If you’re looking to invest in Austria, peer-to-peer lending presents the easiest option to get started. In fact, this alternative investment type is fast becoming one of the top choices for foreign lenders looking to become part of the Austrian economy.
With modern peer-to-peer lending platforms you gain easy access to a variety of investment services that was previously reserved for the wealthy few. From real estate developing to business equity, the Austrian lending scene has got it all.
So whether your just getting started or been in the game for some time, consider these top investment platforms in Austria that are poised to have a bright future ahead of them.
International investors should take a look at Revolut or TransferWise to gain access to these sites, as most require a bank account within the EEA.
Peer-To-Peer Lending in Austria – Best Sites Compared:
1. Rendity: Great For Real Estate Crowdfunding in Austria
Rendity is probably the most popular and user-friendly Austrian real estate crowdfunding platform for overseas citizens to invest in property development projects in Austria and Germany. So if you’re looking for a central European alternative to Estateguru and BulkEstate, you definitely need to check out Rendity.
One of the little known facts about Austrian real estate is that it’s often rated as one of the most stable investment options. And with Austrian real-estate crowd lending platforms like Rendity, international investors can now get a share of the bricks and mortar of beautiful cities like Vienna and Graz.
Rendity primarily appeals to EU citizens, but the site welcomes most international investors holding a SEPA (European) bank account, like Revolut or Transferwise (these are free).
- Type of Investment: Real estate
- ROI: up to 7% per annum
- English: Yes
- Open to: Anyone with a SEPA (European) bank account, and companies with a bank account within the European Union (EU).
- Security: Asset
- Secondary Market: Yes
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 500 Euro for each property
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2015
- Country of Operation: Austria, Germany
The Rendity interface makes it easy to keep track of all your investments, return on investments, and buildings you’ve invested in. Simply put, Rendity allows you to invest in European real estate without investing a huge amount on one property.
Rendity was founded in Vienna, Austria, although it also operates in Germany. In Germany, the platform is recognized by IHK (German Chamber of Industry and Commerce).
The registration process is also simple as you only have to provide basic details and proof of identity documents. The platform also allows you to choose between two investment options, Rendity Income (low risk with 3%-5% ROI) and Rendity Growth (high risk with 4–7% ROI).
2. Reval: Austrian P2P Real Estate Investing
Reval is a Vienna-based real estate crowdfunding platform for investing in property development in Austria. With a minimum buy-in of only €500, this platform helps bring real estate projects to the public that were previously only for professional investors
Currently, only EU citizens can register on Reval. And one of the main drawbacks is that the website is currently only available in German. But even if you just know basic German, the site is actually quite easy to navigate and definitely worth checking out.
Reval has Kerbler Holding GmbH and ViennaEstate Immobilien AG as shareholders. While loans on Reval are mostly subordinated loans, they’re still relatively secure investments given that these real estate projects already have commercial backers behind them.
- Type of Investment: Real Estate
- ROI: 5 to 6%
- English: No
- Who can invest: EU citizens
- Security: Asset
- Secondary Market: Yes
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 500 Euro
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2015
- Country of Operation: Austria
The platform charges no hidden fees, and all the investor money goes directly into the project. Returns vary from project to project but usually lies between 5% and 6% per annum.
Similarly, the maturity period also varies by project but is usually no longer than 24 months. The platform is easy to use and free to sign up for. Once you make an account, all the details about each project are available on the project’s page.
3. Immo Funding
Immo Funding is a simple Viennese real-estate crowd investing platform. The company offers an opportunity for investors to directly invest in both small and large-scale property development projects. Their company headquarters are in Vienna, but there’s another location in Frankfurt, Germany.
At the moment, only Austrian and German citizens can register, but soon anyone with a SEPA bank account will be able to invest, including overseas investors with a Revolut or TransferWise account.
As of writing, people have already invested over €3.2 million in the various real estate projects from Immo Funding, and their user based continues to grow. And from my own personal observation, loans tend to get funded extremely fast, which reflects the level of popularity this platform has reached.
A nice detail on their website is that you can instantly calculate how much you would make on a particular project after the maturity period.
- Type of Investment: Real Estate
- ROI: Up to 7% pa
- English: No
- Who can invest: Citizens of Austria and Germany, but soon anyone with a SEPA account.
- Security: Mortgage-backed
- Secondary Market: Yes
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 250 Euro
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2016
- Country of Operation: Austria, Germany
Most projects with 30 months duration give a 7% return every year on average. There is no fee to be paid to Immo Funding. At the same time, there is a 50 Euro bonus on first investments starting from 500 Euros.
After you’ve created a profile on the platform, you’ll have a list of active real estate investments with all the details about the project and the company behind the loan.
4. Home Rocket: Largest P2P Lending Platform in Austria
Home Rocket is the largest Austrian real-estate crowdfunding platform claiming more than 26.000 registered users. I’m ranking them 4th, since they’re only for residents of Austria and Germany. But if you live in one of these two German-speaking nations, I would consider Home Rocket to be the top platform for real estate crowdfunding in Austria.
Home Rocket features high-quality, properly-vetted, commercial real estate projects with very detailed descriptions to provide transparency.
You can start by investing as little as €250 in a real estate project. Only projects from top developers are listed on Home Rocket, making the investment opportunity more secure and lucrative for the investors. You can choose the project you want to invest in after going through all the details.
- Type of Investment: Real Estate
- ROI: up to 7%
- English: No
- Open to: German and Austrian citizens and companies
- Security: Bond, Limited Partnership
- Secondary Market: No
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 250 Euro
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2015
- Country of Operation: Austria, Germany
Started in 2015, Home Rocket has helped curate over €56 million investment in real estate projects in Germany and Austria. The registration process is fairly simple, as one can invest in multiple projects at the same time.
The interest rate varies by each project, going as high as 7% per year. The investment period is usually for three years. While most investments are subordinated loans, some may offer limited partnership or bonds. All the financial transactions take place via fiduciary accounts of Lemon Way KGaA, which is bankruptcy-secure.
5. Dagobert Invest
Dagobert Invest is an Austrian real estate crowd investment platform open only to Austrian, German and Swiss citizens. Every week new properties are added for investment, so you can participate in as many as you like. However, some projects are open to investments by specific countries’ residents.
Dagobert was founded by Andreas Zederbauer, a former banking director, in 2015, with the purpose of bridging the gap between medium-sized enterprises and low capital investors.
What makes Dagobert Invest an interesting platform is that they charge no fee and offer high-interest rates.
- Type of Investment: Real Estate
- ROI: 5 to 8%
- English: No
- Open to: Citizens and companies of Austria, Germany and Switzerland
- Security: Asset
- Secondary Market: Yes
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 250 Euro
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2015
- Country of Operation: Austria, Germany, Switzerland
The company has successfully completed investment in over 100 projects. The period of the contract is a minimum of six months and a maximum of 30 months. The ROI rate varies from project to project but is 7% on average. Each real estate project is properly audited and from reputable companies only.
All the details are at your disposal before you decide to invest your capital. To start, you just have to create your profile and upload a copy of your identity. They also provide customer service to investors.
6. Conda: Austrian Angel Investing & Start-Ups
Conda is the most popular start-up crowdfunding platform in Austria for equity investments. More than 30.000 people have signed up to the platform, and they’ve invested more €30.5 million in the business ideas of young entrepreneurs.
It’s all about promoting innovation by helping young and bright entrepreneurs find funding to realize their vision. Investors, on the other hand, get benefits in the form of dividends when the company they are investing in takes off. A nice detail is that you get the option to contact the entrepreneurs directly.
Any citizen of Germany and Austria can join Conda for free, while people residing outside these two countries need to contact their customer service to get started.
One can invest in as many projects as they like and with as little as €100. But the average investment at Conda is around €1,255, according to the company’s statistics.
- Type of Investment: Startups
- ROI: Depends on the success of the business
- English: Partly (mixed with German)
- Who can invest: Citizen of Austria and Germany. International investors need to contact the support team first.
- Security: Varies
- Secondary Market: No
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 100 Euro
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2015
- Country of Operation: Austria, Germany
Each project offers investors different interest rates. In addition to the base interest, the investors may even be entitled to bonuses if the company exceeds its targets. The contract period or maturity period varies by each project, with some going as long as ten years.
Potential investors can simply create a profile and start investing in listed projects in a matter of minutes. Each project features detailed information with calculations to help investors make an informed decision.
7. dasErtragReich
dasErtragReich is a crowd investing platform for startup equity and real estate development, and was launched in 2014 by an ex-banker, Martin Watzka. Currently, the dasErtragReich platform is only available for Austrian citizens.
But I don’t think you’re missing out on much, however, since the sites hosts an odd mixture of loans. But they nonetheless continue to bring opportunities to their users.
With fixed income and short maturity terms, it’s an ideal path for micro-investment. Since their inception, they have successfully completed the financing of many domestic projects with investors receiving back their principal as well as interest.
- Type of Investment: Business
- ROI: Up to 6% pa
- English: No
- Security: Asset
- Secondary Market: Yes
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: Varies by project
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2014
- Country of Operation: Austria
The maturity period varies by each project, with the longer running projects usually giving the highest returns. Each project sets its own returns to benefit its investors.
The platform follows all the regulations set for crowdfunding platforms by the Alternative Financing Act. It’s also under the supervision of the Austrian Trade Authority.
The projects encompass real estate and SMEs. Past projects have involved grocery businesses, a lighting company, drones, and recycling systems. You can see that innovation is at the heart of almost all these projects.
8. Tausend Mal Tausend
Tausend Mal Tausend (1000 x 1000) is another crowd investing platform for individuals in Austria to invest in upcoming companies and their business ideas. They were one of the first domestic crowdfunding platforms in Austria and continue to bring exciting projects to the Austrian people.
Most projects surround real estate only from vineyards to bakeries to resorts. There is an eclectic mix of business that you can use to create a diverse investment portfolio.
- Type of Investment: Commercial, Real Estate
- ROI: Varies by project
- English: No
- Who can invest: Citizens of Austria
- Security: Asset
- Secondary Market: Yes
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 100 Euro
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2013
- Country of Operation: Austria
You can start with as little as 100 Euros, but the minimum amount varies from project to project. The return can be either in cash or vouchers for the product or services the company offers, and some projects are exclusively reward-based.
Each project is unique, as there is a different business idea behind it. Lenders can choose whatever project seems promising to them based on the idea and return.
9. Finnest
Finnest is an Austria-based crowd investing platform that allows individuals to invest in medium-sized companies. It’s open to residents of five countries, including Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Croatia, so they’re definitely appealing to a large user base. The idea for this investment platform came after the financial crisis of 2008-09.
It provides companies in these countries to get more loans on top of the usual bank loans. Investors, on the other hand, get to invest in companies of their choice. There are no risky startups in the Finnest portfolio; only companies with at least €10 Million in revenue and a successful track record for the past ten years.
- Type of Investment: Enterprises
- English: Yes
- ROI: Varies by each borrower/lender contract
- Who can invest: Citizens of Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Croatia.
- Security: Subordinated Loan
- Secondary Market: No
- Auto-invest Function: No
- Minimum Investment Amount: 1000 Euro
- Currency of Investment: Euro
- Platform Founding Year: 2015
- Country of Operation: Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, Croatia
Finnest is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, but it also has a presence in Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, and Croatia. The team behind this crowd investment platform has decades of experience in banking and digital finance.
The return on your investment varies by each investment opportunity. On average, the return is 5%, while the average investment is €7000. The borrower (company) pays a fixed interest rate annually. The loan repayment period is typically 3 to 5 years.
