EdificeX property plan: Crowdfunding a foreclosure-free “American dream”

The American dream of homeownership could see more of an Islamic alternative with EdificeX, which offers a crowdfunding ‘campaigns’ feature on a blockchain that bypasses rigid, paperwork-heavy banking systems.

The Shariah compliant tool transforms potential homebuyers into realty brokers, allowing them to identify a specific property and recruit their own pool of digital investors – tapping into a retail market that is also attracting more institutional interest, seeking better returns on idle cash deposits.

"The campaign feature is one that allows people around the country to request property funding campaigns... delegating investment recruitment... to the buyers themselves," CEO Souhayl Maronesy shared with IFN Investor.

Unlike traditional mortgages that require down payments of at least 10%, a buyer can initiate a purchase with as little as 3% by launching an investor funding drive on the platform.

Thom Polson, whose firm Polson Real Assets (PRA) recently utilized the platform, noted that once a buyer puts up a campaign, "PRA can say from an institutional standpoint: ‘Hey, we like this person’, and deploy capital directly into the deal.”

This infrastructure effectively replaces the need for a dozen different third-party vendors, from property managers to title companies – simplifying the investment process for an institutional investor.

"If we were to do it ourselves, we would have had to outsource that out to maybe 10 different groups," Thom explained, but EdificeX handles everything from rent collection to tax distribution in "one shot".

Souhayl believes the model represents "one of the missing pieces that no one has ever done before and no one has ever been able to accomplish".

The first EdificeX property was a two-storey home purchased at US$80,000. From that investment, it has transitioned to a multi-asset portfolio, gaining momentum through the closing of a second property with 15 investors while it negotiates a third.

By using tokenized single assets, EdificeX avoids the volatility of public REITs since token values are tied to the fair market value of the house rather than market sentiment. Beyond Islamic finance, the model offers a "foreclosure-free" environment where a resident's equity acts as a safety net during financial hardship.

A lifeline for the mortgage-ineligible

What EdificeX is doing may seem like a drop in the bucket in a country where millions live on the brink of housing instability.

Estimates for the 2025-2026 market reveal a staggering 100.6 million households – or roughly 75% of Americans – who cannot afford a median-priced new home under current mortgage rates.

Data from the US National Association of Home Builders further indicates that a US$1,000 increase in home pricing effectively prices out another 115,593 households instantly. Market conditions have pushed first-time buyers to an all-time low of 21%, as the median age for a first-time purchase has climbed to 40.

Given such conditions, any help for home buyers in the US is welcome, including assistance from crowdfunding platforms.

The collaboration between a blockchain-based entrepreneur like Souhayl and an investor like Thom also shows how smaller institutional groups can enter the market without building a massive internal management team.

"Using EdificeX, gives us that platform, which can handle all the technical, regulatory, legal and also the functionality of how we collect rent,” noted Thom.

The Shariah compliant model also provides a safety net to buyers in times of hardship, allowing them to remain in a property for up to two years without new payments as equity built from prior instalments is used to service rent.

Early exit is not a problem either, as investors can sell their tokens to other investors or the residing buyer of the property.