BulkEstate’s overview
BulkEstate features only real-estate projects. Interest rates typically vary from 14% to 17% (recent projects were more speculative than early ones); interests are usually repaid in full at the end of the loan, at the same time as the capital.
My opinion on BulkEstate
BulkEstate is a nice complement to real-estate crowdfunding leader CrowdEstate. The featured projects offer a good risk/reward ratio for investors who want more speculative loans than at EstateGuru.
Detailed ratings
BulkEstate’s pros & cons
Pros
- Great returns
Cons
- Limited amount of projects
- Very few loans offer monthly interests repayments
Loans characteristics
Loans duration
Loans kinds
Minimal investment
Buyback guarantee
Currencies
Overview of BulkEstate’s loans
Interest rates are usually between 11% and 15% for a duration of one year or less. Several projects offer a bonus to investors who invest a large amount (for example 2% for an amount larger than € 25,000 and 1% for an amount larger than € 10,000).
All financed projects are located in Latvia, most of them in Riga.
One important point is that both principal and accrued interests are repaid at the loan repayment date; there’s no monthly interest repayment for most of them – although several loans with monthly repayments were introduced in late 2019 -.
The minimum investment is 50€, which is higher than for personal loans but rather common in real-estate financing.
Loans volume
There are usually 2 or 3 new investment opportunities each month, with a large amount to invest in.
Buyback guarantee
BulkEstate‘s loans aren’t covered by a buyback guarantee.
Track record
As of December 2019, there’s been no default or repayment delay; moreover, around 40 loans were fully reimbursed already.
Platform’s features
Early exit
Investing methods
Secondary market
There’s currently no secondary market. BulkEstate is supposedly working on it, but didn’t provide any timeline.
Manual investing at BulkEstate
The website provides a basic description provided for each project; compared to CrowdEstate, BulkEstate could provide further details. The SWOT (Strengths/Weaknesses/Threat/Opportunities) matrix, repayment schedule, company rating and risk profile comparison found at CrowdEstate would be welcome additions !
Auto-invest
Opportunity to use auto-invest was added in April 2018. It’s really easy to configure it; the required inputs are maximum investment amount, minimum return and maximum term. Note that thanks to the small number of available projects, it’s still very easy to invest manually; however, using auto-invest may be useful in order to be sure you’ll get a share of high-yielding projects.
Website’s ease of use
Languages
Funding methods
BulkEstate’s registration process
Opening an EstateGuru account is rather quick, in spite of the additional KYC (know your customer) checks.
Investors first need to provide basic information about themselves. The second step is to take a picture of themselves using a webcam, as well as one of some identification. Checking the documents is supposed to take as long as two days, but in my case my account was ready after a few minutes.
Account funding and funds withdrawal
Initially, investors didn’t have the opportunity to fund their BulkEstate account; money had to be wired at time of investment. This could cause troubles if the transfer took too long, and was overall bothersome. Fortunately, an upgrade introduced the opportunity to send funds ahead of time, like most competitors allow.
However, one slightly annoying aspect remains. Before transferring money, it’s mandatory to generate an invoice on BulkEstate’s website, by inputting the transferred amount ahead of time. This is slightly inconvenient, and apart from Crowdestor, no other platform requires it.
Website’s design and ergonomics
I was initially not very satisfied with the usability of BulkEstate‘s website. However, things have improved and it’s much more pleasant to use now.
Available languages & translations quality
The quality of the website’s English translations has greatly improved; although they’re still not perfect, they’re good enough to be pleasant to read.
Reporting
The investments list is rather basic, providing very little details; however, it has improved as BulkEstate added new features. For example, it’s now possible to view the payment schedule, although it actually has to be downloaded as a PDF file.
I also recently discovered that the dashboard got a nice upgrade in term of reporting. Indeed, there’s now a chart displaying the repayment schedule, roughly similar to the one provided by CrowdEstate. It’s a very handy feature, which allows to visualize future cash-flows effortlessly.
Documentation
While the How investing works document isn’t detailed enough, the very extensive FAQ provides many details regarding the investing process; most investors are likely to find answers to their questions there.
Support
There’s no live chat available. I got in touch with BulkEstate by e-mail regarding account statements for tax purposes. They answered quickly and were very helpful : in a few hours, I received the statement by e-mail.
Communication from the platform
BulkEstate won’t clutter your inbox with countless emails ! Indeed, you will only receive notification when a new investment is made through the auto-invest feature, when a project is fully funded, and in order to announce new projects.
Actual performance of my BulkEstate portfolio
7,42%
At the end of January 2020, the XIRR for my BulkEstate portfolio was 7,42%.
Because interests for BulkEstate's loans only get reimbursed at the loan's repayment date, I only received them for my very early projects. As a consequence, my XIRR is currently rather low.
Don't hesitate to read my most recent crowdlending portfolio review for detailed platforms performance comparison as well as historical performance.
Portfolio creation date
I created my BulkEstate portfolio in September 2017.
BulkEstate's main competitors
For a detailed comparison of the different real-estate and business crowdlending platforms, check out this article.
BulkEstate's facts & figures
Location
Founded in
As of August 2019
Who can invest at BulkEstate
BulkEstate FAQAny company or any person over the age of 18 can invest in any of the active investment opportunities on the BulkEstate platform.
Disclosure
Please note that this review may contain affiliate links. It means that I will earn a commission if you decide to invest after clicking through the link – at no additional cost to you, of course -. Please understand that I have experienced all of these companies, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the commissions I make if you decide to invest through my links.
Hello,
I find it very profitable real estate platform, however it lacks some features (reports, etc) in the platform as you mentioned. The volume of loans is very small, I think they do not generate any profit at least until now, they should increase it. One more thing, are you sure it is not backed by real estate collateral? I got the answer from them half a year ago.
Do I understand it right that you offer only mortgage backed loans? Who is responsible for collecting default loans? Did you have any default loans yet?
Yes, we only provide loans, if these are secured by a real estate mortgage. All investment projects are carefully selected before made available to our investors. Every Bulkestate deal goes through a rigorous and consistent evaluation process by Investment committee, which is a team of highly experienced real-estate, investment and finance experts. Bulksestate’s partner in evaluation process is BDO – an international network of public accounting, tax and advisory firms.
Bulkestate holds all mortgages and executes them if loans are defaulted. Luckily, we have not encountered any defaults. Procedures will depend on situation. If there will be problems to repay the loan, we will work very closely with the debtor to understand the situation and find the best option for all stakeholders. In most cases, we will aim to achieve a negotiation solution and avoid direct take-over of properties, but that will be done only if necessary.
I am a Singaporean. Can I sign up as investor. Any difficulties in depositing and withdrawing of funds. I have no problem with Mintos.
Look forward to your reply.
Thanks
Henry
Hi,
According to the FAQ you should be able to invest there, but I remember an American reader who had trouble with many similar platforms, although they stated they were open to everyone. BTW, how do you fund your account in this case ?
Have a great day,
Jérôme