EstateGuru review
Ratings
Loan types available
Development loans
Bridge loans
Renovation loans
Business loans
Loan characteristics
9-18 month maturities
Euro only
No buybacks
Real estate collateral
5 countries
Website and investment product features
Auto-invest
Secondary market
Manual selection
6 languages
What is EstateGuru? How does it work?
EstateGuru is a P2P investment site based in Tallinn, Estonia. It has been growing quickly and it has become one of the largest P2P investment sites in Continental Europe. Over €130 million has been lent so far. EstateGuru has a good lending track record and investors have achieved average returns over 12% to date. EstateGuru mainly lends to developers and business owners. Loans made to developers are to fund the development of a property or to provide a bridging loan secured against a completed asset. Loans to businesses are usually to provide working capital and are secured on commercial assets (often hotels, restaurants etc) or residential property (often the house of one of the directors).
EstateGuru has been increasing the number of countries it operates, and also the number of languages the site supports. The risk profile of the loans can vary considerably and we would recommend performing careful analysis and selection before investing. This is not a platform that we would make use of auto-investment facilities. We think the management team have performed well so far – you can read our past interview with their Chief Risk Officer here.
What we like
What we don't like
- Interest rates are high - typically 9 to 12%
- The quality of information provided about each loan is fantastic. EstateGuru provides excellent information on the collateral and borrower
- All loans are secured
- EstateGuru has an excellent lending record. While there have been defaults, so far investors have achieved a full recovery on their investment
- LTVs are reasonable - generally around 60%
- The number of loans listed has been increasing and availability is getting better
- Many collaterals are completed buildings which are less risky to lend against than developments
- Growing number of countries where loans are located
- Website is well presented and is easy to use
- Website offers multiple languages
- Autoinvest function does not have sufficient filters and requires a minimum investment of €250 per loan to unlock basic filters
- Investment opportunities are heavily biased towards the Baltic region of Europe, which will not suit some investors
- Risks can vary quite significantly from loan to loan
- It can take time to build up a large, diversified portfolio
Risk and return profile
Conclusions on EstateGuru
We think the returns offered by EstateGuru are attractive relative to risk levels. The interest rates tend to be in the 10-12% region. We think is attractive for secured loans. LTVs can vary but are often between 50-70%. This means that losses from defaults should normally be nil or minimal.
You can find the lending statistics and most recent performance here. To date we feel that the lending performance has been strong, with default levels lower than we would expect. So far the recovery rates on defaulted loans have been impressive, with full interest and principal recovered on a recent default.
We do think the risk profile however can vary significantly. Our most preferred loans on EstateGuru are the bridging loans secured on completed residential assets. They have do not have the completion risk associated with developments, and the collateral is much easier to value than (say) land and commercial real estate.
Our least preferred loans on EstateGuru are the development loans at an early stage (secured on land), and loans secured against old, lower quality commercial assets.
Most loans are 12-18 month maturities which we think is ideal. It does not lock up investor funds for too long but generates a sufficient return to justify the time required to analyse each lo
We think that EstateGuru is one of the best options for European P2P investors right now. We have been monitoring the site and have been impressed with its growth and improvement over the last 2 years.
EstateGuru offers excellent risk adjusted returns. We think that returns of 10-12%, with low LTVs and (mostly) good quality collateral is very good. The information quality is excellent.
At the moment most loans are in the Baltic region but there are plans to grow in UK, Portugal, Ireland and Spain. That’s a positive development for the future but we will want to see how EstateGuru is able to get the local knowledge needed to be successful in these countries.
The volume of loans has been increasing. However it still takes time to build a diversified portfolio. We think a portfolio of at least 15-20 loans is ideal, to reduce the potential impact of a single default on investor returns. Even though LTVs are low, it still pays to be selective on which loans to invest. Some loans are better than others.
The website functions well, and supports 6 languages. Our only disappointment is with the auto-invest options, which we think do not offer sufficient filter options.
Lastly, the lending record so far of EstateGuru has been good, with low levels of default, and strong recoveries on defaulted loans. So far, investors have not suffered any losses when loans have defaulted. If EstateGuru can maintain this track record, it will be a very successful site.
0.5% Bonus for New EstateGuru Investors
EstateGuru is offering a sign up bonus to new investors for a limited time period. To earn this bonus follow the following steps:
1. Open an account with EstateGuru using this link. (Note – this link must be used to qualify for the bonus)
2. Invest into EstateGuru loans within 3 months of account opening. There are no limits placed on how large your sign up bonus can be. All investments made within 3 months of account opening qualify for the bonus
3. EstateGuru will then automatically credit your account at the end of the 3 month period. EstateGuru will automatically transfer the funds to your investor account once the project(s) reach “funded” status on the platform.
Other sites to consider
Mintos is the largest P2P investment site in Europe. It offers an excellent range of investments including secured loans. Over 50 lenders list loans on Mintos
Reinvest24 is a property crowd-funding site that operates in the same region as EstateGuru. Investors can participate in the potential growth in property values, and receive income from renting them out.
Bulkestate is a small but growing site focused on loans secured on real estate. It offers loans secured by real estate. Their rates are the highest in Europe for secured loans currently (11-14%)
Viventor is a similar site to Mintos, just smaller. Some secured loans are available. There are multiple lenders listed on the site, but the quality can vary (see our Viventor lender ratings for details).
October is focused on lending to small businesses in France, Spain and Italy. Rates are often a little lower than the other sites we list here, but some investors will like October due to the countries it operates in.
Our legal page contains disclosures and the full terms and conditions of the use of the ExploreP2P site.
It’s all fakes ! Read the newest review on Google….
Lates and defaults increase each day.
Honestly i am not very satisfied with estate guru.
I had 8 loans and only 4 are finished, i am waiting for more than 1 year for the others to be resolved and i have around 4000€ stuck there.
I could use the money but there is nothing i can do, just wait for them supposely to resolve.
Hello
I am reading your P2P reviews with interesting. I regret that I don´t find a date when you wrote them? Are they wrote after Corona? Because I think in the meantime the success of the companies probably changed.
Many thanks for your short feedback.
best regards
Jan
Dear Oscar,
Is interest paid out on EstateGuru on a monthly basis, or once at the end of the loan period?
Thanks,
Manfred
Hi Oscar, would you kindly give some more criteria how to select lower risk loans? [You already stated that completed buildings are less risky to lend against than developments]. Happy day in every way!
Hi Cedric good to hear from you. This is an old post but it gives some tips on this that are still relevant.
Buenos días,
Hace una semana leí noticias sobre el precio elevado de las viviendas en la mayoría de países de la Unión Europea. Eso podría afectar negativamente a estas plataformas y a la inversiones, si se devaluara el precio de las viviendas?
Gracias!
Hi Oscar
Is your bonus link to EstateGuru still working ?
I would like to register with them through your link because you have such a great work keeping this blog
But the link seems to send me to a generic welcome page and when I hit “register” there is no more referral info in the chrome adress bar
Please confirm
Thanx
Hi Nuno – confirmed. And thank you for the support. EstateGuru is planning to improve their landing pages which makes this clearer but have confirmed that all investors using our link and registering will receive the bonus. Let us know if you have any problems.