New property platform provides an alternative to ‘The Bank of Mum and Dad’

Property Pact, a new property funding platform, has been launched after gaining consent from the Financial Conduct Authority.

Property Pact, which connects homebuyers with people who are able to invest in making their property purchases possible, is now accepting applications from first-time buyers to be featured on their peer-to-peer crowdfunding platform in order to seek funding from investors for the deposit on their first home.

Property Pact allows prospective homebuyers to borrow money to help fund the gap between their existing deposit and the "amount the bank want them to have" so that they can offer them a mortgage.

Errol Woodhouse, CEO of Property Pact, said: “We can’t wait to bring our offering to the public at a time when there has perhaps never been more focus on the difficulties many people, especially the young, face in funding the purchase of their first home. 

“While we acknowledge that there are mechanisms such as the government’s Help to Buy scheme available to some, at least for now, we have also been acutely aware of the restrictions the scheme has, for example, in restricting buyers to new build properties.

“We are also conscious of the burden faced by parents, relatives and friends of young purchasers to help out financially without any security around repayment, and are sure that our platform will also provide them with a formalised way in which to help.”

John Derry-Collins, chairman of Property Pact, believes that his firm is doing “social good” with this new offering, as it provide families with a new way to help their relatives to own a property.

He commented: “The platform also allows for property investors to earn a decent return on their investment as an alternative to the low interest rates savers are typically finding are on offer.”