VRMA Administrator
Amazon.com owner Jeff Bezos' investment in a real estate startup scooping up single-family homes in several U.S. states has invited criticism. The Arrived platform enables retail investors to buy shares of single-family homes that are used as either long-term or short-term rentals. Bezos made an early investment in Arrived via his Bezos Expeditions Fund during the seed round in 2021, followed by a second investment earlier this year during the startup's series A round. Retail investors on the platform have fully funded 182 properties cumulatively valued at more than $66 million. Partly fueling the backlash against Bezos is the timing of his investment, with record appreciation in home prices between 2020 and 2022 locking many Americans out of homeownership. The Pew Charitable Trusts estimated that investors constituted 24 percent of U.S. home sales last year, while the National Association of Realtors said institutional buyers comprised 13 percent of the residential sales market in 2021. Arrived's founders see themselves as opening up rather than limiting real estate ownership. CEO Ryan Frazier claimed on Benzinga's Real Estate Podcast that "if you have time and expertise but maybe not the amount of capital to diversify in as many properties as you want, Arrived can facilitate that for you."
Yahoo! Finance (10/28/22) Kevin Vandenboss
