At the end of November this year Mill Group Residential launched the first 'mainstream residential' real estate investment trust (REIT), making investment available directly via a crowdsourcing platform.

The minimum investment via the platform SyndicateRoom was just £1,000 and the proposed initial public offering (IPO) was the first to offer shares to both crowdfunding and institutional investors.

The company is managed by Mill Group and as a REIT no tax would be paid on its core rental income or capital gains. The company intends to list the REIT on the UK stock exchange, after which the shares will be tradable.

To qualify as a REIT, the company will distribute at least 90% of its profits from its rental business to its shareholders in the form of dividends, which have tax advantages for investors who hold their REIT shares in an ISA or SIPP.

Mill Residential said the REIT is designed for investors keen to gain exposure to buy-to-let without taking on the full cost of a property.

In early-December the company reported that the Mill Residential REIT had exceeded its £2.1m target from crowdfunding within 12 days of launching. SyndicateRoom raised its £2.1m from only 49 investors, and disregarding the very substantial investment by the founders of over £1.5m, has still averaged over £15,000 per investor despite its minimum investment requirement of just £1,000.