Startups like Propy, ShelterZoom and RealBlocks have begun letting people buy and sell real estate using the blockchain; Eric Piscini, principal, banking and technology consulting at Deloitte tells American Banker, “Maybe banks will be leaner because they won’t need to have as many people as they used to, to manage those processes.”; using blockchain technology can help to make the entire process of buying or selling real estate more efficient; banks will need to focus on other value added services outside of just lending and servicing; the power of blockchain technology is beginning to be felt all across the financial landscape. Source.
It seems like almost every day I see a story about increasing real estate prices in the major metropolitan areas...
The CEO and Co-Founder of Groundfloor, a real estate crowdfunding platform, discusses their focus on fix and flip properties and why non-accredited investors have been their prime focus. Source
Real estate alternative investment platform AlphaFlow raised $4.1mn led by Resolute Ventures and Point72 Ventures; they plan to use the funds to scale partnerships with lenders and investors, accredited individual investors and investment managers; they also plan to hire more individuals for the data science and engineering division and potentially look at more asset classes int the future. Source.
The Fundrise Income eREIT previously sold out and was closed to new investors; the platform has re-opened the Income eREIT and requires minimum investment of $1,000; the Income eREIT is focused on investments in real estate debt and has posted a 10.5% annualized dividend yield. Source
Lend Academy features two companies, Landed and Fundrise, who are taking a unique approach to building to new homes and providing down payment assistance. Source
CreditEase CEO Ning Tang is looking to offer an investment alternative to real estate investors by launching a fund of funds focused on real estate projects; currently investors in China need to directly buy property and hope the assets appreciate in value; the fund of funds strategy that CreditEase is looking to employ will allow investors to have access to leading real estate funds managed by Blackstone and KKR. Source.
The UK based online real estate platform raised a £7mn ($9.2mn) series A round led by Berlin Hyp; in addition to the capital infusion Berlin Hyp struck a strategic partnership with BrickVest; the deal will allow BrickVest to continue building their technology, growing their investor network and increase dealflow. Source.
Groundfloor is a real estate crowdfunding company that has historically focused on retail investors; yesterday the company announced a whole loan purchase agreement with Direct Access Capital (DAC); this is their first institutional partner; Groundfloor to date has facilitated $40 million on the platform and has raised $8.5 million in venture capital. Source
Survey provides insights on investors preferences for investing in real estate and demand for technology; the report shows only 2% of participants are very familiar with real estate crowdfunding providing opportunity for greater awareness of real estate investment platforms; additional highlights include statistics on investment performance perception, interest in real estate technology and thoughts on house flipping investments. Source