How Crowdfunding Real Estate at EstateBaron works

Australians love property, but Real Estate Equity Crowdfunding in Australia is still embryonic. With the regulations on deregulation of crowdfunding yet to crystallize most platforms are taking a wait and watch approach.

We at estatebaron.com believe that investment decisions in property should be done on the back of a full Public Disclosure Statement if it is to be a retail play. And we also think that crowdfunding can only be a retail play. So we decided that we are going the extra mile and have partnered with the right players to bring crowdfunding real estate to retail investors right now.

The second issue we faced with securing quality project developers for listing on EstateBaron.com was that most project developers want certainty of funding. While the market is still in education mode, we decided that the Fundrise approach of prefunding projects makes the best sense. So we have partnered with a major institutional property lender to provide the security of prefunding. Projects listed with EstateBaron are going ahead one way or another. We want to take uncertainty out of the equation.

Project Due Diligence is a major issue, we don’t want to list dud projects that we personally wouldn’t invest in. After doing a couple of in-house projects we have roped in some of the biggest names in the industry to do our due diligence. Wait for a major announcement on a new team member in the next few days.

With bank lending expected to tighten Project Developers are expected to face funding a crunch in funding. While Schadenfreude is not high up on our agenda, we do think it is the right time for the industry to be shaken up. Its time for middle men to be cut out of the equation. Investors should be able to decide where their money goes without the banks and lenders intermediating. Every investor is also a potential buyer and a Developer can also save on the cost of pre-sales by tapping those who have invested in the project.

The investor in turn could get a discount or rebate. Its a win-win for both the Developer, who gets money faster and on better terms as well as potential sales off the bat and for the investor who could get a spectacular deal on a property purchase.