New 'hands off' property investing idea

A new online platform has launched that lets people invest in residential properties in a 'hands off' way, much like investing in shares. The idea uses 'crowd funding' principles applied to residential property investment, enabling smaller investments that take ownership of a specified portion of a property.

Property Partners let's investors take part shares of individuals properties. The company takes a one-off transaction fee of 2 per cent on the purchase of investment, then manages the letting and maintenance of the property at a rate of 12.5 per cent of any rental income.

Property Partner then pays investors their portion of any monthly rental income profit as well as giving them future access  to any capital growth via a secondary market sales platform.

The site has been funded using £1.25m of seed funding from Octopus Investments, Alchemy Partners and Better Capital founder Jon Moulton, and Ed Wray, co-founder of Betfair and director of Funding Circle.

Daniel Gandesha, chief executive of Property Partner, said: 

“Time and time again I wanted to invest in residential property in a particular area. I would see nice coffee shops starting to pop up, steady increases in the number of estate agents setting up shop, regeneration plans being approved – but still didn’t make the step."

Oh, Daniel, if successful property investing was only that simple. Let's hope for your investors sake the market remains buoyant. PH

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