The Property Investment as well as technology platform, the UAE-based SmartCrowd, has proclaimed that it has progressed by 400 percent in just below the two years mark, since being regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (The DFSA).
Following its triumph across the UAE, the corporate is now observing real estate prospects globally with brokers and creators.
The firm is also observing to progress its corporal existence across the territory to furnish to the mounting SmartCrowd investment community.
The Co-Founder as well as CEO, Siddiq Farid, stated that: “The entire region is viewed as a safe haven so we intend to attract investors from around the region, that’s probably the next leg of our expansion. And then providing international opportunities, not just Dubai properties, giving people the opportunity to invest in UK properties, or US properties or properties in Asia or other parts of the world.”
He further as well as added that: “If you look at the real estate sector, there’s a tremendous amount of demand for investors, everybody wants a piece of real estate, who doesn’t want to invest in real estate? What we have done is make it accessible for many more people. We’ve created a new market.”
Farid further elaborated that: The overall notion of Businesses is to create an investment in the real estate as simple as the investment made in stock market, with the prospect to procure shares in the real estate or within Asia based properties or even in other global parts.
The SmartCrowd’s overall model utilizes a 100-point proprietary airing tool as well as self-determining data for assessment of the better luring investment properties, before enlisting them on their platform.
The native progressed business was one of the initial to graduate from the DFSA regulatory sandbox and now has workplaces in Abu Dhabi ADGM and Dubai’s DIFC FinTech Hive.
Farid also added that: “The difference is, you put your entire AED1 million in one property, whereas you could take that AED1 million and spread it across 10 or 20 properties so your risk adjusted reward is much better. Imagine if you had made that one investment and, God forbid, the building burned down or something happened to that investment, you had all your eggs in one basket. Whereas a platform like ours, you can spread that risk across multiple properties so yes, you’re paying a little [in] fees, but from a risk-adjusted returns, that is much better than putting all your money into one property.”
The properties are enlisted on the firm’s podium for 30 days, with the investors provided a prospect for investing until 100 percent of property value being attained.The property is then separated into shares – via a Special Purpose Vehicle unified in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) – which is owed proportionally reliant on on the size of investment.
Investors do get an added advantage from rental income on the belongings and can look to trade their shares whenever the investor wish to leave.
The firm takes an upfront payment of 1.5 percent of the investment and budget of 0.5 percent annually as a management fee. SmartCrowd also grosses a 2.5 percent fee after any exit.
Farid stated that while mandate from new clients is huge, there is robust reinvestment among prevailing investors with over 60 percent investing more than once. He added that while majority (90 percent) of investors originate from the UAE, there are also public involved in investing on the platform from New Zealand, Canada, Italy, Germany and the UK; and provincially from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain.
He also further elaborated that: “The beauty of the platform is that it’s borderless. Anyone from anywhere from the convenience of their device can access real estate. That’s quite powerful.”
“Imagine a middle-class family sitting in India on their couch who would really like to buy property, but they don’t know how to get started and don’t have money to buy, but guess what, they can just open up their phone, log-in to the SmartCrowd platform and voila, they can own a piece of property in Dubai Marina or Downtown.”
SmartCrowd has also aligned with specialist property managers AirDXB to capitalize on rental prospects in the holiday home segment within its portfolio.
Presently, there is an assortment of real estate asset selections on SmartCrowd, including contributions from Ellington Properties, Lootah Real Estate Development, Driven Properties and Select Group.
Till date, SmartCrowd has offered investment prospects across Dubai including Downtown, Dubai Marina, Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Village Circle, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Remraam, Dubai Silicon Oasis.
Farid added: “We’ve grown organically so far, with our customers passing on recommendations to their friends and family. They are seeing the benefits of strong dividend payments in the form of rental yields, which are on average around seven percent per year. We’re really proud that the majority of people who invest once, come back and reinvest.”
