Investors fund £1m London development in 71 hours

Property investors have raised £1 million for a development in Knightsbridge in just 71 hours. 

The row of five townhouses and four apartments is worth over £100 million and just a stone's throw from Harrods.

Investors used online property investment platform CapitalRise to snap up shares of this sought-after development. 

The website reports that 67% of the funds came from female investors. 

The property developer, a Finchatton–led joint venture, had already raised the majority of the investment and was refinancing £1 million through the platform for the scheme.

CapitalRise's first two investments were also for £1 million and were also both fully funded. The first was for an apartment worth £8.5 million in Belgravia, which was funded in eight days. And the second was for a Mayfair property worth £18.8 million.

The firm says it has already paid out £25,000 in quarterly interest payments for the first investment opportunity if offered through its platform.

CapitalRise is the brainchild of Alex Michelin and Andrew Dunn, the directors and founders of Finchatton, the international design and development firm they set up in 2001. 

Uma Rajah, who has spent the last decade launching and developing FinTech products for various companies including the household lender Wonga, is the firm's chief executive.

"We had phenomenal success with our first two deals, but this has been our most successful yet. We filled more than two thirds in 48 hours – and it was closed by 11pm the next day," she says.

“Everyone from young professionals to pensioners have invested, from high net worths to ordinary individuals, all looking for a profitable place to put their savings."
Michelin adds that he believes the combination of high returns and the reassurance of bricks and mortar are behind the success of the deal.

“People are realising the returns you can achieve from high end real estate – something that in the past was only available to those 'in the know' such as financial institutions and high net worth individuals,” he says.