Somo is a P2P investment site that focuses on providing short term (‘bridge’) loans secured on British real estate. Interest rates are high – typically around 10%. Somo was previously known as Bridgecrowd – it changed its branding towards the end of 2020. Somo loans are either 1st lien or 2nd lien (where another borrower has a priority charge on the property). LTVs are similar to other sites offering these types of loans – usually between 50-70%.

The borrowers using Somo fall into three groups. Firstly, there are small property investors who need to raise funds quickly to fund an additional property purchase. Secondly, there are borrowers seeking to do a quick, light refurbishment and to then sell the property again. The final category is business owners borrowing against the value of their house to raise funds for their business.

Somo is a simple platform to use. The site provides all the key information you would expect such as an independent valuation of the collateral, some information about the borrower, how the loan is structured, and some commentary. Investors can self-select loans or set up an auto-invest. We would not recommend using auto-invest for Somo loans as we think each loan should be reviewed before purchasing. The demand for loans is high and purchase orders need to be placed quickly when new loans are listed.

There are two elements that make Somo different from others. Firstly, it allows a ‘lead’ investor to open and operate sub-accounts in the names of other family members. We think this is a great feature as it can be very helpful for tax planning purposes. Secondly, when a loan is listed, Somo investors place orders, and Somo then manually allocates the loan to different investors. While this can lead to up to 24 hours delay in receiving confirmation of the investment, it is designed to ensure that as many investors as possible have an opportunity to invest in each loan.