New REITs regulations by SEBI is a game changer: 7 ways how it can help fractional real estate investors

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

REITs, especially the reduction of the minimum ticket size to Rs 10 lakh, by the Indian market regulator SEBI, is touted to be a game changer for the new-age fractional investment platforms in the country.
Here's a primer on how this much-needed transparency could benefit retail investors, as well as high net worth investors (HNIs), looking to add the highest-graded commercial real estate to their portfolios using the Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) route.

Where the fractional real estate industry stood before recent SEBI regulation

Buying a fraction of otherwise unaffordable large real estate assets is known as fractional investment. Through fractional investment, you co-own property with other people, which could be a rent-yielding office space or a building. What you earn is a proportion of the rent plus a potential upside appreciation in the price of the asset itself.

Over the last few years, several new-age fractional investment companies such as hBits, Strata, PropertyShare, and Altgraf have listed a range of commercial properties on their IT-enabled platforms, which HNIs can invest in. Currently, these platforms are unregulated entities that are mainly web-based and operate by aggregating funds from investors to buy stakes in pre-leased commercial real estate, typically with a minimum ticket size of Rs 25 lakh. The lack of a standardised framework, or independent valuation and due diligence of assets owned made them a high-risk investment, and investor appetite was limited.

How the new SEBI