The majority of investments on Abundance are long term and you should make your investment in the expectation that you will hold it until the end of its term or “maturity”. However, we understand circumstances can change and you may need to get back some or all of your investment before it is due to be paid back.
You can use the marketplace to put your investment up for sale and look for a buyer, but there is no guarantee you will be able to sell. Your ability to sell your investment will depend on whether there is an interested buyer, and the amount you will receive for your investment will depend on what someone is willing to pay for it.
If you’re looking to buy an investment on the marketplace, you can find a quick guide to buying here.
Creating an offer to sell an investment
To put an investment up for sale, you need create a sale listing which will be visible on the Marketplace for Abundance members to see. To do this, go into any of your portfolios where you hold at least one investment and select Sell investments under 'Quick Links'. You can then select Add new listing.
When adding a new listing you’ll first need to select the portfolio where the investment you want to sell is held.
Then select the investment that you are looking to sell. Most investments can be put up for sale on the marketplace but there are occasional restrictions on particular investments depending on the status of the investment (see Restrictions when selling an investment) which is why you might not see the investment you want to sell in the dropdown.
The next step is to choose how much of your investment you want to sell. You can choose to sell all of it, or just a proportion.
After that, you’ll need to set the price that you want to receive for your investment - this is the amount you will receive back if a buyer purchases your investment. The price you set is up to you, but bear in mind that the price you set will affect the estimated return rate for a buyer, and therefore how much demand there is from potential buyers and how quickly they consider buying your investment. A higher price means the buyer will have to pay more to get back the same amount of capital and interest (which is determined by the amount of the investment you are selling) so your offer might be less attractive.
To get an idea of how other Abundance members are pricing their investments you can check the current listings for that investment on the Marketplace (provided there are others currently looking to sell that investment). You can also view the sale history such as the average price an investment has sold for over the last 12-months as well as the full breakdown of historic trades (this can be useful as a guide to see how much buyers might be willing to pay for your investment).
There are a number of factors that can influence the price of an investment - you can find out more here.
Once you’ve chosen a price, confirm your new listing. It will then appear on the marketplace for buyers to view. Please note, your listing will not be visible to yourself in Marketplace.
Manage your offer(s)
The Sell investments page within your portfolio is where you can add, view and manage your listings.
Your listing will stay up on the marketplace until you successfully sell it or change your mind and withdraw your listing. Please note you can only withdraw your listing if no one has indicated they want to buy it. If a buyer has indicated they would like to purchase your investment and you have been connected by email, if you would like to change your mind, please reply in email to say you do not wish to sell and Abundance can cancel the trade which will allow you to cancel the listing.
If you find that you are not attracting any buyers and you have not been able to sell your investment, you can choose to withdraw your listing and re-list the investment at a different price - other investors might be interested in buying your investment, but only at a lower price than the one you have set.
Your listing will also automatically be withdrawn from the marketplace shortly before a payment is due on the investment. This is because the price of your investment will likely change after the payment is made (or if there is a delay in the payment), because any prospective buyer would no longer receive that interest payment. You are free to put your investment back up for sale once the payment date has passed.
Concluding a sale
If an investor wants to buy your investment, they will be put in contact with you by email to conclude a sale. At the same time, their payment for your investment will be reserved and your listing will be temporarily taken down from the marketplace while you agree the trade.
We will send an email copying in both you and the buyer, inviting you both to agree to the trade. If you are happy to proceed, both of you will need to ‘reply all’ to the email with your agreement. This email step is required before we can complete the trade for you - you can find out more about why this is required here.
Once we’ve received notice of your agreement, Abundance will administer the trade for you, transferring the investment into the buyer’s Abundance account and the money into your account simultaneously.
You have 7 days to come to an agreement on the trade and notify Abundance. If you do not come to an agreement within this period, your offer will automatically be withdrawn to allow you to put your investment back up for sale if you want to.