Home equity: This start-up buys shares in the homes of senior citizens

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pension too low? This start-up buys shares in the homes of senior citizens

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Benedikt Wenninger, Julia Schabert and Dimitrij Miller (from left) have left their well-paid jobs to found home capital

Source: Benjamin Herchet

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More and more people have relatively low pension entitlements – but live in expensive real estate. A partial sale of your home can increase your financial leeway. The start-up home capital offers itself as a buyer. What pensioners and their families should consider.

IIn places like the UK and US it is normal to sell parts of your home as a source of income. In Germany, the concept is sometimes foreign to many.

The Munich start-up Heimkapital therefore conducts offensive marketing, for example through commercials on public television. Because their target group is not on Instagram: The financial product is primarily aimed at people over 60 who need money in addition to their pension.

According to information from Finance Forward, Heimkapital has received a capital injection of 300 million euros. The start-up does not want to reveal who is behind the investment. Only that the first 100 million euros are to be spent this year. Since the start of business in March 2020, the company has already bought properties in the higher double-digit million range.

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Heimkapital was founded in 2019 by Julia Schabert, Dimitrij Miller and Benedikt Wenninger. Schabert and Miller previously worked for Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank in the financial metropolis of London. Wenninger worked as an investment manager at the Munich-based growth financier Yabeo, which was one of the first funds to put money into the start-up’s real estate business in 2020.

Start-up home capital wants to replace bank loans

If, for example, there is not enough money for an outpatient caregiver due to low pensions – or seniors simply want to finance a trip or a new car, they can sell 50 percent of their home to the start-up. In return, they are compensated financially either monthly or as part of an immediate payment.

In addition, seniors acquire a lifelong right of usufruct to their property. This allows homeowners to continue to live in their own home and use it as they see fit. Through participation, home capital merely becomes a silent partner.

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If the property owner dies, the heirs have a right of first refusal. You have two options to choose from: either buy back the shares sold from the start-up. Or they leave the inheritance to the start-up, which in turn sells the house or apartment.

Critics complain that seniors get cheaper loans from the bank than with the sale of part of their home. Co-founder Miller tells Finance Forward that only a few of his customers have a bank loan to finance their retirement years.

Low pensions, valuable real estate

Other start-ups also rely on a similar business model as home capital. Partial sales providers such as the Hamburg company Wertfaktor are vying for the attention of seniors. Christoph Neuhaus and Alexander Ey founded Wertfaktor in 2019. The brokerage company Engel & Völkers also relies on the business model with its subsidiary Liquidhome.

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And another development that could fuel the growth of this market in the coming decades: low pensions. As the FAZ reports, there are a number of pensioner households that have relatively low pension entitlements – but live in expensive property. In view of falling pensions, experts expect that more and more people would have their assets tied up in residential real estate paid out through partial sales.

This text comes from a cooperation with the magazine “Gründerszene”. Click on the links, leave welt.de and end up in the articles at gruenderszene.de.

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