Fund-hungry developers flock to the Internet to find investors

Budding real estate crowd-funding models have been thrown firmly into the lime-light, after the country's largest developer rolled out its debut product.

But analysts say China's nascent property rental market, as well as regulatory hurdles, could mean it might still take time for the industry's latest funding trend to fully catch on.

Last week China's largest commercial real estate company Wanda Group introduced its first crowd-funding project, in partnership with 99 Bill, a third-party payment and settlement service company in which Wanda bought a controlling stake in December.

Wanda is seeking individual investments as small as 1,000 yuan ($161) from online investors to help finance its next batch of shopping malls, or Wanda plazas, it said in a statement.

The fund will be invested in the constructions of the Wanda plazas that are expected to start this year, and open for rent next year.

Investors are promised a 6 percent annualized rental return from the plazas, and another expected 6 percent on the properties' value appreciation.

The funding experiment is part of a broader strategy to move away from capital-intensive construction and sales toward an "asset light", income-based approach.

It is a property management business model already successfully adopted by rival developers in Hong Kong, such as Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd and Cheung Kong Ltd.

For ordinary investors, the appeal is gaining access to an investment opportunity that is relatively risk-low, given Wanda's powerful brand reputation.

But analysts said they view the project's significance as greater in symbolism than actual financial reward, given the actual funding levels are likely to be small from online investors.

The four-day fundraising period was closed, but the total capital raised has not been revealed. "It is still unclear where the plazas will be located. Wanda's previous plaza expansions concentrated in third－and fourth-tier cities, where risks abound," said Fu Yichen, a development analyst with China Real Estate Information Corp.

"Investors favor projects in first-tier cities, while staying cautious toward projects in small cities."

To financial institutions, a developer's strength lies in being able to control project risk, so it is desirable for them to team up with major developers to channel funds into selected small developers, Fu said, a model already used effectively by China's Greenland Group, for instance.