Croft takes another crack at building a real estate stock market

Richard Croft, one of the backers of the defunct real estate stock market IPSX, is launching a new exchange that he says will offer “a more liquid way to invest in the world’s largest asset class”. Croft’s new real estate investment company, Martley Capital Group, has teamed up with Aquis Exchange to launch Aquis Real Asset Market, a new segment of the Aquis Growth Market dedicated to trading in real asset-backed investments. The market is expected to launch in the second half of the year and will be open to companies owning commercial real estate, infrastructure, land and forestry, as well as debt products in these sectors.  Croft said: “I have been a long-term believer in the fractionalisation of real estate and the need to create a more liquid way to invest in the world’s largest asset class. The opportunity to help establish the new segment of the Aquis market to address this need is exciting for both Martley Capital and me personally.” Aquis chief executive Alasdair Haynes said: “Who wouldn’t be excited about getting involved with the biggest asset class in the world? We are looking forward to working with Richard Croft and the Martley Capital team, utilising Aquis’s innovative technology and primary market expertise to enable investors to access commercial property and other real assets via the public markets.” IPSX, on which were listed several REITs holding assets originally purchased by Croft’s M7 Real Estate, was wound down last year. The company said at the time that “a perfect storm of macro headwinds” has left it “unable to scale the platform at a rate which would have avoided this scenario”.  Photo from M7/FTI Consulting