It is difficult to own a single home in the US.
Americans are showing more interest in Europe and other less expensive places to buy property. Inflation and other costs are eating into homebuying budgets and prospective investors need to navigate foreign-investment regulations.
It is possible for Americans to enjoy the benefits of buying a second home abroad without the high up-front costs, thanks to some startup companies.
A growing trend in real-estate investing is fractional ownership. People can purchase a share of a property instead of paying the whole bill. In return, investors get a share of the profit from renting it out or visiting the property.
Housie gives customers the chance to fractionally invest in studio apartments in attractive locations for short-term visitors to popular South American cities such as Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile.
Germn Rimoldi, the CEO of Housie, said that the company is taking advantage of some countries with down economies, like Argentina.
When Argentines began buying property in the US in 2008, Rimoldi saw an opportunity to invest. The approach is easy to understand for most investors.
Users can buy shares of properties for a minimum of $100 and get dividends quarterly if the property does well in the short term.
The average price per square foot in Argentina decreased from the previous year. According to Rimoldi, Housie is buying studios in the heart of Buenos Aires' downtown district for around $200 per square foot, which he believes is very cheap.
The properties are listed on the website. There are over 12,000 active rentals in Buenos Aires. Miami has 13,320. According to Rimoldi, Housie has six apartments in six different countries, with over 1,200 US investors registered on the platform.
Flyway is a startup based in London and Athens, Greece.
Flyway was founded in 2001 and raised $10 million in funding in August. It deals in second homes that owners rarely visit.
In exchange for at least one month to spend in the home during the year, customers can purchase up to six shares of a home in London.
The founder and CEO of Flyway said that he wanted a solution like this for a long time. I spent a lot on hotels.
Flyway has four homes in London with the lowest share price starting at 131,000 pounds a share and the highest at 519,000 pounds per share. Investing in European cities is more appealing to Americans because of the dollar's strength against the pound and euro.
Flyway takes on a property-management role after splitting the property between investors. The homes have yet to be rented out despite Flyway selling some shares.
Drandakis wants to first see if his product works in London, but he wants to focus on large metros as he believes those homes will hold more interest during the year.
It's difficult to split the time between the owners of a vacation home in July. When you live in the city, you don't usually have this type of seasonality. Demand for these homes is constant all year long.
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