London House Exchange (formerly Property Partner) Recensioni 

I've invested in 20+ properties since they launched as property partner a long time ago. This has been my worst-performing investment by far...an absolute train-wreck.

Supposed property "experts": they decided to use variable rate mortgages when the BoE base rate was at historical lows (e.g. 0.25%).... were they expecting it to get lower?!! I have no idea what they were thinking. But this has killed the property cash flows, all now needing new equity fund raises and I can't get out of this thing fast enough.

Now they've added in their exorbitant fees, any sniff of a return is completely wiped out.

One of their touted USPs used to be that you get liquidity thanks to their secondary market.. I'm sorry, if I need to sell at a 15%+ discount to fair value, that's not liquidity. At least they don't talk about that any more. If you want some exposure to property, buy a REIT instead: cheaper, better returns and far less hassle!

Don't go near this! I thought it was a great idea when it launched, but how wrong I was!

We have made good returns over time through trading on the resale market and believe many properties on it are good value.

Properties are managed professionally. They are overseeing a £ high six figure redevelopments of one of our largest investments at a student property in Lincoln and sell many properties above recorded investment or even vacant possession value.

It is actually very impressive that they can manage equity fund raises for properties which need them while running a resale market and satisfying regulators.

The multi million pound investments from parent Better into properties, with the option for all clients to invest on the same terms, is a real vote of confidence.

After managing ably through some challenging times, and bringing in an assets under management fee that really should have been there from the beginning, I hope the company will flourish in future, particularly when the property market generally turns up again.

I’ve been an investor from the start, and like many here, the returns haven’t been great. I think Property Partner (now London House Exchange) fundamentally overpaid for quite a lot of property (particularly some of the multi-unit blocks) over the years. There wasn’t really the incentive for them to acquire it at the very best price, rather it was a case of buying as much as they could as quickly as they could, and this is now coming home to roost as it’s reflected in investor’s returns.

But for what it’s worth, I actually think for someone buying in today at prices (which are now generally well below initial purchase prices despite the price growth), values are much more realistic, returns are likely to be much higher. While in hindsight I would probably have been better off leaving my cash in a bank account, I do like the concept that they’ve built and Better’s Investment has made the resale market considerably more liquid than it used to be.

Invested nearly 1K about 7 years ago. Currently says its worth less than 700. Was meant to get money back over a year ago with 5 year anniversary. This has not happened and not sure when will get anything? Its an easy to use site, that can quickly take your money off you. No guarantee on when you will retrieve anything back though!

Over the last 5 years I invested about 10k in the various different properties on the site, typically on new purchases and almost always those that were spread over a number of units so you are not dependant on only 1 tenant.
Amazingly the company appear to have invested money in pretty much every loss making property that is possible. Over the course of the last 5 years despise the growth in property prices I have taken losses on almost every one of the investments. To make things worse somehow for properties they are unable to make their mortgage payments, when the mortgages are no more than 50% LTV, kind of implies either they got really bad deals on the mortgages or are renting them out exceptionally cheaply.

Now to compound the issues they are charging more for fees.

At this time i am taking an absolutely bath just to get rid of the investments and leave this behind.

What was years ago a great investment idea has turned into a nightmare, and the owners are now scamming investors.

On top of the awful underlying returns, sky high recurring management fees, they are now charging ridiculous fees, I presume to themselves, for selling the properties. The most recent property to have a sale vote (property value of approx 500k) has totsl selling costs of £27k (!!) amplifying the losses.

Some advice to LHX ... Purplebricks charge a couple of thousand plus a cheap conveyancer and save us a load of money! What on earth are you spending this money on??

A complete joke. Avoid this at all costs. No hope of anyone making a profit other than LHX owners.

Slowly exiting from this platform. I have invested over a 7 year period and seen a loss. Pre-COVID it seemed to make sense, but 2020 is where it went down hill.
- Suspension of dividends
- Retroactively rewriting their own rules
- Continuing to charge fees despite freezing sales & suspending dividends

At the time I understood some of the measures, but they continued way beyond what was necessary. The impact of this is felt in resale values to this day.

Fed up with waiting for LHE/PP to get their house in order, I have no confidence they have the competence required to operate this platform.

Over the same period all of my other investments have seen returns. It therefore seems logical to cut my losses, use this as a learning experience and invest the proceeds in one of my performing investments.

The best advice I could offer to anyone looking at LHE/PP is that you'd be better throwing 20% of that money out of the window of a high rise building and invest the remaining 80% elsewhere.

----- Update following reply -----

The reply demonstrates my frustration "we know best, you don't understand, it's not simple enough for you".

... and it's that kind of attitude that's caused a rebrand, the countless bad reviews, the platform to crash, trading to be at a historic low - hell (in some cases) we're having to sell at less than half price just to escape.

I'm just waiting on a few properties to become accessible again and I'll be done with this company, and I absolutely will not look back.

Steer clear these guys are rip-off merchants. I invested about £20k over 6 years ago. I spread it around about a dozen properties to spread the risk. My average loss of capital value is currently -32.5%. That in a time when property prices have been booming. And they've recently rewritten their rules to allow dilution. How is that even allowed. That gives you the unenviable choice of either seeing your value diluted by their own investment money going in or throwing good money after bad.

Residential property prices across the UK have increased by circa 40% since I start investing with Property Partner in late 2015.

I have a diversified portfolio with around 40 properties (some of which consisted of several flats) held with Property Partner. Including dividends from rental income I am down around 5% since 2015.

I'll leave you to make your own mind up if they provide a competent service or not.

Update: no point in me emailing Property Partner. I have asked difficult questions in the past and not received any response (26/09/2019 & 26/04/2022).

Avoid. I would not recommend investing with this company

AVOiD AT ALL COSTS

ADDITIONAL INFO SINCE COMPANY REPLIED:

Additional Info: I have not deliberately misstated any figures. There is no reason for me to. I am not a competitor I was a genuine investor badly let down by this company’s failure. The majority of share holders including me voted to GET OUT and GET RID of this badly managed property. The house should have increased in value by £200k plus easily. The surveyor devalued the property on inspection as it had been physically ripped apart losing the capital increase and any profits in organic growth. The company refer to the letting revenue only / yes it performed ok. But the real growth was whipped out by the abstract failure to carry out basic 6 monthly property inspections. I don’t need to contact the company to ‘discuss it’ I have already found the significant strict proof to evidence this and sent it to them and there is a FORMAL complaint now underway. As with any bad review of which most are bad the company will throw up smoke and mirrors that I’m actually to blame for warning all to AVOID. Consumer power has spoken - you’ve rebranded to move away from the toxic history.. but people are not stupid and I am not to blame. Accept responsibility for your own actions and failures and put the complaint right.

Original Review below:

I am delighted to see the back of this company. I invested a small amount as a test. They failed. Where they failed was the inadequacy to manage the property over the 5 years, not the portfolio.

Over 5 years the failure to inspect on a 6 monthly basis lead to the tenants ripping out walls and destroying the interior thus this fine London detached house reduced in value by over £200k! Over 5 years the capital was destroyed. No property should have performed that badly. It’s was not the market conditions that caused this loss, but their abstract and disgraceful failure to then actively manage that property and protect clients investment by simple tenancy management. How this house was left to be ransacked under this team is a an absolute dereliction of management.

I can assure you had I invested much more this would have gone to court as a class action against them. They are liable for this loss and as a result I now have required the company to consider this a formal complaint which will then be progress with the regulator.

This is not a complaint for compensation because my investment went down, it is because the company wilfully neglected to manage the property failing to carry out the services to any standard that would be deemed satisfactory.

The company abides by the FCA regs but where you MUST avoid investment in this company is in the unregulated area of basic property management and tenant referencing.

I lost 20% of my investment. The company couldn’t have cared less.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Invested a 4 figure sum 7 years ago and have been fighting to get my money back for the last few years. I hope the owners face a long slow and expensive court case.

I would recommend looking at the reviews from their previous name, Property Partner.

I have been a long time investor in p2p, property, crypto and this has to have been the worst investment ever made.

The figures speak for themselves. My original investments were made in 2016/2017 during which time property prices have boomed (even with recent corrections).

My sold portfolio after the 5 year process is -25.93%.

My current portfolio is showing a total return of -18.8%.

Further to this they have constantly introduced new fees and ways to value the portfolio but the bottom line is they have made me a significant loss investing in property when everyone else has managed to turn a profit and distribute significant returns.

I fear this rebranding is yet another way of duping new investors.

The 5 year process is a joke. They never take place on time or get delayed and if they eventually actually manage to sell it is at a significant loss and taking months longer than a simple residential chain free property sale should take.

Do your research and due diligence, but I would steer well clear.

Market value increasing however my share for the house 🏡 decreasing. Not good at all .

As an experienced landlord for very many years ....IMHO:
- Poor management of the portfolio
- Costs not controlled
- Returns very poor
- Retrospective imposition of fees
- Constantly changing the rules of the investments
- Communication isn't great
- They are very defensive, bordering on sanctimonious when you raise any issue
- The whole platform is unpredictable
- Didn't seem to foresee any of the problems of rising interest rates (competent landlords would have seen that coming)
- It's seems to be only PP and other suppliers to the platform making money.....

Would like my money out, but glad I saw this developing and stopped investing in them a few years ago!

Similar to other reviewers I invested 5 years ago and despite house prices increasing ~10%pa my investments with PP are in the red.
Recently they have imposed new conditions on customer enabling dilution of initial investments, which I will be raising a complaint directly with the FCA.
If you want to invest in property I would recommend researching REITs that match the kind of properties you want to invest in. Much better diversification and run far better.

Invested a substantial sum across a wide range of properties in property partner around 6 years ago. While property in general has increased in value, my returns are around 5% in the negative. I truly don’t understand how property partner have failed to make money over the past 5 years.

They are now looking to amend their terms and conditions to allow a dilution of the % of some of the properties I own. I’m not sure how this can be legal.

I was initially impressed with their offering, the platform and their apparent professionalism, but something has gone wrong somewhere. It seems that they have made some poor decisions somewhere and this has badly impacted returns for investors.

Sadly I can’t recommend. Invested £50 in 2016 and now in 2022 have £38. Says it all! I thought I’d have at least earned 10% on this but nothing. So glad I didn’t invest more.

Good service and easy to use, very transparent and professional website with good insides in to the property financials and investment cases, a good after market sales but quite small. Not many new investment cases are put on the website so limited choices