by Lark Turner



906 H Street NE, one of Fundrise’s first offerings. 906 H Street NE, one of Fundrise’s first offerings.

Real estate crowdfunding is likely to balloon into a $2.5 billion industry this year, a new report from research firm Massolution suggests.

The projected jump to $2.5 billion represents quick growth for the industry, which eclipsed just over $1 billion in 2014. Between 2013 and 2014, Massolution says, real estate crowdfunding grew 156 percent. Investments in North America are projected to reach $1.4 billion this year.

The idea of using a number of small and mid-size investors to fund real estate projects saw much of its early development in DC, where crowdfunding platform Fundrise was launched in 2012. Fundrise’s founders, brothers Ben and Dan Miller, worked out the tricky logistics of the investments with the Securities and Exchange Commission after the JOBS Act made the platform possible in that same year.

The Millers put up their first public real estate offering, Maketto, in 2013, which the company calls “the first online equity offering for a real estate property.” Minimum buy-in to a Fundrise project: $100.

That project is set to open by the end of this month, Fundrise’s Brandon Jenkins recently told UrbanTurf.

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This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/real_estate_crowdfunding_now_a_1_billion_industry/9606