes refers to number of loans and other times number of developments (aka “projects”). Since there can be many loans per project it can potentially hide important facts.
There is also insufficient information to see how much of the lending is short-term bridging lending instead of development lending or whether loans have been refinanced in order to hide problem debts, for example. That is vital information for assessing hidden risk.
For each loan you might lend in, Blend provides full borrower information, including valuation reports, direct to lenders.
We have little information on Blend’s financial health, as it is not required to publish a large amount of audited information in its accounts. Best estimates from the limited information available are that it made six- or seven-figure losses in each of the five years from 2020 and 2024.
It does appear to have enough cash to keep going for a while though, so it still has some runway to achieve profitability.
Our security information provider, Sucuri, conducted an arm’s length test and can find no malware or entries on blacklists, and it is rated clean by all major companies like McAfee and Yandex. All other checks, such as on security certificates, were positive.
My feeling is Blend should be good. But without the access for ongoing, detailed assessments and so little contact for many years, I can’t form a solid opinion.
Blend has been approving maybe a couple of dozen loans per year for a while.
However, with no information to the contrary, I would presume that each loan is actually a tranche of a development loan, and therefore the number of borrowers and developments you’re financing is actually considerably less than that. Maybe 5-15 per year.
That means you’ll need to take time to spread your money across enough opportunities.
You can choose your own loans or spread your money across multiple loans automatically. The minimum you can lend in each loan is £1,000.
When using auto-lend, you can choose the maximum you want to lend in any loan. Have patience, as lenders who have had auto-lend on for longer will get into every loan before you. Top up your account as-and-when you need to, as you’ll lose your place in the queue if you have no cash available for the next loan.
Blend provides some information of what will happen in a wind down.
If Blend chooses to close, it will run its own wind down of your loans, which, like your cash, are segregated on your behalf. That’s the main thing.
I have no details on how much cash Blend keeps aside to fund an orderly wind down or whether those funds are protected from other uses or costs, but it claims to have sufficient amounts set aside for an orderly wind down.
If Blend were to go bust, owing substantial debts, it’s unclear how orderly the wind down would be or whether sufficient money is set aside to cover it. It has a manual to assist any administrators that would be appointed to take over from Blend, but their costs will be high and they might not have the regulatory approval required to ensure that lenders keep all their protections.
Blend doesn’t have an IFISA.
If other lenders are willing to buy, you can sell your loan parts for the outstanding amount and any outstanding interest, minus a 0.6% fee. You can’t sell loans that are late or that are nearing their repayment dates. Blend has discretion to prevent the sale of loans for other reasons.
Thank you for reading the Blend Review! Visit Blend.
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