what is the difference between benchcoin and other realestate tokens ?
This is an excellent question and we will also address this in an upcoming Medium article but I will try to give some of the short points (but it won't be a short explanation!). Much of our project is similar with similar benefits i.e. tokenisation, cross border investment, less paper work, trustless system, etc.
Some Differences Between BenchCoin and other Real Estate Tokens;1. Focused Niche Market - Student Pods and Property. The benefits to this market are much greater than traditional real estate. First you have to understand the student property market. It is the #1 asset class producer and the top emerging asset class market. It's non-correlated, which means consistent returns regardless of economic conditions. That said, it is limited to the wealthy. Student pods cannot be mortgaged. This means you have to have the €50K-€150K per investment in cash. They are guaranteed long term investments, but this is a major pitfall as many people get "stuck" because they cannot liquidate or get a short term loan on a pod (it is like trying to get a loan on a hotel room). They can ONLY sell to other investors which is difficult because of the high capital requirements. What if there was a way to break up that property into small units and sell it to many investors... let's say many units of €1 each? Now anyone can buy (good for them) and the owner can sell (good for them too). Even leasing options.
2. Dual Opportunity - BCT will be payment for our digital platform, but also backed by physical assets. We will use funding to develop a Digital Student Property Marketplace. Student Property Crowdsale Auction | Real Estate Tokenisation | Decentralised P2P Property Token Exchange (similar to a "stock market" for custom property tokens). Upon gaining traction we will expand into retail property and commercial real estate. However, funds from our token will be used to develop premium student apartments in Smart Buildings utilising IoT technology. These will be efficient, high standard apartments in emerging markets with very high student demand. This means consistent returns regardless of the economy. In Barcelona for example, there are over 250,000 students and 20,000 university supplied rooms. #1 complaint (and only complaint) is the housing. You can see our
Barcelona Student Insight Report for details.
3. High Growth Potential - Maybe the highest growth potential of any of the real estate coins. Most (if not all) the coins focus on tokenising other peoples properties for sale. Our platform will do this as well. However, because we will use the majority of the funds to acquire physical assets, we can implement a Smart Asset Leverage strategy. Through asset collateral financing, the assets can be leveraged on a high 50:1 ratio. We can obtain €20M in financing for every €400K of asset value. Why? Because they own the property until it is paid off over a 10 year period. With the consistency of student rental occupation rates, this loan can be paid back in a 3-5 year period (without dividend) and 5-7 year period (with dividend). As the asset loans are paid down, new financing can be obtained. This strategy can provide returns of 40:1 over a 5-7 year period and by repeating the strategy within the same cycle, even much higher profitability is possible.
I have not seen any other real estate project with a plan to achieve number 3. Our token will pay dividend on all forms of revenue. Fees from the platform and rental income from the students and all future enterprises and acquisitions. There are some other differences but it
takes a white paper or two to really dig deep.
