Bray-based Rory Forde Property Advisors is taking an innovative approach to the property market. This week Forde, acting on behalf of the property's owners, posted a listing with a difference on property website MyHome.ie when an ad went up offering a 10 per cent share in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom, B3-rated apartment in Slaney House in the IFSC for €45,000.
It’s part of a new crowd-funding approach to property buying for those that can’t get on the property ladder, Forde explains.
“There are people who can’t get on the market but are obsessed with property. They want to invest and this is a way of getting everyone in.”
And it seems the interest is already there, with seven parties lined up to view the property this weekend.
Buyers can own up to a third of the property so he expects there to be between three and 10 eventual owners. The property will then be rented on a short-let basis.
“We are putting together a group to crowd fund this property and to buy it for a set time. There will be no borrowings on the property so from day one each investor will receive a dividend based on their share,” he says. Accountants and solicitors are in place to deal with paperwork and tax implications.
At a time agreed by all the owners the property will be sold on and each of the owners receive their share. Or, in the case that the owners might be willing to remortgage the property at some stage, the equity in this apartment may go towards the funding of a purchase of another property.
Crowfunding is an idea already gaining traction, and it has been employed by bigger outfits. To date property loan fund Initiative Ireland has financed six such projects with a €3million loan closing this week, says its chief executive Padraig Rushe. They include an apartment block on the corner of Seville Place and North Strand’s Five Lamps, a scheme built by Frank Flynn of Linham Construction.
Number 19 Slaney House, a two-bed property sold for €397,000 in April 2018, according to the property price register.
