Crowdstacker - Risk and return review
Crowdstacker - Returns and loss rates
Crowdstacker – Platform statistics 2026
Crowdstacker – Pros & Cons
About Crowdstacker
What it is
Crowdstacker is a UK peer-to-peer lending platform, lending since 2015. It started with loans and bonds for established British businesses and now offers property development loans to builders of small housing schemes. It says it has raised £82.76 million and repaid £61.37 million in capital and interest. Since 2021 it has lent £14.6 million in 47 property development loans.
How it works
You open an account or an Innovative Finance ISA and choose each loan yourself from £100. Each loan pays a fixed rate for a set term, with interest paid monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly, and capital repaid during or at the end of the term. A loan on offer on 1 November 2026, for six new houses in Kent, paid 16% a year for 18 months.
Returns
Crowdstacker's property development loans returned a weighted 9.75% a year to investors across loans made in 2021 to 2025, from 3.44% for 2021 loans to 12.00% for 2024 loans. The page does not say whether this is after the capital losses. The older business loans show the actual yearly return after fees and bad debts by year: positive in some years (6.15% for 2015, 7.30% for 2020 and 2021) and heavily negative in others (minus 47.42% for 2017, minus 93.26% for 2022).
Losses and defaults
On property development loans, 6.43% of capital has been lost and 2 of 47 loans (4.3%) have been placed in default. Delays are common: 12 loans (25.5%) have been extended and are still open, including 8 of 9 loans from 2023, the average overrun is 9.6 months, and only 4 loans were repaid on time. Under the regulator's measure of more than 180 days late, by number of loans, 23.1% of property loans were in default in the year to March 2025. Two property loans and four business loans are in administration.
What secures your money
Crowdstacker now offers property development loans. They are secured by a legal charge over the property, usually a second charge behind a senior lender, so a senior lender is repaid first; offers can add a personal or company guarantee, which is not security. Crowdstacker classes every such loan as high risk. There is no buyback and no provision fund. Crowdstacker acts as security trustee and enforces when a loan defaults. Of capital lent on these loans since 2021, 6.43% has been lost so far: 53.36% of 2021 lending (one loan) and 8.61% of 2024 lending. Loans that ran late and were then repaid returned full capital. The older business loans, now closed to new lending, lost heavily in some years: 41.94% of 2016 lending and 100% of 2022 lending ended as bad debt, with some recoveries still expected from administrations.
Who runs it and its licence
The platform is run by Crowdstacker Ltd (company 09056449, St Albans, England), authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 648742. It is approved by HMRC as an Innovative Finance ISA manager. It publishes a yearly outcomes statement and detailed statistics by year of lending.
Fees
Investors pay no fees: lending, the ISA and ISA transfers in are free, and the secondary market charges nothing to buy or sell.
Getting your money out
Money is lent for the full term. You can try to sell a whole investment on the secondary market, where Crowdstacker matches sellers with buyers by email, but a sale is not guaranteed, only loans that are performing can be sold, and a transfer can take up to five business days. With a quarter of property loans extended, many investors wait longer than planned.
Our view
Return: Medium, from a weighted 9.75% a year on property development loans. Risk: Very high (higher means more risk): 6.43% of property-loan capital has been lost, a quarter of the loans run late, and the older business loans lost heavily. The loss figure alone gives High; we set Very High because of the delays and borrower administrations. Risk-return: Very low, because a 9.75% return does not make up for that loss and those delays.
Regulation
License / Regulation: Crowdstacker Ltd (company 09056449) is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority as a peer-to-peer lending platform, firm reference number 648742, and is an HMRC-approved Innovative Finance ISA manager. Investments are not covered by the FSCS.
Functionality
For Investors
Useful Information
Yes. Crowdstacker Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FCA, firm reference number 648742, and is an HMRC-approved Innovative Finance ISA manager.
Crowdstacker holds uninvested cash itself as custodian under the FCA's client money rules, in segregated client accounts at an authorised bank, pooled with other investors' money. Once lent, the money is with the borrower.
£100 per loan; ISA transfers in from £100.
Property development loans returned a weighted 9.75% a year across 2021 to 2025 lending, while 6.43% of capital has been lost. The older business loans lost heavily in some years, for example 100% of 2022 lending ended as bad debt.
A legal charge over the development, usually a second charge behind a senior lender, sometimes with a guarantee. There is no buyback or provision fund. Crowdstacker acts as security trustee if a loan defaults.
Building projects often overrun. 12 of 47 property loans (25.5%) have been extended and are still open, with an average overrun of 9.6 months; only 4 were repaid on time. Extended loans that were repaid returned full capital.
You can try to sell a whole, performing investment on the secondary market, free of charge, but a buyer is not guaranteed and loans in default cannot be sold.
None. Lending, the ISA and the secondary market are free for investors.
Yes. Crowdstacker offers an Innovative Finance ISA, and you can transfer existing ISAs in without a Crowdstacker fee.
If a borrower fails, Crowdstacker as security trustee enforces the charge, but a senior lender is paid first and recovery can take years. Client money is kept apart from Crowdstacker's own money. The FSCS does not cover the loans.
