MilikiRumah, a Singapore and Indonesia social impact PropTech firm and participating general partner and manager, announced Monday the maiden private equity fundraise of $50 million for its inaugural MilikiRumah Rent-To-Own Fund 1 with a first close of $10 million.

The firm said in a statement that backed by regulated asset management institutions Ruifeng Wealth Management, Tembusu Partners and Trigger Asset Management, MilikiRumah is founded by former PropertyGuru executives Winston Lee and Marine Novita, and Lau Xin Yuan; and backed by angel investors including PropertyGuru co-founder Jani Rautiainen and Singapore country head Tan Tee Khoon.

MilikiRumah Rent-To-Own Fund 1 is a four-year closed-end fund lifecycle with a target 20 percent internal rate of return for its limited partners for the construction of core income-generating end-user-occupied residential real estate assets targeting four municipalities that make up Greater Jakarta – which have witnessed historically strong asset value appreciation.

Targeted participating limited partners are expected to include family offices, private equity firms, philanthropic foundations, and financiers out of Singapore and highly-developed gateway economic centers.

MilikiRumah is owned and operated by Rightkey Capital Pte Ltd – a Singapore-registered entity operating subsidiary PT Miliki Rumah Indonesia trading as MilikiRumah.

With an emphasis in driving positive social impact, limited partners are given the opportunity to grant financial accessibility to build a financially-inclusive society and eventual homeownership to Indonesia’s underbanked as a social equalizer imperative.

Capital from the kitty will be deployed to the joint venture between MilikiRumah and the property developer(s) with land and property ownership held under the joint venture entity.

Capital calls to MilikiRumah Rent-To-Own Fund 1 are made in United States, Singapore dollar and/or Indonesian rupiah; with returns to limited partners in Indonesian rupiah.

The firm’s proprietary rent-to-own scheme enables equitable access to alternative financing solutions for Indonesia’s underbanked.

They are primarily made-up of non-fixed income earners who do not pass traditional financial institutional risk assessments since they do not have proven payments track record and hence, cannot secure a bank loan to purchase a home.

MilikiRumah’s rent-to-own program endeavors to solve Indonesia’s perennial national issue of homeownership deficiency by enabling consumers to build a proven payments track record in order to eventually qualify for institutional mortgage loans previously not available for Indonesia’s underbanked.

Capital proceeds from MilikiRumah Rent-To-Own Fund 1 are deployed towards build to order landed houses by MilikiRumah in partnership with local real estate developers.

The title deed of said landed houses jointly belong to MilikiRumah and a partnered local real estate developer(s).

Upon completion of each landed house, MilikiRumah hands the keys over to a qualified underbanked consumer who will commence depositing monthly instalment payments into a bank account set up by the firm, in conjunction with a local bank.

MilikiRumah builds homes by partnering local real estate developers with available freehold land bank to construct landed houses for eventual ownership to Indonesia’s underbanked.

Firstly, the firm grants access for the underbanked to work towards, and ultimately empower them, to secure homeownership.

Secondly, whilst working towards homeownership through landed freehold houses developed in a joint-development and -operation partnership with local Indonesia real estate developers with readily available land bank, MilikiRumah, acting as a tech-enabled credit profile builder, ensures that underbanked consumers who qualify for the homeownership scheme deposit cash instalments with a locally-partnered bank so as to build a proven payments track record and eventually, graduate towards and qualify for a mortgage loan with said local bank.

“In undertaking our ambitious slate of national initiatives to grant homeownership to Indonesia’s underbanked, MilikiRumah, in fulfilling its core mandate of being a social impact PropTech company, uplifts homeownership accessibility opportunities to Indonesia’s underbanked as an effective and significant social equaliser,” said Winston Lee, MilikiRumah Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.

The accumulative startup seed funding stands at S$2.6 million ($2.01 million) and is presently deployed to build proprietary technology platforms for the purposes of underbanked consumer assessments, and product development.

A portion of the accumulative startup seed funding will also be deployed to spearhead a newly-launched inaugural one-hectare pilot housing project in Tangerang – comprising Tangerang City, Tangerang Regency and Southern Tangerang City in the province of Banten of the Republic of Indonesia.

The project, in itself, is located 49 kilometres west of The Special Capital Region of Jakarta of the Republic of Indonesia; and upon completion, is expected to deliver approximately 95 freehold houses.

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