When traditional investors look at the recent crypto boom, the one thing that stood out for them was how low the barrier to entry was. The general rule of thumb was that a high returning investment should ideally have a high barrier to entry. Real Estate, Gold, Blue Chip Stocks etc, all needed high amounts of capital to invest into.
On the other hand, there’s blockchain technology, which by the virtue of eliminating the middleman, has reduced operational costs of many fundamental functions. And with the product that we’re covering today, it has well and truly encroached the one paradigm that could not have been altered with technology – real estate.
Global REIT claims to be the first ever blockchain based real estate investment trust, which aims to provide investors with dividends within the first year and reduce the barriers to entry associated with a traditional REIT.
What are REITs?
REIT, for the uninitiated, stands for Real Estate Investment Trusts, which is a financial instrument that allows easy purchase of real estate assets. You may not have a piece of land of a home to your name, but through the virtue of the REIT, you will earn dividends from said real estate.
Some key features of REITs include –
- REITs are a platform for diversifying a long-term investment portfolio
- Income of a REIT is generated through rent earned from its owned-asset portfolio, interest earned by financing real estate assets or sale proceeds upon sale of assets under management (AUM)
- 90% of income generated by REIT is distributed as a dividend to its shareholders
- Publicly listed REITs are a liquid investment vehicle
What does Global REIT bring to the table?
Global REIT, as the name suggests is bringing the power of blockchain to the REIT. According to their whitepaper, Global REIT will work on the same mechanism as a traditional REIT but will offer additional benefits which include –
- Future access to all its Assets under Management (AUM) starting with free stays every year in its 1st Hospitality Asset
- Reward points will be offered in the Loyalty Programs attached to its AUM. These points can be used to avail free services up to a certain limit.
- The Asset portfolio of Global REIT will include assets acquired globally unlike traditional REITs which has imposed restrictions in this aspect
- Token holders of Global REIT will benefit from their participation in the ‘Fund Management Income’ as well which is not offered by traditional REITs
- Token holders of ‘Asset Owning Company’ will be paid dividends monthly unlike traditional REITs
Who is it for?
Global REIT is aimed at 4 specific types of audiences, namely –
- A crypto investor looking for stable dividends
- A crypto investor seeking to invest in real estate assets
- Real Estate Asset holders looking to exit into a liquid market in the crypto domain
- REITs who would like to take advantage of an already established blockchain framework
Who’s running it?
Global REIT is founded by serial entrepreneur, Ali Thumbi, an Emirati with a college degree from the University of Texas. The CEO of the company is Paul Christodoulou, who is a real estate veteran. Along with working on Global REIT, he is also the Managing Director at Gulf Sotheby’s International Realty. The team also has a variable region based acquisition personnel, who have all spent a long time in the real estate industry.
Apart from the core team of business and technology people, their team is advised by ICO specialists Nikolay Shkilev, Vladimir Nikitin and others.
Is Global REIT worth looking at?
The company is leading up to their pre-sale phase and is running a 20% bonus for the duration for people who whitelist now. But more importantly, the company is bringing a fiat world financial instrument to the crypto world. I personally know many crypto investors who like to diversify their profits into more stable options of income. REITs are one of those options.
But to bring this kind of instrument in a method that crypto investors understand makes this an exciting prospect for crypto investors. Furthermore, a lot more traditional investors might be wooed into the blockchain world due to its added benefits.
All that remains to be seen is the team’s execution and the robustness of the product. We’re watching this project closely. If you’re in the market for an ICO, this could be an interesting option for you in more ways than one.
Learn more about Global REIT – http://globalreit.io/
Hitesh Malviya is the Founder of ItsBlockchain. He is one of the most early adopters of blockchain & cryptocurrency enthusiast in India. After being into space for a few years, he started IBC in 2016 to help other early adopters learn about the technology.
Before IBC, Hitesh has founded 4 companies in the cyber security & IT space.
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