House bricks a hit with young buyers

BUYING pieces of a property — rather than an entire house — is gaining traction as Australians seek fresh ways to enter the increasingly expensive real estate market.

Fractional investing company BrickX this week launches its first property in Adelaide — its first purchase outside the big cities of Sydney and Melbourne — and plans to buy in Brisbane and Hobart within the next 12 months.

But BrickX’s platform — which divides a residential property into 10,000 units or “bricks” for buyers to share in its growth and expenses — is not only appealing to a traditional investment crowd. More than half of the 6500 users it has attracted since launching a year ago are aged under 35, it says.

CEO Anthony Millet said BrickX enabled young people to educate themselves about property without the huge outlay required to buy a home outright, and also insulated their savings against sharp house price rises.

“Millennials getting into the market for the first time are able to save their home deposit in line with the housing market,” he said.

BrickX’s new Adelaide property is the 14th in its $17 million portfolio and is in leafy St Peters, which has averaged 8.8 per cent annual price growth over the past 20 years. The minimum entry price is one brick, which for the two-bedroom St Peters house is $74.

“For $74 you will be able to invest in St Peters,” Mr Millet said.

Fractional investing — also known as property crowd-funding — is still new in Australia and some people have raised concerns about selling units later on. Mr Millet said BrickX’s experience showed this was not a problem.

“The median time for someone to be able to sell their bricks is around 12 hours, which is a hell of a lot quicker than it takes to sell your house,” he said.

“Our platform allows investors to diversify across several properties.”

Mr Millet said BrickX chose Adelaide because of positive economic signals coming from the city, affordable housing and a diverse employment market. Apart from expanding to Brisbane and Hobart, it will also be eyeing Perth next year.

“As with any investment product there are benefits and risks. You are investing in the performance of the underlying property,” he said.

BrickX is one of only two fractional investing businesses operating in Australia, and the other — DomaCom — has been expanding into retirement communities and agricultural property.

Research released last month by the University of South Australia found that property crowd-funding was a long-term investment strategy with low to medium risks and low to medium returns.

“Property crowd-funding is still in its infancy in Australia, but as more people become aware and accepting of new digitalised investment platforms, we’re likely to see this market expand,” lead researcher Dr Braam Lowies said.

“It is an investment strategy that has the potential to revolutionise the property market.”