Blend Network in the Financial Times

‘Out of the doghouse’ (link) was the title of the Financial Times’ City Insider column recently. The column was a profile of Blend Network’s CEO Yann Murciano and the titled was in reference to Yann’s past as an investment banker and to his present as leading the work to support the UK’s national and regional housebuilding efforts by funding SMEs. ‘If bankers were the problem in the global financial crisis, they are determined to be the solution during the Covid-19 pandemic. Yann Murciano, a former Morgan Stanley trader who founded online lending platform Blend Network, eft investment banking for something more worthwhile when he saw a sign outside a London restaurant saying: ‘Dogs allowed, bankers forbidden’. His route out of the doghouse has been sourcing loans for low-cost UK housing developers – much needed with coronavirus reducing housebuilding by 35 per cent, Knight Frank consultants have said’.

At a time when large-scale public borrowing will see an astonishing deterioration in public finances, we believe there will be renewed and indeed increased pressure for the Government to consider new and innovative sources of funding, including peer-to-peer property lending, to tackle the housing shortage. This year’s expected decline in housing delivery, a 35% drop according to Knight Frank, means that the UK’s housing shortage, already a high-profile issue that has been described by successive governments as the nation’s most urgent and complex challenge and solving it as “the biggest domestic policy challenge of our generation”, will become an even greater concern over the next few years.

At Blend Network we work at the intersection of finance, technology and social responsibility, connecting experienced property developers that are building affordable homes with people who want to invest and do good while doing well. We offer our lenders the chance to invest in 8-12% return p.a. property-secured loans. So, keep an eye on www.blendnetwork.com and start lending now from only £1,000.