Despite the pandemic, Urbanite, real estate crowdfunding platform, doubles the volume of investments achieved in the period of 2019-2020. In the next 12 months, the company expects to triple the number of projects and attract more than 50 million euros in funding.
Urbanitae funded 13 real estate projects worth € 12.5 million in the first half of the year, positioning itself as the largest Spanish crowdfunding company in the real estate segment.
During this period, Urbanitae attracted a total of 4,170 investments, with an average of 3,000 euros per participation; the volume of operations funded was increasing gradually, ranging from € 500,000 to € 1.8 million for a 32-house residential project promoted by Azur Estates in Menorca. This is one of the largest real estate crowdfunding opportunities in Spain.
Thus, despite the pandemic, in the first half of the year alone, the platform reached twice the production volume than in 2019 and 2020. “This year has been a good year for Urbanitae as we not only provided access to small and medium-sized investors to invest in operations with high profit potential, but also allowed real estate developers to obtain an alternative way of financing during a period of increasing restrictions from the banking sector,” says Diego Bestard, Founder & CEO at Urbanitae.
Urbanitae expects to continue this positive trend in the coming months, tripling the number of ongoing projects and exceeding the funding volume of 50 million euros. In this sense, Bestard assures that “in 2021 real estate crowdfunding will live perhaps the best year in its history.” Firstly, because banks are tightening conditions when granting loans for real estate projects. But also because developers realized that crowdfunding is a flexible and efficient alternative to obtain funding, and there is a clear appetite on the part of retail investors.
To cope with this growth phase, Urbanitae closed a second round of funding worth € 2.5 million last April. Arrival of this capital will contribute to the development of the platform, increasing its ability to conduct more transactions and increase investment tickets in order to offer alternative financing for projects worth between 1 and 4 million euros for developers.