Real estate investment platform RealVantage bags capital markets services licence from MAS

REAL estate investment platform RealVantage has obtained a capital markets services (CMS) licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), it said on Wednesday (Jan 12).

The licence will allow the company to provide Singapore-based retail investors with access to private equity real estate investments globally, in countries such as the UK, Australia and the US.

Prior to the licence, the Singapore-founded and domiciled company said it could only seek investment capital directly from accredited investors and investment groups outside of Singapore.

Keith Ong, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of RealVantage, expects the licence will allow the company to "pool capital together as one significant property investor and position ourselves on a level playing field against big institutional investors of the real estate world, so as to secure even better deals".

The deeper capital should result in a wider range of investment options, including co-investment mandates, managed funds, greenfield development projects, income-producing commercial assets and secured debt instruments, deals which Ong noted were previously confined to institutional investors.

"Our goal is to ultimately unlock a world of institutional real estate investing for all client verticals," Ong said.

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RealVantage is the first digital fractional private equity real estate platform to receive the licence.

Its advisors include Richard Tan, former chief financial officer of Sasseur Reit, and angel investor Kuok Meng Han, who is also CEO of bio-tech company Camtech Diagnostics.

Since 2019, the company has funded 23 deals across the UK, Australia, US and Singapore and in 2021, it realised 4 deals above their initial projected returns and increased its investor base 6 times.

Foo Mao Ching, RealVantage's other co-founder and chief operating officer, noted that the company is "disrupting traditional real estate investing by giving today's modern investors better access to opportunities worldwide".

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