This week I wrote about the over twenty million “land” titles for one square inch of Yukon land that were printed out and sent to children a a prize in cereal boxes in the 1950’s. A 21st century version of buying small shares in land has been written about in the Vancouver Sun by Susan Lazuruk.
There’s a new platform in town called Addy where investors can invest a loonie ($1.00 Canadian to our non Canuck readers) and “crowdfund” the purchase of a land title in Chilliwack British Columbia. There’s 520,000 shares available for $1.00 to $1,500 dollars and those investors will own 49 percent of the land and improvements, with the creators of Addy owning the rest.
Investors are told they can make a return on their investment and then sell back to Addy within five years.
This is not Addy’s first rodeo. In 2019 they had 305 investors purchase a house on Trout Lake which will be torn down and redeveloped with three units. But Sauder School’s Jack Favilukis points out that ” real estate has had lower average yearly returns than the stock market, with “some notable exceptions, such as Vancouver over the past 20 years.”
There’s downside too including non budgeted expenses, and the chance of a severe market correction in real estate. It does however allow people to invest in real estate.
Ms. Lazaruk includes an emailed statement from the B.C. Securities Commission which comments “Statistics show that a high percentage of startups and small businesses fail. We want to warn investors that they could lose the entire amount they paid for their investment…Securities purchased through startup crowdfunding offerings are not publicly traded, so they may have to wait indefinitely before reselling the securities or they may not be able to resell them at all.”
Images: Dreamstime Addy
Ha, ha, ha. Home ownership for a dollar. Seriously people?
Addy fine print:
“Forward-Looking Statements
Some information contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities legislation (collectively “forward-looking statements”). The use of the words “intention”, “will”, “may”, “can”, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although addy believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements and/or information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since addy can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Furthermore, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as at the date of this news release and addy does not undertake any obligations to publicly update and/or revise any of the included forward-looking statements, whether as a result of additional information, future events and/or otherwise, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.”