Looking for P2P investing and real estate crowdfunding opportunities? Octopus Choice may be a good option if you’re in the UK and want to invest in real estate-backed loans. In this Octopus Choice review, we’ll take a deep look at its history, returns, loan diversification opportunities and more. Read on, and see if the Octopus Choice P2P lending platform is a good option for you.
What is Octopus Choice? Basics & history of the P2P platform
Octopus Choice has been around since 2000, though its P2P lending platform was founded a bit later in 2009. This company is based in the UK, and focuses exclusively on real estate loans.
It’s open only to investors with a UK bank account, and it only offers loans in the United Kingdom. Octopus Choice has attracted more than 7,700 investors and £300,000,000 in investments since it was first founded. This makes it one of the larger real estate-focused P2P lenders in the UK.
Returns at Octopus Choice: Poor-to-average, but safe
Because the Octopus Choice P2P lending platform focuses only on real estate backed loans in the UK, its returns are pretty low. You’ll get an average of about a 4% return on investment. There are a lot of loans available, but there is not much diversity when it comes to interest rates.
The main reason for this is that all Octopus Choice loans are backed with the value of real estate. Since they are issued with collateral, these investments have a low risk, but also a low reward. Only about 0.72% of its loans are in default. Octopus Choice is a great option if you want to diversify your investments with real-estate backed loans and don’t mind low returns.
Loan diversification at Octopus Choice: Decent but not top-tier
Octopus Choice only offers real-estate backed loans for businesses and individuals in the UK. Despite this limitation, though, there is a decent amount of diversification. It has a large variety of loans, with dozens available for investment at any given time.
It’s easy to browse each loan and see the different rates, borrowers and information about each one, and choose the loans that are right for your investment strategy.
Loan types include bridge loans, commercial real estate loans, buy to let loans and bridge to let loans. Loan terms can be as short as 2-3 years, or up to 10-20 years or longer, so there is a pretty wide diversity of loans.
Features of Octopus Choice: This Platform Has It All
If you want a feature-rich investing platform, the Octopus Choice P2P lending platform is a good choice. It has a very easy-to-use auto invest feature that’s easy to set up, and lets you put your investment strategy on autopilot. Its minimum investment is £10, so you can get started even if you don’t have a lot of capital.
In addition, it has a buyback guarantee for most of its loans. Along with the fact that they are backed by real estate, this protects your capital. Octopus Choice even has a secondary market where you can buy and resell loans. This allows you to augment your portfolio at any time.
Octopus Choice User Experience: Smooth, Simple & Easy
In our Octopus Choice review, we’ve found that this UK-based lending platform offers a totally stellar user experience. Logging in and creating an account is easy. Linking your bank account and verifying your identity is quick and easy, too.
From investing in individual loans to setting up auto-invest, everything is modern, streamlined and intuitive. For this reason, we highly recommend the Octopus Choice P2P lending platform for new investors. It’s a great way to learn the basics about P2P investing in a streamlined, user-friendly manner.
Should I use Octopus Choice? Risks & recommendations
Overall, Octopus Choice is a relatively low-risk P2P lending platform. The primary risk, like all P2P lenders, is that the borrower will not repay, and the loan will enter default. Since its loans are backed by property and buyback guarantees, this is a low risk.
The other primary risk is that Octopus Choice will go out of business. However, the company has a strong balance sheet and reputation, so this risk is quite low.
Overall, Octopus Choice offers pretty low returns, but investing with this platform is a very low-risk option, particularly for those interested in property-backed loans.
