
Investment Education
Crowdfunding 101
Team Airevest
•September 15, 2025
Learn how crowdfunding revolutionized real estate investment, from the 2008 financial crisis to today's €50 billion industry. Discover why Bulgaria and the EU offer unique advantages for fractional property ownership.
The 2008 Wake-Up Call
Do you know what caused the 2008 Global Financial Crisis? Properties. More precisely, subprime mortgages bundled into complex securities (CDOs). Millions borrowed beyond means, banks leveraged up, and when defaults hit, the system cascaded. The issue? Over-leveraged financing and opaque derivatives.
But property has always been a strange beast – the most familiar thing on Earth, and yet the most dangerous when abused. It is also the biggest store of wealth humanity has. Real estate globally is worth around $650 trillion. That's more than stocks and bonds combined.
After 2008, trust in banks collapsed. People didn't want middlemen taking all the upside while socializing the losses. Around 2010–2012, regulators and fintech founders saw an opportunity: what if ordinary people could invest directly, without banks slicing off layers of profit? That's when equity and lending-based crowdfunding was born — first for startups, then quickly for property.
So what the hell is it?
At its simplest, crowdfunding is a way of collecting money for a specific project from a large number of backers. This usually happens online, through a dedicated platform.
There are four main types:
- Debt - Also known as crowdlending or peer-to-peer lending. Backers lend out money and receive interest in return.
- Donation - Support with no expectation of return. Common in charity and community projects.
- Equity - Backers invest in a business and receive ownership shares in return.
- Reward - Supporters back a project and receive a perk — often the finished product itself.
Source: Bluehost, 2024
Here at AireVest, we focus on equity crowdfunding. Instead of funding a gadget or a charity project, investors pool their money into property-holding companies. In return, they own shares in those companies, and by extension, the real estate assets themselves.
Whether you're a developer, a landlord, or a project sponsor, you're dealing in six and seven figures. One investor usually can't buy a €250,000 flat in Sofia without debt. But 50 people putting in €5,000 each? That's game on.
In the last 10 years, the global real estate crowdfunding market alone has raised over €50 billion. That's not a niche hobby anymore. That's an industry — and one of the fastest-growing in fintech.
It's a way to turn small tickets into serious assets. Think of it like a football team: one player can't win alone, but eleven together make the match work.
Crowdfunding real estate unlocks four key advantages:
- Pooling lowers the entry ticket. Instead of needing €250,000+, you can start with €5,000.
- Risk mitigation. You're a business owner, not a landlord chasing tenants.
- Professional management. Pooled deals are large enough to justify hiring operators.
- Cross-border investing. Non-EU residents can't directly own land or property, but they can own companies. By co-owning the company that owns the property, you become the indirect owner.
Perhaps most importantly, ownership is flexible. One investor who starts with €5,000 could gradually buy out others' shares on a secondary market. Endgame? They could become the proud full owner of the property.
The EU + Bulgaria Advantage
Two recent changes make Bulgaria and Europe uniquely favorable for fractional property ownership:
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EU Crowdfunding Regulation (ECSP): Since 2021, platforms can raise up to €5 million per project with a single EU license. Investors get Key Investment Information Sheets (KIIS), protections, and complaint procedures. Translation: crowdfunding is no longer a gray zone.
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Bulgaria's Variable Capital Company (DPK): Introduced in 2024, this new legal entity allows:
- Quick incorporation of one company per property.
- Easy issuance of shares to investors.
- Transfers without a notary.
- Privacy — investor names don't appear in public registries.
Combine the ECSP framework with the DPK structure, and Bulgaria suddenly has one of the most investor-friendly environments in Europe.
Add to this:
- A 10% flat corporate tax rate (one of the lowest in the EU).
- One of the fastest-growing real estate markets in Europe.
- Yields higher than Western Europe, where Berlin and Paris hover at 2–3%.
The result? A market where fractional real estate investing makes not just sense, but advantage. So? Real estate, once the domain of high-net-worth players and institutions, is now being democratized. With small tickets, clean legal structures, and EU-backed regulation, you can own slices of some serious assets.