You may have heard the news that crowdfunding platform, RealtyShares, is no longer offering new investments on their platform, and we believe this means they will soon be closing their doors.
There has been tremendous attention and excitement in the real estate crowdfunding space over the past five years, with Patch of Land and RealtyShares among the earliest players. At Patch of Land, we are proud to be at the forefront of providing innovation and disrupting the real estate investment market. Throughout our history we have remained true to our core values of building wealth and growing communities.
While competitors in the space have pursued different opportunities for growth and investment capital, Patch of Land has been able to manage exceptional growth and build a track record of delivering high-yield, short-term investments opportunities to accredited investors.
We are proud to report that we have returned over $200 million in principal and interest to our crowd since inception, and millions more to institutional buyers that have been an important part of our recapitalization strategy as a marketplace lender.
Patch of Land has developed a strong and fast-growing business funding almost 2,000 loans, exceeding $800 million in loan value on properties valued over $1.2 billion. Despite a highly competitive industry, we have experienced phenomenal growth over the past two years, reporting 98% growth in dollar volume from 2016 to 2017 and as of Q3 2018, 65% growth in dollars over the same period a year ago. We expect to finish calendar year 2018 with a strong fourth quarter.
As the industry continues to mature, there will be winners and losers in the space. We are proud of our disciplined growth as we continue to enjoy a healthy business. We are operationally sound, running a lean organization, closely managing expenses to deliver declining operational costs as a percentage of revenue as we continue to scale our business.
We are excited for what the future holds at Patch of Land. We look forward to continuing to provide a consistent and reliable source of capital to our borrowers and attractive short term yields for our investors.
If you have further questions or concerns regarding this update, please reach out to our Investor Relations team by calling 747-239-5115 or email [email protected].
