Safety and Security with Bricklane.com
Investing with Bricklane.com means entrusting us with your hard-earned savings, often for several years. It’s a big responsibility, so we wanted to write about how your investments are protected, and how we mitigate risks.
How Bricklane.com works
With Bricklane.com, customers’ money is pooled into an investment fund, which purchases, lets and manages a portfolio of residential properties. Customers’ money is invested into real bricks and mortar — each customer owns a slice in each of the properties owned by the fund.
As the valuation of the properties change and the properties earn rental income, the value of the fund, and therefore the value of customers’ investments, change in line with it. As with all investments, the value of the investment can go down as well as up — if the value of the properties in the portfolio decline, this will be reflected in the price of the shares — however this could be at least partially offset by rental income derived from the properties each month.
How we approach risk in the property market
We look for properties that renters will love, and that we would aspire to live in ourselves — inviting, liveable homes in great areas. Through our expertise in residential property and smart, proprietary data modelling, we only target the best areas and properties, with strong rental demand and potential for price rises.
With Bricklane.com, your investments are automatically spread across all properties in the fund, and further properties as they are added. This spreads your risk across different properties and areas, which means that if one property or area were to underperform, it may be offset by other parts of the fund.
Bricklane.com does not use long-term debt to purchase property. While debt can amplify returns, it also increases risk, and adds an extra layer of complexity. Through this approach, Bricklane.com can deliver a more stable return to a wider range of customers.
Our first fund is focussed on Regional Capitals — Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. These areas were selected for their strong rental returns relative to the wider UK market, as well as their long-term potential for capital growth. Rental demand in these areas is high, and major organisations (including BBC, Google and Sky) are increasingly favouring these cities for their staff. With major transport upgrades such as HS2 on the way, we think the future for these cities is bright.
A fund focussed on London will follow this year.
How our fund is structured, and our suppliers
Bricklane.com’s fund qualifies for REIT status. This means that it does not pay any corporation tax on gains in property value, or rental income earned. For those investing through ISAs, this means that there is also no personal income tax to pay on gains in the value of the property, or rental income received. In return, the fund must provide investors with standards of diversification, governance and management in line with HMRC’s rules.
The fund is audited by Deloitte, a leading global accountancy firm, the properties in the portfolio are valued by Allsop LLP, a leading independent property valuer, and is supported by a range of specialist FCA regulated suppliers.
Security of the website
We adopt industry standard practices to safeguard your information, both in transit and during processing. Your data is encrypted between your browser and Bricklane.com with 256-bit SSL and with AES encryption when stored on our servers. Internally, we operate strict rules on access to customer data and no member of staff has physical access to our server facilities. We are also regularly assessed by a leading external security consultancy, who specialise in finance.
We protect the privacy of your information and only share the necessary parts of your data with our trusted partners, who support the Bricklane.com platform (for more information, please review our Privacy Policy).
Protecting our customers’ investments
If something were to go wrong, Bricklane.com customers are protected in several ways:
Once we receive a payment from you, the funds are held prior to investment in a segregated client money account with Barclays Bank. Once invested, your Bricklane.com shares are held by a custodian bank, and are protected up to the first £50,000 by the FSCS in the unlikely event of their insolvency. However, it’s important to understand that the FSCS doesn’t cover you in the event that your investments do not perform as expected and you get back less than you originally invested. (More information can be found at fscs.org.uk).
In the very unlikely event that Bricklane.com itself were to cease trading, the fund and its assets (i.e. properties) are ring fenced and segregated from the operating company of Bricklane.com. In addition, your investments would continue safeguarded and monitored by an FCA-regulated depositary (Gallium PE Depositary Limited).
We’ve worked hard to ensure Bricklane.com customers can rest easy knowing their investments are well looked after.
Visit Bricklane.com to learn more:
In the meantime, if you have any questions about security, or anything else, you can email us at support@bricklane.com, talk to us through online chat, or give us a call on 0203 1111 432.
Capital at risk. As with all investments, the value of your Bricklane.com investments can decrease as well as increase. It could take the time it takes to sell a property, or longer, to get your money back at an acceptable price.
All tax rates, allowances and rules referred to are subject to future change, and the above does not constitute tax advice. Please note that the tax advantages of ISAs depend on your individual circumstances.
This is a financial promotion by Bricklane Investment Services Ltd, which is an appointed representative of Gallium Fund Solutions Limited, which is regulated by Financial Conduct Authority, FRN: 487176
