Shariah-compliant crowdfunding platform Ethis hopes to raise up to S$ 1 million from executives participating in the Global Islamic Finance Forum (GIFF) being held in Kuala Lumpur May 10-12, 2016.
EthisCrowd.com claims the title of the world’s first real estate Islamic crowdfunding platform. Based in Singapore, Ethis focuses on crowd-investment in social impact developments especially affordable housing and Waqaf, and has already funded projects in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Organized by the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM), GIFF is in its 5th iteration.
AIBIM’s Executive Director, Yusry Yusoff called the business pitches and the “ASEAN Fintech Challenge”, a key highlight of GIFF. The event seeks to encourage the Islamic finance industry to work with innovative Fintech firms and reach beyond traditional Islamic finance.
“We are delighted to have Ethis coming on aboard GIFF’s business pitching sessions, a first for the forum, to crowdfund for the Depok Dream Village, Jakarta,” stated Yusoff.
Ethis founder Umar Munshi explained that his platform had secured an “attractive piece of land” in Depok, Greater Jakarta.
“We expect the projected returns to be 48% to 55% over 3 to 3.5 years from a share of the development profits,” said Munshi.
Depok Dream Village is described as an affordable cluster condo project. This low-rise condo estate with more than 3,000 units will be developed as a high-quality, full-facility, eco-friendly, modern and intelligently designed estate.
Munshi said the development will give lower income families the opportunity to experience a better life, at a price they can afford.
“Cluster condos are a hot new concept in satellite towns around Jakarta, and recent projects in other towns aimed at the middle-class have sold out very quickly,” stated Ronald Wijaya, the director of PT Ethis Indo Asia, an associate company that is also the co-developer for the project.
GIFF, an invitation-only event, expects over 500 senior executives from around the world.
