Investing in real estate can be a costly and involved process and often requires a large downpayment. Enter BuyProperly, a new online platform that allows any Canadian investor to add real estate to their portfolios. We spoke with the team behind BuyProperly to learn about how their making real estate investing more accessible.
Let’s start from the beginning, what is BuyProperly and where did the idea come from?
BuyProperly is an online exchange for fractional real estate deals. It allows people to have real estate investment without having to pay large minimum down payments, and without taking on a mortgage.
The idea came from my own personal struggles dealing with property purchase and investment. Having graduated with a huge student debt myself, I am quite wary of taking on additional debt but wanted to own real estate. Looking around, I realized there are a lot of people in the same boat.
How can a regular investor invest in real estate through BuyProperly?
The investment process is simple and completely online. You sign-up, provide details (for KYC/ AML checks etc.), choose the property you want to invest in and click buy and proceed to payment and your investment is done. You receive net rental income in proportion to your investment, and when we exit the property through sale, a share of the sale price in proportion to your investment. In the background, of course, we run checks and make sure the investment is suitable for you.
What advantages does BuyProperly offer investors over other methods of investing?
- Low minimum investment- we provide investors option to invest in a property of their choice for as low as $2500
- No operational hassles- BuyProperly takes care of sourcing, valuation, renting and maintaining the property.
- No additional debt/ mortgage and no impact in credit score. You would continue to qualify for first time home buyers scheme as well.
What type of real estate is available to invest in?
Currently, primarily residential in Canada.
Do you have any plans to expand the type of real estate your clients can invest in?
Yes, we are looking to add other types of real estate such as commercial, pre-construction to the mix, and expand also in terms of locations.
Why should Canadians consider investing in real estate? And is there a particular type of investor you think would benefit from choosing BuyProperly?
Everyone should have some real estate in their investment portfolio so as to diversify their investment risks. Real estate private investments are not correlated to stock markets, are less volatile and are also a good hedge against inflation. For example, when stock markets fell by up to 30% in Jan/Feb, real estate stayed almost stable with limited movement.
Customers who do not have the huge down payment required to buy real estate, and those who want to avoid the operational hassles of being a landlord benefit most from our platform, where we make investing in real estate as easy as ordering on Amazon.
While we are very popular amongst millennials, we are equally popular among busy professionals who do not have the time to do the analysis and manage operational hassles.
What role does A.I. play in the way BuyProperly helps Canadians invest in real estate?
BuyProperly is working on quite a few AI initiatives – we leverage AI for sourcing of properties, i.e. for identifying the right properties to invest in. We are also working on leveraging AI in other parts of the process and in property management.
We are working towards building a secondary exchange (marketplace) that allows people to trade their shares from their real estate portfolio like they would trade stocks and hence provide an easy exit option for our customers. We are growing BuyProperly in Canada, and are looking to enter the US market, so Canadians can invest both in the US and Canada at the click of a button.
