Melbourne property developments from just $2,000 with Real Estate Equity Crowdfunding
Monday 27 July 2015
Article by Mozo
Estate Baron, which was recently launched in Melbourne, is an equity crowdfunding platform that allows people to invest directly in Melbourne property developments with as little as $2,000.
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While real estate is a great asset to invest in, unfortunately, being able to invest in property generally requires significant funds, making it out of reach for many aspirational investors. What a real estate equity crowdfunding platform like Estate Baron does is it makes profitable commercial and residential projects open to anyone with just a few thousand dollars.
Estate Baron connects property investors directly with developers and institutional quality development opportunities. There’s no need for brokers, salespeople, agents or other middlemen. Investors can then choose to invest in projects based on the anticipated return, time frame, location, developer and other criteria.
Estate Baron’s Co-founder, Moresh Kokane, is an engineer who has worked in the finance and tech industries for the last decade, and has previously created two start-ups.
“Crowdfunding will change the way Australians buy and fund property. I’ve followed the rise of crowdfunding sites such as Realty Mogul and Fundrise in the US, and Australia is ripe for this sort of disruption in property finance,” said Moresh.
“With a 10.3% increase in Melbourne houses or more than $62,000 in 12 months many people are locked out of the market, they can’t save a deposit fast enough. We’re focused on the investor, not the developer. I want to make property investment accessible to everyone, not just the very rich,” he added.
He further added that: “Our model is different. Estate Baron has a huge advantage in that we are the first to offer property crowdfunding on the back of a full Public Disclosure Statement and a Retail Australian Financial Services License, which means we have no restriction on the number of investors for each project or the minimum amount which can be invested.”
“Every project is rigorously scrutinised and approved by our industry partners before it becomes a public offering and every project’s funding is fully underwritten, so there is no danger of it not proceeding”, said Moresh.
To begin with, Estate Baron is offering projects in Melbourne, with sites that can be visited in person for those seeking additional peace of mind. Investors can see a list of all live development opportunities which are investment-ready on the company’s website. Since its launch a few months ago, Estate Baron has raised more than $610K in crowdfunding for projects listed on its platform and has 362 local investors to date.
