A new investment platform is giving Canadians the chance to enter the real estate market without ponying up a pile of cash or having it locked up in a long-term investment.
Touting “property for the people,” Willow features a new investment model called PropSharing, offering the opportunity to buy and sell fractions of property as if they were shares on the stock market. The Toronto-based company is the first and only real estate investing platform to receive Ontario Securities Commission approval to operate as an exempt market dealer.
Properties are split into 100,000 units of ownership that are available for purchase through the platform, allowing investors to own up to 10 per cent of an individual property.
“With real estate prices continuing to skyrocket across the country, investing in property is becoming further out of reach for most Canadians,” said Logan Yergens, Willow’s CEO and co-founder. “We believe property investment should be inclusive to all. PropSharing will offer all Canadians a unique opportunity to invest in the real estate market.”
Willow aims to invest in and manage purpose-built apartment, office, retail, and industrial properties.
Each Willow property has a targeted sell date ranging between five to 15 years. When the property sells, it’s removed from the platform and investors receive a proportional payout from the proceeds. Until that point, investors receive monthly returns for any rental profits
Investors who sign up for Willow pay a one-time 2.5 per cent origination fee, 0.75 per cent management fee, and a $4.99 transaction fee per trade.
“Commercial real estate has always been the golden egg of investment vehicles, but right now it’s exclusive to either the top one per cent or pension funds,” Yergens told Livabl. “So how do you make those assets available to regular people like me and do it as efficiently as possible?”
Raised in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Yergens took an early interest in finance. Prior to starting Willow, he thought the idea of fractionalized investment made sense because real estate’s high cost of entry continues to grow, pushing it further out of reach for the majority of the population.
“My mom’s a financial advisor and my dad’s a farmer, so I was always at that intersection of regular people and their investments,” Yergens said. “I was interested in changing the method of ownership so that more people can participate regardless of income, as well as increasing liquidity in a useable experience that breaks down information barriers.”
Current properties
Willow currently has two properties in its profile — a mixed-use building in downtown Toronto featuring an outdoor retailer at the ground level and four residential units on the second and third floors, as well as a Scotiabank on a long-term lease located near downtown Ottawa.
The company aims to expand its property portfolio over time, enabling Canadians to build an investment portfolio that suits their personal interests and goals.
“We’re looking to expand and have an asset mix across the country as quickly as possible, depending on what our clients want and which deals present themselves,” Yergens said. “So any investor, whether they want to own a piece of property they can drive past on the way home from work or build a sophisticated profile across the country, ultimately they can do that and come to a one-stop place to choose their own adventure.”
