Tag: Housers

Housers Launches a Project to Finance the First Hall of Residence for Gamers

The project will be located in the Moncloa-Aravaca district of Madrid and will span a surface area of 3,600 square metres.

The participative real estate financing platform Housers has launched a project to finance the launch of the first hall of residence for gamers in Madrid, which will house 36 young university students.

The project in question is called Gaming Residences SL and it will become the first chain of tech residences. The halls will house different agents involved in the electronic sports industry. This is a disruptive business model that combines real estate, technology, sports and education.

The CNMV Approves Housers As A RE Platform

9 May 2017 – Cinco Días

Housers markets itself as “the leading real estate investment platform”, which allows users to invest in property in the best areas of large cities for as little as €50. It pays rental income to its users and allows them to benefit from the appreciation in real estate prices when the property they invest in ends up being sold.

It is the largest platform in the sector, with more than 42,000 users, of which around 40% have already invested. Since it began life in April 2015, its users have invested more than €22 million. And, following extensive negotiations with the CNMV, the platform has now received approval from the supervisor chaired by Sebastián Albella. (…).

Sources familiar with the situation say that, since the beginning, Housers has been in contact with the supervisor, chaired in theory by Elvira Rodríguez, and then its conversations intensified with Sebastián Albella. In this way, the problem with Housers was that it joined together fund-raising activity with the promotion of that activity, and that was not permitted by law.

Sources close to the entity explain that the platform has spun off both activities. (…).

As such, Housers Global Properties will now be called Housers Global Properties PFP SL. In an email sent out to its users, the firm explained that since it began operations in April 2015, it has managed to finance 92 properties: 73 in Madrid, 9 in Barcelona, 7 in Valencia, 1 in Marbella and 2 in Palma de Mallorca.

Housers generates a return, known as a dividend, which varies by project, but the historical average amounts to around 3.6%. On the firm’s website, it advertises a return of 6.6% from investing in Zurbano. In addition to the rental income, investors benefit from rises in property prices, amounting to more than 12%, on average.

Sources close to the platform highlight that its mantra is to obtain certainty around its investments, which is why it has to buy homes in central areas, as a way of saving. Its core cities are Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Palma de Mallorca. Housers mainly invests in housing and retail premises for rent, as well as in properties for renovation and subsequent sale. (…).

How does the platform earn money? Housers charges a 10% commission on the dividends it pays out, as well as on the proceeds from its property sales. (…).

Original story: Cinco Días

Translation: Carmel Drake

Housers Will Build First Building In Spain Using Collective Financing

26 August 2016 – El Economista

The real estate market has evolved so much in recent years that now anyone can become a residential developer without triggering the start of a new real estate bubble, as happened before the crisis, when many entrepreneurs decided to enter this business without any prior knowledge of it.

This has been made possible thanks to an initiative developed by Housers, which has started to raise funds, through crowdfunding, for the construction of the first residential building in Madrid to be financed by this shared investment model, and the subsequent sale of its homes. This is also the first real estate project of its kind to be undertaken in Spain.

The project involves the purchase of land, the demolition of a small existing residential property on the site, as well as the complete construction of a residential building, which will comprise five homes and three duplex lofts.

According to the company, the turn-key construction projectwill begin once the financing has been raised, and will take approximately 24 months. The homes will go up for sale when the building work commences.

The cost of the real estate project is estimated to amount to €1.041 million, of which €255,228 corresponds to the gross acquisition cost of the existing building, €539,000 relates to the construction of the new building, and the remainder corresponds to processing costs, taxes and a cushion for unforeseen expenses.

The project aims to raise €748,000 (71.8% of the project) through crowdfunding, with each investor able to participate from as little as €50; and €293,000 through a mortgage to improve returns for investors.

The term for the sale of all of the homes is 24 months. During this period, the gross yield is expected to amount to 44.06% and the net yield will reach 27.94%; those profits will be distributed in the form of dividends to all of the participating investors. Housers estimates that the sale of all of the homes in the building will generate €1,242,000. The residential building will be located in Madrid, in the district of Tetuán, an area that has very high potential given the scarce stock of new homes there.

Housers celebrated its first birthday a month ago and in that time, it has created a community of more than 8,000 investors and has received contributions amounting to more than €8.5 million to finance the purchase of 38 properties in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Marbella.

Original story: El Economista (by Alba Brualla)

Translation: Carmel Drake

‘Housers’: Spain’s First RE Crowdfunding Platform Is Launched

20 August 2015 – Cinco Días

Crowdfunding is breaking into the Spanish real estate market; and small investors seem to be thriving in a space that was, until now, controlled by large fortunes and stratospheric projects. It is now possible to make an investment with just €500 in your pocket, through Housers, which describes itself as “the first online real estate crowdfunding platform in Spain”.

With the aim of creating a property investment fund opene to everyone, and based on the success that such platforms have been having in countries such as the USA and UK, Antonio Brusola and Álvaro Luna decided to launch a project that already has 800 users and is only one month old.

The platform, which has been adapted to reflect the new Crowdfunding Law that was ratified in April 2015, is aimed primarily at the purchase of homes. With a minimum investment of €500 in four different projects or €2,000 in just one, individuals can buy a stake in a home and receive monthly rental income, plus a capital gain when the property is sold. Similarly, the funds may be used to finance short-term real estate projects, such as construction and the renovation of buildings, in order to achieve “low risk investment products that generate high returns from rental and sale”, explains the company.

Housers offers homes and retail premises on its website for the moment, but the company is also looking to acquire industrial warehouses, depending on “how each asset performs in the market”. “Homes have the most upside potential, but retail premises have lower maintenance costs. They are two quite different products”, says Brusola, one of the co-founders. That is why the company expects to generate gross returns of more than 7% p.a. and that its properties will appreciate in value by 35% by the time they are sold.

“We try to purchase between 10% and 20% below the market price, so that we can sell them for 35% more with just a small increase”, says Brusola. He also confirms that the security of the investment is “quite high because it is a physical product and the loss is very limited”. “It is always possible that prices will not increase – for example, there could be a 10% decrease in house prices over the next few years, however, the rental income from the property will offset that potential decrease”, he says.

With this initiative, Housers expects to purchase more than 1,500 homes and obtain €300 million from around 10,000 investors in three years. In addition, the company is considering a capital increase in October, a month after the final launch of the platform, in September. And even though the idea was first floated in December last year and the web went live a month ago, the new Law resulted in delays to the project, which had to be adapted to the reflect the new processes required.

The new legislation establishes investment limits of €3,000 per project and a maximum investment of €10,000 in a 12 month period for non-accredited investors. Moreover, it forces platforms to collaborate with payment entities, or with the Bank of Spain, to ensure that segregated accounts are used and investors do not deposit their money directly in the platforms. For this reason, Housers has joined forces with LemonWay, a European payment entity that operates internationally, which affords it access to overseas investors, especially in the USA, UK and Germany, countries in which this property crowdfunding formula is more developed.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Asun Infante & Alfonso Simón Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake