Fractional Property Investing is the process of dividing an asset into smaller pieces to allow a number of investors to mutually own a percentage of the asset.

This enables shared benefits of ownership for each investor of the Property. Each investor can earn rental income and make capital gains in proportion to the percentage of the asset owned.

You don’t have to buy an entire company to earn dividends and capture increases in the company’s valuation over time, you can buy fractions of a company in the form of stocks. So why can’t we do the same in the property investing market?

Piptle harnesses the power of fractional investing to enable a wider range of access to the property market in a simple, secure and user friendly platform.

To answer this question we need to first understand what Blockchain technology actually does. It’s common to think of Blockchain technology in terms of the digital currencies that are used within them such as Bitcoin and Ether but understanding the underlying principals of Blockchains is more relevant when discussing how Piptle uses it to enable fractional property investing.

A blockchain is simply a network of connected computers, that work together to hold a ledger of information. The information is stored in a series of blocks that are joined together as a chain. As one block fills with data, a new block is created and connected to the previous. The information held on the chain is duplicated across all computers in the network.

The connected computers ensure that the information held on the ‘chain’ is valid and correct by using  a process of ‘cryptography’ which is where we get ‘cryptocurrency’ from, but we don’t need to get into that right now to understand how Piptle works.

For applications  to store information on the chain, we execute what is called a ‘smart contract’. A smart contract is a piece of code that contains rules and instructions on how data should be modified and stored on the blockchain.

This is where Piptle comes in. For each property that we purchase and place in a legal trust, we divide these into unique fractional assets, using a core smart contract that stores all the required information about the property – how many fractions, who owns them, what the current rental rate is, and current market value amongst others.

The data recorded is transparent and very near impossible to modify, hack or delete without authorisation, making it a perfect use case for Fractional Property Investing.

If changes to the property contract are required – Let’s say a fraction is sold to a new owner or the property changes in valuation, Piptle uses the smart contract to update the information on the ledger.

Through blockchain technology we can track a complete history of the property and the fractional assets within them, in a completely safe and transparent environment.