While the term “crowdfunding” was coined in 2006 by American Michael Sullivan, crowdfunding itself is not really new. A look at the origins of a very trendy phenomenon that touches all fields, including real estate investment!
Gathering crowds to fund a project is not a new concept: the principle of tontines*, still very common in Africa, already consisted several centuries ago of pooling the savings of a small group to finance a collective or individual project. In the 18th century, some authors, composers, or artists solicited numerous investors to support their projects. For example, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart offered, in 1783, manuscripts signed by his own hand to those who agreed to finance his concertos performed in a Viennese concert hall.
Started in 1882, the Sagrada Família, an iconic monument in Barcelona, is considered the longest crowdfunding project in history! Funded through crowdfunding, the work of the brilliant Catalan architect Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí remains unfinished to this day.
In 1875, sculptor Auguste Bartholdi gathered no fewer than 100,000 subscribers to fund the construction of the Statue of Liberty.
In 2008, it was Barack Obama who appealed to the generosity of American citizens to finance his election campaign.
Throughout history, crowdfunding has obviously evolved with the emergence of the Internet. Crowdfunding, or “crowdfunding,” now relies on powerful online platforms, greatly expanding its reach and influence.
In Switzerland, the first crowdfunding platforms appeared in 2008. They initially primarily supported artistic and cultural projects, or financing through solidarity loans (or microcredit) for micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries. Today, crowdfunding takes many other forms and pursues many other goals: real estate crowdfunding is a relatively recent phenomenon that already offers numerous opportunities for financing real estate projects, especially for individual investors who now have a real lever to support projects of public interest.
*Tontine: An arrangement by which several people contribute payments to form a common fund, which is capitalized and paid out at the agreed maturity to the survivors.
