BlockIMMO brings the Blockchain technology platform for the management of fractionated real estate investments

The BlockIMMO real estate transaction platform, online since December 2018, has opened its doors to investors to invest in real estate and property with small amounts starting from a minimum of CHF 1000 (€ 888 or $ 1007.55 USD). On the other side of the transaction, property owners can get the best prices for the sale of their properties.

"I am very proud to have launched a secure Blockchain product for private consumers and professional investors with BlockIMMO," said founder and Managing Director, Bastiaan Don.

Benefits for investors

BlockIMMO offers investors an easy way to invest in a profitable and exclusive market – using a digital wallet. At BlockIMMO, an investor participates in a crowdsale of a property using his personal portfolio.

BlockIMMO currently supports all major portfolios, both on desktops and on mobile devices, as well as two well-established Ledger and Trezor hardware portfolio suppliers. Investors can decide how much they want to invest in a property and follow the progress of live crowd sales. Once the sale has been formalized, investors receive their shares in the form of tokens in their portfolio. Tokens represent the shares of the underlying properties.

After successful sales, investors enjoy a regular revenue stream from properties and their growing value.

"There is no minimum investment on our platform, but we believe that upward investments of around CHF 1000 are more sensible," says Bastiaan Don.

In addition, investors can sell their investments at any time and without intermediary services – through peer-to-peer sales (through the bulletin board) on the BlockIMMO platform or directly through a regulated stock exchange.

In addition to high liquidity, this Blockchain-based technology also offers a high degree of flexibility to investors, another advantage over existing real estate transaction platforms in the "conventional world", where ordinary owners of a property must generally be entered in the land register.

Moreover, in conventional agreements, the other co-owners have a legal right of first refusal, which greatly increases the potential for conflict – not to mention the high legal complexity and lack of investor protection.

Maximum investor protection

BlockIMMO offers maximum possible investor protection. Property ownership rights are represented by tokens at BlockIMMO and the underlying real estate properties on which the investments are based are held in an investment fund in Liechtenstein.

Each property is protected by a separate and closed compartment. There is only one unique token category for each property and the various properties in the BlockIMMO ecosystem are not as confusing with one another.

"It was a challenging and demanding project, yet we were able to guarantee maximum investor protection while providing a simple and easy-to-use structure," said Marcel Hostettler, lawyer and partner of the MME law firm and former FINMA employee. .

"This was an assembly of absolute professionals who came together to create something exceptional," added Hostettler.

The MME law firm of Zug, an established actor in the Blockchain scene, and Bank Frick, based in Liechtenstein, are supporting CEO Don with the launch of the platform.

"With the first regulated and token-based real estate investment fund in the world, Bastiaan has established an important milestone in the development of Blockchain technology.The implementation of projects such as BlockIMMO demonstrates the Bank Frick experience. in the field of digital business models and products, as well as our innovative drive, "said Raphael Haldner, Director of Funds & Products at the family-run bank.

To ensure the highest possible security for investors and sellers alike, BlockIMMO was also put to the test by IT security companies New Alchemy and Hosho and the public Bug Bug Program via HackerOne before going live.

Benefits for sellers

An advantage for property sellers is that the sale at a predetermined price takes place entirely without intermediaries and can therefore be carried out at a lower cost. In the process, ownership is transferred to Blockchain via an intelligent and tokenized contact. The seller can set his own sales parameters. Through a dashboard, the seller can monitor the situation of investors at all times during the sale of the crowd. As soon as the sales formalities have been completed, the seller receives the proceeds of the sale, either in cash or Ether, as preferred.

Because both sellers and buyers are able to do without legal and regulatory issues, BlockIMMO also offers other important benefits. This makes the real estate market much more attractive and transparent for both parties. And since there are no intermediaries, investors profit from lower costs.

Partial sales and bidding process

Starting from the first quarter of 2019 at the latest, BlockIMMO will also offer other trading options that have been difficult or impossible to conduct until now. Examples include partial sale of properties and sale of the auction crowd. In this last case, investors can decide for themselves what the property is worth for them. This also benefits the seller of property … with investors who set their own price for a property, the seller is guaranteed to reach the best possible price above their minimum request.

"This represents a novelty in the real estate sales process never seen on the market until today," Don said.

All offers of BlockIMMO products comply with current regulations. BlockIMMO initially focuses on commercial real estate in Switzerland. The first investment opportunities are planned for the first quarter of 2019. The plots, projects and residential properties will be added later.

"In the immediate future, we expect to expand into the EU, we have already had some requests," says Blockchain pioneer.

In order to get the platform off the ground as quickly as possible and to demonstrate its profitability, it is also quickly selling 20% ​​of the company itself through BlockIMMO.

"If someone decides to invest in BlockIMMO, he will do it using the product in which they are becoming shareholders".

The land registry in the 21st century

To give a public boost to the concept of a land registry based on the Blockchain and to transform the current land management system one day, BlockIMMO is also helping public agencies such as local land registries to become familiar with Blockchain technology. BlockIMMO is cultivating political contacts to raise awareness of technical and financial benefits and to explain how the transition to the Blockchain world can proceed.

The CEO said:

"We explain, for example, that the properties we have tokenise are already designated with the precise E-GRID number directly in the Blockchain, which is already a known quantity in Switzerland and is already included as such in its centralized cadastre.

"Synchronizing systems would be the first step towards a land register on Blockchain," the BlockIMMO founder imagined.