Member Article

LendInvest backs SME housebuilders with launch of new academy

London-based mortgage lender LendInvest has continued its campaign to get more SME housebuilders to help remedy the UK’s chronic housing shortage with the launch of a new academy aimed at fostering skills amongst small-scale developers.

The LendInvest Property Development Academy, which has launched today (Wednesday), has been developed with academics from the University of Reading and will help to upskill developers who often struggle to raise the necessary funding for developments to their lack of knowledge and experience.

Taking the form of two different strands, the initiative is based around a two-day intensive Academy Course for 20-25 participants covering the full development cycle and will be lead by experienced advisers such as solicitors, valuers and surveyors.

The second strand is a free online resource, the Academy Knowledge Centre, which will include content curated by LendInvest and other, as yet unnamed, industry partners with videos, tutorials and guides to help advise developers on aspects of housebuilding.

Currently the UK needs to build 300,000 new homes per year in order to meet demand, however only 170,000 were built in 2015.

Taking aim at government inertia on the issue, Christian Faes, co-founder and CEO of LendInvest, said that the time for finger pointing was over and that now is the time for practical steps to be taken to tackle the housing shortage.

He commented: “It’s time to stop talking about housing quotas, targets, and whose responsibility the housing shortage is. Instead, let’s just get more homes onto British streets that families can afford to live in.

“Small-scale SME developers can make that happen. As a lender, we have the means to back them, but our Academy lets us support them at a whole new level too, opening the door for them to better access to finance, land and skills.”

The London-based lender was keen to stress that the Academy is a non-profit initiative which is free to attend for pre-screened applicants, with preference given to those who have proven experience in the property industry.

The first Academy is set to take place in central London on 11 and 12 November with plans to run the initiative nationwide in the near future.