Civislend is one of Spain's largest property crowdlending platforms — second by money raised in 2025 (133.4 million euros), behind only Urbanitae. From 250 euros, private investors fund short loans of 1 to 5 million euros to property developers in Spain and, since 2026, Portugal; the developer repays capital and interest in one payment at the end, typically after about 15 months, at rates currently between 10% and 12.5% a year. Almost every loan is meant to be secured by a first-ranking mortgage on the site, with a typical loan around half the property's value.
The platform, Civislend PSFP S.A. of Madrid, has operated since 2017 and holds a European crowdfunding licence from the securities regulator CNMV (number 8, granted October 2023). It has funded 393 million euros across 191 projects, of which 95 have been repaid in full. Investor money is held away from the company, at BNP Paribas through Lemonway, a French-supervised payment institution, and investors pay no fees — developers pay the platform.
Anyone may register, though the site is Spanish-only, non-EU residents need a Spanish foreigner ID number, and 19% Spanish tax is withheld from interest.
Two things define the risk picture. Half the book has never been tested: lending tripled between 2023 and 2025, so most loans have not yet reached repayment. And Civislend publishes no default, delay, loss or recovery figures at all — after ten years there is no public number for how many of its loans have gone wrong.
License / Regulation: ECSPR PSFP authorised by CNMV, Spain | Licence 8 |
Financed projects are typically secured by first-rank mortgage guarantees over the asset, parent-company guarantees, and/or pledges over SPV shares, depending on the project.
Ongoing monitoring is carried out through independent project/construction monitoring, with disbursements released according to certified work progress.
No cost. Is free of charge.
Yes, and it is unusually well documented. The hardest fact: the CNMV fined Civislend 56,000 euros in September 2023 for two very serious breaches — conflicts of interest and improperly linked projects affecting 7 of 24 listings from 2018-2021 — published in the state gazette in December 2023; Civislend is appealing before the Audiencia Nacional. Alongside that, a 109-page Rankia forum thread contains detailed, document-level criticism of live deals: land not registered to the borrower, expired registry certificates, a loan-to-value stated at 46% that recalculated to 56%, and borrower companies with 20,000 euros of capital. Two independent sources report investors being rebuffed or blocked after asking technical questions. One poster alleges a 4 million euro loan unpaid since August 2023 with potential losses of 30-50% — unverified, and unverifiable, because the platform publishes no default data. Against all this, everyday customer sentiment is good: Trustpilot 4.5 from 1,420 reviews, though Civislend answers only 24% of negative reviews, typically after a month.
Civislend says each proposal passes a two-phase expert analysis covering legal, financial, commercial and technical checks, after which it sets the interest rate and assigns a risk grade on a six-tier scale from A+ down to C. Developers can seek 1 to 5 million euros and receive funds about 30 days after documentation. Only around one project in ten is approved. But the detail is thin: no published lending criteria, no maximum loan-to-value rule, no pre-sales requirement, no valuation rules. And the checks have failed before — the CNMV's 2023 fine concerned improperly linked projects and conflicts of interest in listings published between 2018 and 2021.
The chief executive has said losing money is practically impossible thanks to first mortgages — while publishing no data that would let anyone test that. The legal notice still shows the company's old name and a superseded register; the fee page returned an error; the statistics page shows its figures only with JavaScript and carries no update date. None of this is fatal individually, but together it describes a lender whose disclosure has not kept pace with a book that tripled in two years. If you invest, size positions as if a bad year were possible — nothing published proves it is not.
The public team numbers fourteen, led by chief executive Inigo Torroba with directors for real estate, investor relations and marketing — a small staff for a 393 million euro book. The registered board is different from the website's leadership page: the chairman is Gonzalo Del Pozo Sanchez, and the chief executive does not sit on the registered board at all. Who owns the company is not disclosed, which matters more than usual here because the regulator's fine concerned linked projects and conflicts of interest — exactly the area where hidden ownership ties would be material. Accounts are audited by Auren.
If a developer is late, Civislend says it activates a reserve fund so investor payments continue — but the fund's size, rules and history are not disclosed. Persistent non-payment brings collection agencies, penalty interest and fees charged to the developer; many deals also carry a built-in six-month extension at a stepped-up rate, which developers do use. The ultimate protection is the first-ranking mortgage, enforceable through the courts. What is missing is any track record: no recovery timeline, no recovered-amount figure and no completed enforcement case has ever been published, and forum researchers found no documented successful recovery anywhere in public.
Nothing directly, in most cases: no account, investment or withdrawal fees — developers pay Civislend's charges. A roughly 1% annual management fee applied historically on some deals and terms now vary per project; the official fee page could not be checked as it was returning an error. The real costs are indirect: 19% Spanish tax withheld at source on your interest, interest paid only at the end rather than monthly, and delays that quietly stretch your money's lock-up and cut your true yearly return.
