Commercial real estate invest platform Property Share to open for UK residents
As part of its expansion into the United Kingdom, Property Share, a commercial real estate investment platform, plans to enable UK residents to invest on their platform by the end of this year. The platform has acquired three warehouses in the UK and aims to increase its portfolio value to approximately £100 million within the next 12 to 18 months, according to Kunal Moktan, CEO and Co-founder.
In 2022, the company ventured into the warehousing sector in the UK market and has made a cumulative investment of ₹200 crore thus far. Speaking about the reception of its latest move, the CEO expressed satisfaction with the substantial interest it has generated.
“One of the main reasons for this is the yield is measured in pounds rather than rupees. In India, if you’re receiving eight per cent returns in rupee terms, the equivalent in the UK would be eight per cent returns in pound terms. Moreover, the tenant profile is significantly stronger in the UK, with a 10-year lock-in period compared to a three-year lock-in period in India,” he explained. Additionally, the UK is a developed market and a first-world country, offering all the advantages associated with such status.
The company has long-term plans to replicate its existing business model in the leading three-four international markets, spanning Europe, Australia, and Southeast Asia.
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The platform, which was started in 2016, has cumulatively raised around $50 million in three rounds. “We started the platform with the objective of making the commercial asset class more available to a normal professional investor who can invest ₹25 lakh and more in an alternative asset class, and not to the retail investor,” explained Moktan.
It offers access to institutional-grade office spaces with eight–10 per cent in-place rental yields and 17–20 per cent returns. As of now, the platform has 200,000 active users and more than 2500 investors.
Although the market for commercial space has been growing for the last 15 years, last year saw a record leasing of 53 million square feet of commercial space.
Demand momentum will continue to remain strong against the backdrop of more multinationals still outsourcing to India, the RFPs floating in the market for the next two, or three years, and the fact that India is still just five per cent of the global office stock. “While we don’t expect a doubling of supply-demand every year, we are going to see fairly strong 50–60 million square feet of absorption annually,” he added.
Currently, it manages assets under management (AUMs) valued at ₹1300 crore in total. “We plan to add, and this year we plan to add another ₹2000–2500 crore, and we are looking to expand our properties listed on the platform to ₹7000 crore in three years.”
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