BuyProperly was founded in 2019 with a straightforward promise: make Canadian real estate investing accessible through fractional ownership and AI-powered property selection. Nearly seven years later, the platform faces a critical question that every prospective investor should ask: does the value proposition hold up against modern alternatives? The answer requires examining what the data actually reveals about fees, returns, transparency, and competitive positioning.
For investors exploring fractional real estate investing, BuyProperly represents one option in an increasingly crowded market. This analysis examines how its reported fees, public metrics, and disclosure practices compare with platforms that offer clearer economics and more standardized reporting.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this guide is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed professional before making any financial or investment decisions.
Key Takeaways
- BuyProperly's reported fee structure affects net investor returns. In 2021 coverage, the platform was reported to charge a 2.5% annual management fee plus GST/HST on assets under management. A competitor comparison lists BuyProperly fees ranging from 1.25% to 2.5%. Even at the lower end, this sits well above low-cost REIT ETF expense ratios.
- BuyProperly's public metrics are platform-reported and inconsistent across pages. Its products page states 20,000+ investors, $500,000,000+ total deal value, and a 95% customer satisfaction rate, while a homepage snippet states 9,800+ investors, $245,000,000+ total deal value, 32+ deals funded, and $235,200+ distributions made. These figures are not independently audited, and the platform does not publish deal-level return histories.
- BuyProperly's public materials conflict on the minimum investment. Current web pages state investors can start with as little as $500, while older media and app materials state $2,500. Depending on which figure applies, BuyProperly is roughly 5x to 50x higher than U.S. alternatives advertising $10 to $100 minimums (or 25x to 250x at $2,500), and Canadian access to those alternatives varies.
- Marketed 20-40% returns are expected, not realized, figures. BuyProperly has historically marketed expected returns of 20-40%, but reviewed public materials do not provide independent audits or realized portfolio-level performance validating those projections, and the platform's own risk disclosure warns that expected returns may not reflect actual future performance.
- AI property selection sounds sophisticated but remains unproven. BuyProperly has claimed its AI evaluates over 1.5 million data points, and a separate 2021 profile described fair-market-value analysis using 500 million data points. No reviewed source supports the phrasing "500 million variables," and no independent validation of the model's performance exists.
- Institutional-grade alternatives offer compelling value. Platforms founded by Goldman Sachs alumni, like mogul, report no recurring AUM-based management fee, publicly reported performance metrics, and monthly income distributions.
Understanding Fractional Real Estate Investing
Fractional real estate investing eliminates the traditional barriers that have kept most people locked out of property ownership. Instead of needing $100,000+ for a down payment, investors purchase shares in professionally selected properties, gaining proportional rights to rental income, appreciation, and tax benefits.
How fractional ownership works:
- A platform acquires properties through institutional-grade due diligence
- Each offering is typically structured through a special-purpose vehicle or issuer entity, which may be a corporation, LLC, limited partnership, or other vehicle depending on jurisdiction and platform
- Investors purchase shares representing partial ownership
- Professional management handles all tenant and property operations
- Investors receive income distributions and participate in appreciation at sale
The model addresses real problems. Traditional real estate investment requires substantial capital, mortgage qualification, property management expertise, and geographic constraints. Young professionals and middle-class investors increasingly find themselves priced out of building wealth through property ownership.
However, not all fractional platforms deliver equal value. Fee structures, minimum investments, distribution frequency, and transparency vary dramatically. What looks accessible on the surface can become expensive over time when fees compound against returns.
BuyProperly's Platform Model and Investment Structure
BuyProperly describes a fractional ownership model for income-producing real estate. In 2021, it described a structure where each property was held in a corporation and investors received proportional shares entitling them to rental income dividends and capital appreciation when properties sell. Current public disclosures also reference BuyProperly limited partnerships and third-party investment providers, so the legal structure appears to be offering-dependent.
Key platform characteristics:
- Minimum investment: conflicting; current web pages state $500, older media and app materials state $2,500
- Default investment horizon: the risk disclosure notes a 5-year lock-in period, though earlier exit may be possible through a secondary marketplace
- Maximum single investor ownership: 49.9% of any property
- Geographic availability: BuyProperly has historically discussed Canadian and U.S. expansion; investor eligibility and property availability have varied by province and offering
- Property types: current public pages describe access to real estate, private credit, and other alternative investments; specific current property-type exposure is not clearly disclosed because the public all-deals and properties pages showed no active results in the reviewed crawl
The platform was founded in 2019 by Khushboo Jha, a former Amazon product leader who previously worked as language technologies product lead for Alexa. BuyProperly raised approximately C$2 million in pre-seed/seed financing in May 2021, led by Nurture Ventures with participation from FastBreak Ventures and angel investors.
At the time of its 2021 funding announcement, BuyProperly reported 300 investors with its customer base growing 5x since inception. That 2021 figure is no longer the most recent public claim: current BuyProperly materials cite newer but conflicting investor counts, including 20,000+ investors on the products page versus 9,800+ investors in a homepage snippet. The core issue is not an absence of updated metrics but inconsistent, unaudited, platform-reported figures.
Fee Structure Analysis
BuyProperly's fee structure is one factor in total investment cost. Understanding total investment costs requires looking beyond the minimum investment amount.
BuyProperly's reported fee breakdown:
- Annual management fee: reported in 2021 as 2.5% plus GST/HST on assets under management; current official pages reviewed did not clearly disclose this fee, and a competitor comparison cites a range of 1.25% to 2.5%
- Property management costs: additional deductions from monthly rental dividends for advertising, letting, managing, and maintenance
- Acquisition costs: proportional share of one-time costs including home inspection and legal fees
Where a 2.5% AUM fee applies, on a $10,000 investment it equals $250+ annually regardless of property performance, climbing higher once GST/HST is added. Over a typical 5-year holding period, an investor could pay $1,250+ in management fees before accounting for property-level operational costs.
How BuyProperly fees compare:
Fees differ meaningfully across alternatives, which makes total cost a useful point of comparison when evaluating platforms.
Low-cost REIT ETFs can carry expense ratios far below 0.4%. For example, the Vanguard Real Estate ETF reports 0.13% and the iShares Core U.S. REIT ETF reports 0.08%, though those ETF expense ratios are not identical to fractional-property platform fees. Some modern fractional platforms charge 0% AUM fees, instead taking only a percentage of actual rental income generated, typically 8-15%. A performance-based model of that kind means investors pay less when properties underperform.
The compounding impact:
Consider a $10,000 investment appreciating at 5% annually:
- Modeled as a 2.5 percentage-point annual drag, the Year 5 balance is approximately $11,314
- Modeled as 5% growth followed by a 2.5% AUM fee each year, the Year 5 balance is approximately $11,245
- With no AUM fee, the Year 5 balance is approximately $12,763
Under these assumptions, the fee drag over five years is roughly $1,449 to $1,518, representing a meaningful share of total gains captured by fees rather than returned to investors.
AI-Powered Property Selection
BuyProperly emphasizes its AI-driven property selection as a key differentiator. The platform describes a three-stage vetting process designed to identify high-quality investment opportunities.
BuyProperly's stated selection process:
- AI pre-selection: analyzes 20 years of MLS data across more than 1.5 million data points, with a separate 2021 profile describing fair-market-value analysis using 500 million data points including nearby schools, banks, demographic information, and economic indicators (no reviewed source supports "500 million variables")
- Investment committee review: secondary analysis with current data to identify red flags such as environmental issues or market changes
- Physical inspection: on-site property evaluation before final approval
CEO Khushboo Jha claims only 1% of evaluated properties make it onto the platform, emphasizing selective quality standards.
Performance data availability:
The publicly available materials leave several performance questions open:
- No published evidence of AI model performance or back-testing results
- No independent verification of the "20-40% expected returns" claim
- No comparison to human-selected portfolios to validate "above-human performance" marketing
- No audited historical return data across the portfolio since launch
BuyProperly's cited 20-40% figure is presented as an expected return without a clear annualization or time horizon in the cited release, so it should not be directly compared to annual home-price appreciation without additional context. With limited public historical performance data, prospective investors have less information available to assess whether these projections materialize in practice.
Sophisticated data analysis matters, but so does transparency about outcomes. Investors using mogul's investment property calculator can analyze specific properties using institutional-grade tools with clear methodology explanations.
Transparency and Performance
In 2026, BuyProperly's current public materials provide platform-reported figures that vary across pages and are not accompanied by audited historical performance, deal-level return histories, secondary-market trading data, or a clearly current fee schedule. Investors comparing platforms will find that some offer more standardized performance reporting and clearer fee disclosures.
What is missing from public disclosure:
- Reconciliation of the conflicting investor counts published across its own pages
- Consistently disclosed current property portfolio size and composition
- Audited historical returns across properties since launch
- Secondary marketplace trading volume and liquidity data
- Methodology behind its published 95% customer-satisfaction figure, including sample size, survey method, date range, or independent verification
Public headcount data is inconsistent. BuyProperly's team page lists seven named team members, while other databases show varying estimates. No subsequent funding rounds beyond the 2021 seed have been announced publicly.
Academic perspectives on risk:
Real estate academics have raised important cautions about fractional investing generally. Laleh Samarbakhsh, Associate Professor of Finance at Ted Rogers School of Management, warned in CBC coverage that the upside in good conditions comes with real downside risk in bad conditions, and that a property owned by a group of fractional investors can decline in value just like any other property.
She specifically noted the importance of avoiding FOMO-based investment decisions and understanding that fractional platforms operate within the same market dynamics as traditional real estate.
For investors conducting due diligence, the absence of audited performance data creates a significant information asymmetry. Platforms with transparent track records, including regular reporting, historical returns, and reconciled investor metrics, offer a clearer picture of actual outcomes versus projections.
Secondary Market and Liquidity Considerations
BuyProperly offers a secondary marketplace where investors can sell shares to other platform users before property sales occur. This feature theoretically provides liquidity not available in traditional real estate's 5-10 year holding periods.
What is known about BuyProperly's secondary market:
- Investors may be able to exit earlier than the default horizon by selling shares
- Shares are sold to other investors on the platform
- The resale pricing methodology is not clearly published
BuyProperly has described a resale marketplace, but reviewed sources do not establish a transparent, platform-published fair-market-value pricing methodology for secondary sales. One app description notes investors may resell shares at a price of their choosing, and the risk page warns there may be no buyer at a reasonable price.
Critical gaps in disclosure:
- Monthly or annual trading volumes remain undisclosed
- Average time-to-sale for listed shares not reported
- Pricing mechanism methodology unclear
- Success rate for investors seeking to exit not published
Without this data, the liquidity benefit is difficult to quantify from public information. An investor planning to exit at year three cannot assess reasonable expectations for timeline or pricing based on historical marketplace activity.
Avis Devine, Associate Professor of Real Estate at Schulich School of Business, told CBC that fractional ownership could be appealing to people in Gen Z and younger millennials given industry disruption potential. However, that appeal depends partly on understanding actual liquidity conditions, not just the existence of a marketplace feature.
Investors prioritizing liquidity should compare secondary market transparency across platforms. Some alternatives publish trading success rates, average time-to-sale, and historical pricing data, information that enables informed expectations about exit flexibility.
Competitive Landscape: How BuyProperly Compares
BuyProperly operates in an increasingly competitive fractional real estate market. Some U.S.-based platforms advertise lower minimums and fees, but Canadian investor access varies materially by platform: Fundrise and Arrived restrict eligibility to U.S.-based or U.S.-qualified investors, while Lofty is more permissive for non-U.S. investors except in restricted jurisdictions.
Platform comparison on key metrics:
- Minimum investment: BuyProperly shows $500 current pages / $2,500 older materials, while leading U.S. alternatives offer $10 to $100
- Annual AUM fee: BuyProperly was reported at 1.25% to 2.5%, while leading U.S. alternatives vary, with some advertising none, Fundrise ~1% total annual, and Arrived up to ~1.2%
- Distribution frequency: unclear for BuyProperly, monthly for leading U.S. alternatives
- Verified track record: limited for BuyProperly, extensive for leading U.S. alternatives
- Mobile app rating: for BuyProperly, limited data; U.S. iOS listing shows one rating of 1.0, while leading U.S. alternatives show 4.6-4.7/5
Canadian alternative considerations:
The primary Canadian competitor, Addy, has historically offered a $1 minimum investment. Its optional membership fee reportedly increased from $25 to $50 after October 2022. Public commentary has discussed Addy's offering economics, including a referenced 50/50 profit split with management.
What drives competitive advantage:
- Fee structure: performance-based fees (percentage of actual income) versus AUM fees (charged regardless of performance)
- Transparency: regular reporting on portfolio performance, investor metrics, and marketplace activity
- Track record: verified historical returns across multiple market cycles
- Team expertise: institutional investment backgrounds versus technology-focused founders
- Investor protection: loss protection features that mitigate downside risk
Why mogul Offers a Better Path to Real Estate Investing
For investors evaluating fractional real estate platforms, mogul provides an institutional-grade approach backed by consistent, standardized disclosure.
What sets mogul apart:
- Goldman Sachs pedigree: founded by Goldman Sachs real estate alumni with $10 billion-plus in collective investing experience, bringing institutional rigor to fractional investing
- Performance reporting: mogul publicly reports performance metrics and provides property-level materials for each offering. mogul's content states that single-family rentals historically returned 13.8% IRR versus 9.8% for the S\&P 500 from 1993 to 2023, based on Federal Reserve and Case-Shiller data
- Investor protection: mogul covers up to $10,000 in losses for new members' first-year investments, a risk mitigation feature not found in competing platforms
- Rigorous selection: less than 1% of properties reviewed pass mogul's diligence process, with the company personally investing in every property offered
- Monthly distributions: investors receive actual rental payments monthly, not projected income on unclear schedules
- Scale and traction: mogul reports $90M in assets and 35K+ users as of June 1, 2026, demonstrating adoption and operational capability
- Free analytical tools: mogul's rental property calculator and Airbnb calculator use the same data employed by top real estate firms, available at no cost
The fee difference matters:
Where BuyProperly was reported to charge an annual management fee on AUM regardless of performance, mogul does not charge a recurring AUM-based management fee. mogul's own pages disclose a one-time fee structure (a 3% onboarding/platform fee plus a 2% setup fee, described on some pages as a one-time 5% deal setup fee), and certain comparison pages also disclose an ongoing fee of 2.5% on collected rent or rental income. Over multi-year holds, mogul's no-recurring-AUM structure may reduce fee drag versus annual AUM models, but the dollar impact depends on investment size, rental income, and the applicable upfront and rent-based fees.
Transparency by design:
mogul publishes performance metrics, maintains updated user counts, and provides detailed underwriting for each property, giving investors a clear, well-documented view of results. mogul also reports that 90% of its investors invest a second time, and when they do, that investment is on average 3x their first.
For those ready to explore institutional-quality real estate investing, mogul's available properties offer a starting point grounded in disclosed performance and aligned incentives.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this guide is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Always consult with a licensed professional before making any financial or investment decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does BuyProperly handle property management and tenant issues?
BuyProperly has marketed hands-off property operations, including tenant acquisition, rent collection, maintenance coordination, and oversight, so investors do not field 3 AM phone calls about repairs. However, current footer language describes BuyProperly as a service provider, with investment opportunities provided by unrelated third parties, so each deal's documents identify the actual issuer, property manager, and service provider. Property management costs are deducted from rental dividends before distribution, meaning investors receive net income after these operational expenses. Public materials do not specify the percentage of gross rental income typically allocated to property management deductions. Platforms with transparent fee structures publish what percentage of rental income goes to management versus investor distributions.
Can I use my RRSP or TFSA to invest through BuyProperly?
Reviewed public deal pages did not confirm RRSP-eligible or TFSA-eligible account integration for BuyProperly deals. However, BuyProperly has published general tax content discussing registered accounts such as RRSPs, TFSAs, and RESPs in the context of alternative investments. The securities are sold through registered dealers or exempt funding portals as required by Canadian securities law, but tax-advantaged account integration is not prominently featured. Investors seeking tax-advantaged real estate exposure may need to explore REITs or other vehicles eligible for registered accounts.
What happens if BuyProperly goes out of business?
In 2021, BuyProperly described holding each property in a corporation, with investors owning proportional shares; current disclosures also reference BuyProperly limited partnerships and third-party investment providers, so the legal structure is offering-dependent. In theory, a special-purpose vehicle structure can separate the underlying property from the platform company. However, practical questions remain: Who would manage properties if the platform ceased operations? How would investors coordinate among themselves for decisions like selling? What happens to the secondary marketplace for liquidity? These scenarios are not addressed in publicly available platform documentation. BuyProperly's team page lists seven named members.
Does BuyProperly provide tax documentation for U.S. or Canadian investors?
Tax documentation depends on the legal structure of the specific offering. BuyProperly's risk page states that neither BuyProperly nor its affiliates provide tax advice. If an offering is structured as a partnership, Canadian investors may receive partnership tax reporting such as a T5013 slip, but BuyProperly-specific documentation was not confirmed in reviewed materials. For U.S. investors accessing Canadian real estate through the platform, cross-border tax implications can become complex, including potential withholding requirements and foreign tax credit considerations. U.S. tax reporting also varies by investment structure, including whether a vehicle issues K-1s, 1099s, or depreciation schedules, and investors should consult qualified professionals for their specific situations.
How does BuyProperly's approach differ from buying a REIT?
BuyProperly offers fractional ownership in specific individual properties, while REITs pool investor capital across diversified portfolios of properties. With BuyProperly, investors choose which specific properties to invest in and hold direct fractional ownership in those assets. REITs provide broader diversification but less control over specific holdings. The key trade-off involves cost: BuyProperly was reported to charge up to a 2.5% AUM fee, while low-cost REIT ETFs carry far lower expense ratios, such as the Vanguard Real Estate ETF at 0.13% and the iShares Core U.S. REIT ETF at 0.08%, though those ETF ratios are not identical to fractional-platform fees. Whether any platform-level premium delivers superior risk-adjusted returns is difficult to assess from public data alone. For investors prioritizing low costs and diversification, REITs may offer better value; for those wanting specific property selection, other fractional platforms provide middle-ground options.
What regulatory protections exist for BuyProperly investors?
BuyProperly states that securities-related activities are conducted through Meadowbank Asset Management Inc. or affiliated entities, while BuyProperly itself acts as a service provider and is not registered as a broker-dealer or investment adviser. Securities activities may be conducted through registered dealers or exempt funding portals; however, regulatory registration does not constitute approval of any investment, and BuyProperly's risk disclosure states that no securities regulatory authority has approved or opined on the offered securities. Offerings may use offering memorandums or other exempt-market or crowdfunding disclosure documents depending on the issuer, exemption, dealer, and jurisdiction, and suitability assessments help ensure investments align with investor income levels. Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks are implemented during signup. Regulatory compliance ensures the platform follows securities laws in how investments are offered and sold; it does not guarantee investment performance or protect against market losses.