Questions we hear in a first conversation, answered briefly

No. You make a loan to the company that owns the homes, which makes you a creditor with a mortgage as security. Maintenance, vacancies and tenant matters are therefore at our expense. In exchange, you receive a fixed rate of interest and have no share in any change in the value of the homes. What stands behind your loan is explained on the security page.

The company behind the project you invest in. It owns only the homes in that project and takes out the loan; its name appears in your loan agreement. Stichting Crowdfundersbelangen holds the mortgage on those homes on behalf of all the lenders together. How the loan and the rent pass through that company is explained on the page about the company that holds the homes.

It is paid from the rent on the homes in your project. Woonstaete Asset Management lets and manages the homes and passes the rent on to the company, which uses it to pay your interest. Your interest is not paid out of a later lender's investment. The whole chain from tenant to lender stays within the group, and the flow through the group shows how it works.

Because a project is financed by several lenders together. A single mortgage in the foundation's name puts all the lenders on an equal footing, and the foundation can act without each lender having to sign separately. Its board is independent of Woonstaete, and we cannot replace the foundation without the lenders' consent. Who sits on the board, and what the foundation does for you during the life of your loan, is explained on the foundation page.

First, the loan agreement gives the borrower a cure period in which to put things right. Once that period has passed, the loan becomes due and payable for all the project's lenders at once, and the foundation acts on behalf of the whole group. You therefore do not have to go to a civil-law notary or the courts yourself. If the homes are sold, the proceeds go to the lenders first and only then to the company's other creditors. Some risk remains, and the security page takes you through the process step by step.

The proceeds are then shared among the lenders in proportion to their loans. You keep a claim on the company for the shortfall, but that company owns only this project, so you must assume that you will not get the shortfall back. The risks of a loan, and how we address them, are set out in the Information Memorandum, which you read in the portal before you sign up.

No. Each project sits in a separate company with its own homes, its own loan and its own mortgage, so the claim and the security in your project stay where they are. If another Woonstaete project does not go to plan, it makes no difference to your loan. The organisation page explains how the group is structured.

Rust and Stabiel are loans on tenanted homes, secured by a first or a second mortgage. Opbouw runs during the construction period, secured by a second mortgage on the land.

Rust, 5% a year: on tenanted homes, with a first mortgage. Interest paid monthly, term 5 to 7 years, from € 100,000. Stabiel, 6.25% a year: on tenanted homes, with a second mortgage. Interest paid monthly, term 5 to 7 years, from € 100,000. Opbouw, 8% a year: during the construction period, with a second mortgage on the land. Interest paid quarterly, term 12 to 18 months, from € 200,000. The offering sets the three side by side and shows which project is open.

In the security and the interest rate. With Rust, the lenders together have the benefit of a first mortgage on tenanted homes, at 5% a year. Stabiel is a loan on tenanted homes at a fixed rate of 6.25%, secured by a second mortgage and a pledge over the rental income. The term is the same, interest is paid monthly from the rent under both loans, and in both cases the foundation holds the mortgage on behalf of all the lenders. The Stabiel page explains how it works.

During the construction period no rent comes in yet, and your security is a second mortgage on the land with planning permission and on the homes that will stand on it. Opbouw therefore carries a higher rate of interest and a shorter term. We only raise an Opbouw loan once the planning permission is final, so that the land is valued as a plot with permission for the homes. The Opbouw page shows how the collateral grows as the work progresses.

Woonstaete works only with professional investors. Under the Dutch Financial Supervision Act (Wft), anyone who provides a loan of € 100,000 or more in a single payment counts as a professional market party. Investments therefore start at € 100,000 per lender, paid in one sum, and at € 200,000 for Opbouw. The page for each loan, such as Rust, explains what kind of money and which circumstances it suits.

Yes, you can do either. We do not advise on the tax treatment; your own adviser can do that. The key terms of each loan are set out on its own page; see, for example, the key terms for Rust.

In arrears, at the end of each period: the month for Rust and Stabiel, the quarter for Opbouw. The rate is fixed for the entire term, and interest accrues for all the lenders in a project from the same interest start date, which is set out in the project documents. On a Rust loan of € 100,000, that comes to € 416 a month, the same amount each time. The Rust page has a worked example covering the full term.

A one-off charge of 1% on top of the loan amount. There are no other costs. Woonstaete pays the foundation's annual fee and the cost of the annual meetings, and does not pass these costs on. Management, maintenance and changes of tenant are our work, and their cost is not deducted from your interest either. The costs are set out in a single line in the key terms of each loan, for example those for Rust.

No. The loan cannot be traded and runs until the end of the term. The loan amount is repaid to you in a single payment at the end of the term. There are no repayments along the way, and nothing is withheld. The Information Memorandum in the portal explains what happens if the company repays early, and sets out the risks of a loan.

Yes. Each project is a separate loan to the company that owns its homes, so the minimum amount for that loan applies again to each project. Amounts in different projects are therefore not added together. The offering shows which project is open and what is coming next.

You can already create an account in the portal. Investing is not possible yet; as soon as a project opens, you can read the documents there and sign online. We would rather speak to you first, because a large sum is involved and you will want to know the people behind the loan. The conversation is always without obligation. It can take place by video call, by phone or at our office, and you book it yourself in Vincent Sybrandy's diary. The team page introduces Vincent and everyone else who works at Woonstaete.

In three steps. First, you create an account with your email address and read the documents for each project: the Information Memorandum, the loan agreement, the trust deed, the valuation report and the tenancy file. Next, you choose your amount and sign the loan agreement online; the agreement becomes final once your details have been verified. Finally, after the payment request, you transfer the money to the project account at the payment institution, not to a Woonstaete account, and you receive interest from the interest start date. You can start in the portal.

No. Your money goes directly to the notary, through a third-party funds account. The notary creates the mortgage in the foundation's name, registers it with the Land Registry (Kadaster) and only then pays the seller. The seller is therefore never paid before your security is in place; the foundation page explains how this works.

The people at Woonstaete who know your file, with no call centre in between. Vincent Sybrandy is your point of contact for questions about your loan, and when you call, you speak to someone who knows your loan and the project. Stichting Crowdfundersbelangen also represents the interests of all the lenders together and answers their questions. The team page lists everyone at Woonstaete by name, with their phone number.

Your interest is paid in arrears after each period, at the end of the month or the quarter. Each year you receive the annual accounts of your project's company and the foundation's invitation to the annual meeting of lenders, which we attend as the borrower. During the year, the foundation also receives interim reports from the company, and if anything affects your loan, you will hear about it from us and from the foundation. The page about the company that holds the homes explains what is arranged centrally for all projects.

Woonstaete is the family business of Pieter Sybrandy and his sons, Pieter jr. and Vincent. Pieter has been an entrepreneur for more than thirty-five years. At several points in his career he came up against the same shortage of good-quality homes that are also affordable, and Woonstaete grew out of that. The family runs the business itself, without outside management, and decides on locations, plans and loans around the same table. Working this way, the family has delivered fourteen developments with 192 homes across four provinces, and people live in each of them. The full story is on the family business page.

Yes. We deliver homes in order to keep and let them ourselves, with a long-term view. Day-to-day management of the homes therefore stays with us, and as a lender you have no duties: you receive interest and the homes require nothing further of you. Because the homes stay with us after completion, we do not make choices that save money during construction but cost more in maintenance later. The organisation page explains how the group arranges this.

Because each company has a single task. The first finds the locations and delivers the homes, the second holds them and raises the loan for each project, and the third lets, manages and maintains them. The homes stay within the group, the rent and the interest flow within it, and to the outside world we operate under one name. The organisation page shows how the group fits together, with a separate company for each project.

Not from the loan itself. We keep the homes and let them over the long term. Management, maintenance and changes of tenant are our work, and their cost is not deducted from your interest. Vacancies, maintenance and changes of tenant are therefore handled by the group, and day-to-day management of the homes stays with us. The page about the company that holds the homes shows how the tenant's rent reaches you as interest.

Yes. The developments are in Sittard-Geleen, Hoofddorp, Meppel, Den Helder, Heerlen, Geleen, Brummen and Zutphen, and people live in each of them. You are welcome to drive past, and the photographs in the timeline on the family business page show the homes themselves.