RealT was created in 2019 by the Jacobson brothers. The company offers to invest in real estate with a new economic model, tokenization, based on the Ethereum blockchain and since 2021 also on Gnosis Chain. Jean-Marc Jacobson, co-founder of RealT agreed to answer our questions.
What is the principle of RealT?
Jean-Marc Jacobson: RealT was created in 2019 with my brother Remy. Our company proposes to invest in real estate with a new economic model, tokenization, based on the blockchain Ethereum and since 2021 also on Gnosis Chain. Today, thanks to its professionalism and transparency, RealT has achieved $46 million in sales and has over 200 tokenized real estate. The company now supports nearly 10,000 investors in 135 different countries.
How did this idea come about?
J.-MJ: We started investing in real estate in the late 1990s and have concentrated all of our investments in the city of Montreal to Canada. In 15 years, we have gone from 0 to 18,000 real estate units. Creating RealT, we wanted to profoundly change the way we invest in real estate, relying on decentralized finance. The objective of the company is to allow everyone to invest their money in real estate from 50 euros, thanks to tokenization.
What are your short term goals?
J.-MJ: Since 2019, RealT has the vision of revolutionizing the real estate market and becoming a major player in the construction of the finance of the future. The goal of RealT is to allow anyone to create a passive income by making profitable real estate accessible through the blockchain.
Our goal at RealT is to help build a new token economy. We make it easy for every investor to hold real estate assets, thanks to tokenization and the ability to split real estate into shares. We therefore wish to offer everyone the possibility of becoming a co-owner, already from 50 euros.
We believe that the global trade in illiquid physical assets can become a daily reality, when the tokenization of assets becomes widespread. As a result, people from different corners of the world will be able to own fractions of the same physical asset or trade different types of assets instantly.
What is the business model?
J.-MJ: Since its creation, RealT aims to shake up the codes of the real estate market. Our company has built its business model on disintermediation. At each step, RealT tries to eliminate as many intermediaries as possible in the value chain. These savings make it possible to offer investors a property at a lower price with a higher yield. Thanks to decentralized finance, the economic model of RealT makes it possible to meet the expectations of investors, whether long or short term.
To finance its housing stock, RealT goes directly to retail investors. Thus, the American company finds a source of financing much more quickly and makes it possible to conclude deals promising very interesting returns. By going directly through this lever, the commissions are lower than going through the banks and the service offered to customers becomes more affordable.
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