[溫哥華本地新聞] Crowdfunding real estate ventures involving Chinese investors being reviewed involving, Chinese, estate

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http://www.vancouversun.com/life ... 11668345/story.html

VANCOUVER — The B.C. Securities Commission is reviewing at least two real estate organizations and their related crowdfunding companies which are soliciting Chinese investors to pool their money and buy into expensive commercial, industrial and recreational real estate.

One company, Sun Commercial Real Estate Ltd., recently advertised on Chinese-language sites “sea view apartment” opportunities at the Molson Brewery on Burrard Street.

In November, Molson sold the land to an as-yet undisclosed group of investors, but the city has said it wants the land retained for industrial uses and not converted to residential.

Sun Commercial, which operates out of a richly decorated 10th-floor office in the MNP Tower on West Hastings, had promised in online documents “high returns” and “zero risk” in projects it offers, including the Molson site.

The other company, Richmond-based Luxmore Realty, has been billing itself as “the World’s First Crowd-Funding Real Estate Brokerage.” It is offering investments in several projects, including two golf courses and a retirement home.

But the practice of crowdfunding real estate investments may contravene new B.C. securities law that limits such online mass investment schemes to small campaigns in which single contributors are limited to $1,500.

Richard Gilhooley, a B.C. Securities Commission spokesman, said the agency is reviewing both Luxmore and Sun Commercial, and that neither company had filed documents required by law for offering securities. In B.C. anyone seeking investors must file either a comprehensive prospectus that outlines all the details, including risk, or an exemption notice limited to sophisticated investors or people familiar to the filer. The rules apply to ownership in securities but not tangible real estate. It is unclear whether Sun Commercial or Luxmore are offering securities or direct ownership in their real estate “projects.”

No one from Sun Commercial or Luxmore Realty returned calls. A reporter who visited Sun Commercial’s downtown Vancouver office was told to make an appointment and turned away. Calls to Julia Lau, a former real estate agent who lists herself as a vice-president of both Sun Commercial and Suncrowdfunding Holdings Ltd., were not returned.

Jason Liu, a registered real estate agent who is behind Canada Luxmore Crowdfunding, did not return a call for comment. However, in an email to the South China Morning Post he said: “The projects in which Luxmore is involved are compliant with British Columbia law.”

The concept of finding syndicate investors through crowdfunding is a new twist in Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market, which has become attractive to offshore buyers, particularly in China. The companies appear to largely target Chinese investors and do not have significant English-language advertising campaigns. Sun Commercial, for example, publishes almost all of its online material in Chinese.

In a recent posting on vansky.com, a Chinese-language Vancouver website, it said it was trying to “recruit shareholders” for a plan to build 330,000 square feet of “great sea view apartment development” at the three-hectare Molson site. In a translated document seen by The Vancouver Sun, the company said the project is “zero risk, high return.”

It said it was looking for small investors to put up $150,000, with “VIP customers” investing $100 million. However, it said the VIP section was full.

The document has since been scrubbed from the vansky.com site.

Similarly, a site operated by Canada Luxmore Crowdfunding called canadazhongchou.com, in which the company listed a number of projects it was offering, was taken down after media began to ask questions. On his dual language Luxmore Realty site Liu noted he held an “advocacy conference” in 2014 to promote “a better understanding of the relationship between real estate brokers and crowdfunding.” It drew about 150 agents.

A glossy English-language document put together by Sun Commercial with Lau’s business card indicates the company owns or has bought and sold many signature properties in Metro Vancouver, including a continuing ownership of the Sands Hotel on Davie Street, the Westwood Plateau Golf Course and the massive River White Homes commercial mall project in Richmond.

Lau is a former licensed real estate agent in B.C. who “permanently surrendered” her license on Jan. 9, 2015 after the Real Estate Council of B.C. began disciplinary action regarding professional conduct while she was at West Coast Realty.

In its document, Sun Commercial describes itself as a “property investment and land assembly management” company that has “helped our clients achieve impressive returns on their investments, ranging from 16 per cent to 150 per cent.”

The document, which appears to have been written in 2015, said Sun Commercial had “completed nine projects” worth $209 million in 2014. “We aim to purchase CAD$418 million worth of projects this year.”

The Real Estate Council said Sun Commercial is not licensed with it and that it would be up to the Superintendent of Real Estate to determine if the company is providing real estate services as defined in the Real Estate Services Act.

Calls to the Financial Institutions Commission, which covers the Superintendent of Real Estate, were not immediately returned.