Banks, like Antelopes, tend to move in herds when reacting to a threat. As the looming threat of liquidity preservation emerges in a falling rate environment, banks, like Antelopes, know that if they want to see another sunrise over the Savannah, they must move quickly. As overall loan demand from the public increases, banks must strike a balance between their deposit and lending books to survive. Lowering savings rates slows deposit growth, helping them avoid holding excess and low-yielding cash, a major no-no for any successful bank. A flurry of branded, obsequious emails to consumers later, all gleefully announcing they will be paying their customers less for their loyalty, has left the British public with an average easy-access account yield of 2.7%, according to Moneyfacts, the lowest since July 2023. This is in stark contrast to inflation tracking above the Bank's target, with the CPI up 3.4% year-over-year at the time of writing. Fast Antelopes make for hungry Lions, so in this laboured metaphor, where the consumer is the Lion for once, and not the lunch, what will they be looking at?
In the current climate of falling interest rates, passive strategies will once again become secondary, and it's clear that a psychological shift is unfolding regarding passivity in retail investing. Investors have all the information in the world at their fingertips in 2025, in ways that have never been seen before, and this great information awakening has created a tipping point; what has felt safe historically has started to feel quietly corrosive, with negative real returns no longer being acceptable. Investors are seeking investments that combine security with purpose. We would argue that this information-rich age has challenged the mindset of passive investing itself. More people are now taking active, intentional steps with their money. That doesn’t mean chasing wild returns or exotic, low-liquidity assets. It means finding sensible alternatives that offer higher yields without abandoning prudence. This behavioural shift isn't just about chasing returns by upping the risk profile either, it’s about regaining a sense of financial agency. In a world where traditional banks are no longer dominant, more individuals are rethinking the passive “set it and forget it” approach.
We know that P2P lending backed by real property development has a grounded appeal. It’s based on something tangible, with Investors seeing exactly where their money is going, and that type of transparency builds confidence. Our asset class offers a direct connection to real-world economic activity. You’re not just betting on market sentiment, you’re helping fund the development of homes, and that sense of connection matters more than ever in an age of financial abstraction.
Now, it would be entirely complacent to suggest that any one asset class is the silver bullet in portfolio management: quite the opposite, in fact. We believe in and champion the benefits of a fully diversified portfolio, and numerous inflation-beating options are still available for cash savers. Still, the sentiment is gradually turning, and those options will begin to dwindle as time goes on, should the Bank of England succeed in its strategy. Market expectations are already factored into forward-looking financial markets; therefore, when central banks signal rate changes, those expectations ripple across the system. Banks, ever attuned to signals and forecasts, (like that group of Antelopes with ears pricked for danger signals), move early to get ahead of it, so what we are seeing now is the beginning of the big move down with rates, not the end of it.
As we move into a world where consumers are increasingly aware of banks offering negative real returns, we are witnessing a quiet yet significant reallocation of global capital into alternative investments. Savers are becoming investors, not through speculation, but by backing the very thing that banks used to monopolise, real-world lending. If this is such an inefficient use of capital, why was it solely reserved for financial institutions for so long? Exactly. This is democratised access to finance. For a long time, retail investors had limited access to the kinds of debt-based, secured returns that institutions enjoyed, and that was deliberate.
Property-backed P2P lending enables individuals to assume the roles once reserved for these institutions and to earn interest by funding real economic activity while maintaining a tangible layer of protection through secured assets. To run our Lions and Antelopes metaphor one last time, those roles in a consumer-driven, decentralised market are starting to become confused, and that's great for consumers and great for our sector.
Invest & Fund has returned over £300 million of capital and interest to lenders with zero losses, showing the rigour that governs our business.
To take maximum advantage of this robust and exciting asset class, please visit www.investandfund.com.
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