Housers is the first crowdfunding platform that allows buying property in Spain, Italy and Portugal. Its innovative business model seeks to change the way property is bought. Housers connects developers with anyone who wishes to invest, making it possible for small investors to build their wealth by diversifying their portfolio into different types of assets, without compromising their financial stability.
Created in April 2015 by Álvaro Brusola and Tono Luna, Houser’s objective is to democratize real estate investment. Houser’s platform offers transparent, simple, swift and secure processes, enabling anyone to choose how much (minimum investment is 50€), when and where to invest.
Brusola is the company’s CEO and the one who brings the knowledge from the tech world, while Luna is a specialist in the real estate market. To launch Housers, 265.000 euros in seed capital were raised, plus 3 rounds of investment, coming to a total of 5.34 million euros. Two more rounds of investment were used for Marketing (acquisition).
WIDE RANGE OF INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Housers differs from other crowdfunding real estate companies as it offers investment opportunities in several countries and cities across Spain, Italy and Portugal. In addition, it provides different types of properties for investment such as retail spaces, residences, new-built hotels, as well as other kinds of investment opportunities that allow for maximum diversification.
Through Housers, investors can choose from three types of investment opportunities: buy-to-let, development loans and buy-to-sell opportunities, each with different timeframes and conditions. Once an investor’s account is setup, they can choose to either invest in the available opportunities or to participate in the Marketplace, where other users sell the titles from previous investments.
All opportunities are subordinated loans (profit sharing participation loans). Houser’s business model allows users to oversee their own investment portfolio without having to worry about the background transactions.
A SUCCESS STORY
The success of their model can be read in the numbers. The platform that enables everyone to become an investor and build a portfolio in real estate for as little as 50€ has, over the past three years, managed to expand to the Portuguese and Italian markets, capture 94.000 users, and raise close to 68,000,000€.
Its successful trajectory made Housers the first crowdfunding platform to be authorized by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
Over the past three years, this Brusola and Luna’s startup has also received many awards, including: Best Startup 2016 from Actualidad Economica, Most Innovative Startup 2016 from Futurizz Digital Awardzz, New Business Model 2016 from Expansion, Top 10 Startup B2C 2016 from Digital Top 50, Best Fintech Product 2016 from Rankia, Best Business Model Execution 2017 from Fintech Unconference Madrid 2017, Financial Titans 2017 from Ecofin and Best Startup 2017 from GoHeroes Italy.
KEEP EXPANDING
Until the end of the year, Housers is forecasting a total of 43 million in funding from investors. In the near future, Brusola and Luna want to consolidate international expansion. At the moment Housers is about to be launched in another European Country.