Real estate crowdfunding platforms
Commercial real estate investments are popular and relatively low-risk. You can invest by buying, selling and renting property. But if you don’t want to spend a lot of time and funds, you can easily invest in projects, stocks and funds on real estate trading platforms.
Contents:
- Popular real estate crowdfunding platforms
- Real estate investing
- Why choose an online property broker?
- Costs of online investing
- Comparing platforms
Please note: trading on the financial markets involves risks, you can (partially) lose your investment.
Property crowdfunding platforms in Europe
To buy into real estate companies, projects or funds, you will need an account with an online broker. There are many brokers that specialize in this type of investing. Below, you can find a selection of the biggest and best real estate crowdfunding platforms active in Europe.
Brickstarter was founded in 2017 and specializes in vacation rental properties. You can invest on the platform with a minimum amount of 50 euros. With funds from different investors the platform renovates and manages property, eventually renting and reselling it for profits.
EstateGuru is a real estate investment platform from Estonia that was founded in 2014. You can invest in short-term real estate loans across Europe. Investors can fund projects starting from 50 euros.
Letsinvest is a crowd-investing platform from Lithuania. You can start investing from 100 euros in commercial and residential developments. The average annual return is 9,41 percent. You can directly invest, buying into the equity of rental business or invest into bonds.
Profitus is a crowdfunding and investment platform from Lithuania. On the site you can invest in business loans with real estate collateral. You can start investing from 100 euros. The average return of investment is 9,87 percent.
Crowdpear is a Latvian crowdfunding platform for real estate, renewable energy and business projects. The platform was launched in 2022. In the beginning of 2023, Crowdpear has financed four projects, with a total amount of 236.500 euros. The average return of investment is 10,62 percent.
Rendity is a real estate investment platform with offices in Austria and Germany. The minimum investment is 100 euros. The platform offers short term real estate projects, savings plans and bonds in addition to regular real estate crowdfunding projects.
What is real estate investing?
Real estate investing
has been popular for decades, as it provides good returns. The real estate market has proven to carry little risk. You can buy into it in different ways. Firstly, you can buy physical property and sell or rent properties.
This way you can profit off capital gains, for example when renovating a house or office and reselling it at a higher price. Alternatively, renting out property creates a steady monthly rental income.
Real estate investments provide good returns and carry little risk.
However, this type of investment is not only expensive, it also takes time and effort. Luckily there are a lot of alternative investments possible in properties with a low minimum investment. For instance, you can buy into real estate funds and bonds. You can even buy property on the stock market through real estate trading websites or through crowdfunding sites.
How do real estate investment platforms work?
There are a lot of property investment opportunities. Most online brokers that focus on properties are in fact real estate crowdfunding sites. With commercial real estate investments, together investors fund commercial real estate projects and companies.
Although crowdfunding is mostly known for directly funding projects, you can also buy into company shares, funds and bonds. Therefore, these platforms are suited for investors who want to profit from properties without becoming a home-owner or landlord.
On real estate platforms accredited investors can profit from property without becoming a landlord.
You can create a trading account with an online broker to buy into, for example, property shares and bonds. Platforms for trading property assets usually offer investment information as well, such as historic and current market rates. As a new investor this is especially useful. An online trader can also store funds on the platform, so you can easily buy, exchange or withdraw.
Signing up is easy and often relatively cheap. In addition, quality real estate crowdfunding platforms will ask you to provide some background information to check your creditworthiness. The same goes for companies wanting to raise capital. This way you and other users will not be unpleasantly surprised. If and how due diligence is performed will differ per trading platform.
Why choose an online property broker?
Firstly, online brokers make online investing in a real estate project more accessible. It is easier for first-time investors to get started, and it eases the process for existing real estate investors. In addition, you can start trading with only small amounts. For example, a real estate broker may require a minimum investment of 50 or 100 euros. Investing with an online broker is also relatively cheap.
Risk spreading is made easy with an online broker.
In addition, real estate crowdfunding sites usually have a high-quality mobile app. Therefore you can manage your investment portfolio on the go. This can be interesting for an accredited investor who wants to be more actively involved in their investment decisions.
Lastly, risk spreading is made easy with an online broker. Most investment sites offer various types of property assets and projects, so you can spread funds accordingly within the same service. You can choose to handpick assets yourself, but when investing in a fund the risk spreading is automatically done for you.
Direct and indirect costs of a real estate platform
The first thing to compare when choosing your real estate investment platform is the costs. This is a deciding factor, since the costs will directly impact returns of real estate investors. Commercial brokers usually have an upfront fee and a cost per transaction. Depending on whether the property crowdfunding platform makes investment decisions for you, like with a fund, there can be additional fees.
Indirect costs can vary a lot depending on the platform.
There can be indirect costs as well. These are often charged by funds and ETFs, for example, such as legal, management and accountancy fees. If a property investment platform also pays out dividends and saves securities, these services may be incorporated in the market price. Indirect costs can vary a lot depending on the platform, so keep an eye out for this.
How to compare investment platforms
Aside from costs, there are other ways to choose the best real estate crowdfunding platform for you. Most importantly, consider what property assets you want to buy.
A platform may not offer your investment of choice. Alternatively, there are platforms that only specialize in one type of investment, such as real estate ETFs.
Of course, you can choose to open an account with several sites too. This has the benefit of trying out different traders and seeing which one you like best.
Your investment style is an important factor when choosing a broker.
Another factor to decide upon a property investment platform is your investment style. This often goes hand in hand with your property crowdfunding portfolio. For example, you might want a platform where you can handpick your investments instead of letting a fund do this for you. And if you are a beginning accredited investor, you might want more guidance and market rate information from your online broker than more experienced investors.