Property Insiders - BRICKX with CEO Anthony Millet

Performance Property Data

“There is no other financial product out there, that gives you exposure to the housing market without buying a house itself.”

This month on Property Insiders, David sits down with Anthony Millet, entrepreneur and CEO of BRICKX, a unique and exciting new opportunity in the property investment market.

BRICKX is an online platform that allows people to invest in property on a fractional basis. Practically, this means that BRICKX will purchase a property, which is then divided into 10,000 units - or Bricks - which are made available to investors for purchase.

Currently, each Brick costs between $58 and $154, and investors are able to own up to a 5% share in each property. Investors benefit from their share of the monthly rental income, and every six months BRICKX properties are revalued so Brick investors can watch their investments grow.

BRICKX can be used by anyone, but investors include those who have never invested before or entered the property market, as well as seasoned property investors seeking greater diversification.

BRICKX will also soon be able to offer a Rent-to-Buy scheme, where future home-owners will pay a 5% deposit on a property, and then be given a 5 year lease to live there. The occupiers then keep on buying bricks until they’ve amassed at 20% share, at which point they are able to buy the property with a regular commercial mortgage.

BRICKX is focused on Blue Chip suburbs, including some of the best suburbs in Australia with long-term high growth profiles. In Sydney, BRICKX offers properties in Double Bay, Bondi Beach, Mosman, Manly, Potts Point, Surry Hills, Annandale, Enmore, and Balmain. In Melbourne, investors can buy Bricks in Port Melbourne, Prahran, and Brunswick West. And their newest accusation opens the Adelaide market up to Brick investors with a property in St Peters.

When investors decide to sell their Bricks, they will find it an easy process. To date, they have had over 150,000 transactions and Bricks are currently being sold within 14 hours.

Such a situation gives investors, and particularly deposit-savers, greater freedom in managing their investment, allowing them to easily sell their position should their circumstances change.

One of the positives of BRICKX is that being an investor will not impact on a person’s ability to access the first home buyer’s grant or stamp duty exemptions. Anthony comments that they are seeing people get to home ownership through using BRICKX. Any capital gains on Bricks are still eligible for the reduction if held for more than 12 months. Additionally, investors still get the benefits of depreciation as BRICKX is a widely-held trust with more than 300 investors. However, as a financial product investors do have to pay tax on the income they receive as part of the rental yield.

Performance Property Advisory acts as a buyer for BRICKX and is proud to do so.

About your host, David McMillan

During his 16 years in the property industry David has worked as a property valuer and property adviser to private clients, financial planners, accountants, finance brokers, major banks and governments. He has been involved in more than $500M worth of transactions across Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia & Queensland.

Since 2009, David has been specifically focused on helping medical professionals, expats, business owners and busy executives build effective property portfolios.

David is a fully licensed real estate agent in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland (CEA), Certified Practicing property Valuer (CPV), Qualified Property Investment Advisor (QPIA) and most importantly is an active property investor. David joined the Australian Property Institute in 2001 and is now an Associate (AAPI) and in 2009 became a member of the Real Estate Institute. David currently sits on the board of Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) to promote ethics in the property investment industry.

About David’s guest, Anthony Millet

With a passion for property and technology, Anthony’s mission is to make property ownership and investing affordable and accessible to all Australians.

Originally from the UK (where property also suffers from similar affordability and accessibility issues), Anthony brings a wealth of innovative and professional experience in eCommerce, technology and the banking industries to successfully lead the BRICKX team.

Prior to joining BRICKX, Anthony was responsible for building one of Europe’s largest e-Commerce businesses in the Sports and Outdoors sector. Before this, Anthony was an Associate Director at UBS Investment Bank, London, working within the Listed Investment Funds team and also within Corporate Finance specialising in the Technology sector.