Fractional real estate · Zanzibar
Own a piece of paradise.From $1,000.
Beachfront property on this island starts at a quarter of a million dollars, which is where the thought usually ends. We split real Zanzibar units into participations of $1,000, so the rent and the resale value reach people who were never going to write that cheque.
- $1,000
- Minimum investment
- 8–12%
- Target net rental yield
- 6 months
- Typical funding window
- $0
- Debt on any property we buy
$185,000
is what a one-bedroom on the north coast costs today. For almost everyone who looks at that number, it is where the conversation stops.
It shouldn’t be. The economics of that apartment never required one person to own all of it. Rent divides. A sale price divides. The only thing standing between an ordinary saver and a stake in a booming market is the convention that property gets sold whole.
So we stopped selling it whole. One participation costs $1,000 and carries the same proportional claim on rent and sale proceeds as every other one.
The east coast between Paje and Jambiani. Almost everything you can see from the water was built in the last fifteen years.
What happens to your thousand dollars
- 01
We find it
We source off-plan units from developers we have visited and can vouch for. Location, price, builder, exit. If any of it fails, the deal never reaches you.
- 02
You buy a participation
One participation is $1,000 plus the acquisition fee, paid in full up front. Buy one, buy forty. Each is an equal right to the income of one specific unit, not a fund and not a pool you cannot see into.
- 03
The window closes
Funding runs for up to six months, or until the round is subscribed. The unit is reserved for us in the meantime. If the round does not fill, you get your investment back in full.
- 04
We buy the unit
We sign the purchase agreement with the developer and pay the developer's instalments. The unit stays in our name. Your participation agreement is your claim on what it earns.
- 05
You watch it go up
Quarterly construction reports with dated photographs, every payment to the developer, and the honest version when a timeline slips. In construction, sometimes it does.
- 06
You get paid
On handover the unit is furnished and let to tourists. Rent lands in your account in dollars, twice a year, or every quarter from $10,000 invested.
Open rounds
All five propertiesEvery listing names the developer, the location and the assumptions behind the projection. If we cannot show you the maths, we do not list it.
| ≈ 700k | Visitors a year | Zanzibar went from a backpacker stop to a destination with direct flights from Europe and the Gulf. Beds have not kept up with arrivals, and that gap is the rental yield. |
|---|---|---|
| USD | Rents, not shillings | Tourist accommodation is priced and paid in dollars. Your income is insulated from local currency swings in a way most emerging-market property is not. |
| ~20% | Off-plan discount | Buying before completion typically means paying well below the finished market price. You take construction risk and you get the developer's margin. |
| ZIPA | Foreign ownership | Zanzibar actively courts foreign real estate investment, with a legal route for non-citizens to hold property in approved developments. We only buy inside that framework. |
Emerging markets only emerge once
East Africa is where a lot of serious capital is quietly looking right now, and Zanzibar is the part of it that also happens to be a postcard. Tourism compounds, supply sits behind demand, and the government keeps opening the door wider to foreign investment.
We buy the unit. You hold the right to what it earns
When a round fills, we sign the purchase agreement with the developer and the unit is registered in our name. Nobody else can buy it, and no single investor carries it alone.
Your participation is a written contract with us. It gives you your proportional part of everything that one unit produces: rent while it is let, proceeds when it is sold. You are tied to the unit you chose and to nothing else we own.
There is no bank loan on the property, your participation cannot be diluted, and you will never be asked to pay in more. One year after handover, investors vote on whether to sell, and the majority decides.
You receive the participation agreement before you commit a dollar. Read it. Have a lawyer read it.
Five fees
There is no sixth one hiding in a footnote. Every one of them is already in the calculator on each property page.
- Acquisition fee
- 10%
- Annual management fee
- 1.0%
- Rental performance fee
- 10%
- Payment processing
- 2%
- Exit fee
- 1.0%
Paid once, on top of your investment. $1,000 in means $1,100 paid. Covers sourcing, due diligence, legal work and the purchase. The more you invest, the lower it gets; tell us your budget and we will tell you what applies.
Charged on the property value per year. Covers administration, reporting and investor relations.
Taken from gross rental income only. We earn when you earn.
Deducted from each distribution. International transfers to many recipients cost real money, and this covers it.
Charged on the sale price when a property is sold and proceeds are distributed.
The more you invest, the lower your acquisition fee. Send us your budget and we will tell you what you save.
This can lose you money
Off-plan means buying something that does not exist yet. Buildings finish late. Developers fail. Tourism is cyclical and one bad season moves your yield. Your participation is illiquid, so assume your money is committed for the full hold period, because it is.
Invest what you can afford to leave alone for five years. If a platform ever makes this sound risk-free, close the tab, including this one.
Who is behind MALI
Founder
Living on Zanzibar
MALI is founded and run from Zanzibar. We will introduce the people behind it here before the first funding round opens.
Questions people send us
Still unsure about something? Read the full FAQ or just email us. A person answers.
A participation: a contractual right to your proportional part of the rental income of one specific unit, and of the proceeds when it is sold. You do not receive a title deed and you do not become a shareholder in any company. We buy and hold the unit, and your participation agreement sets out in writing what it owes you.
The round is cancelled and every investor gets their investment back in full. The acquisition fee is not refunded. We do not buy a property with a partially funded round, and we do not hold your money open-endedly waiting for the rest to arrive.
Not freely, and you should invest on the assumption that you cannot. Off-plan real estate is a multi-year, illiquid commitment. We intend to open a secondary marketplace where investors can transfer participations to each other, but it does not exist yet and we will not promise a date for it.
Not until the unit is completed and let, which for a current off-plan deal is typically two to three years out. Between funding and handover your capital is invested and working, but it is not paying you. Deals already generating income are marked as such.
No, you do not need to come to Zanzibar. A local operator runs the unit day to day, and we take care of everything else: administration, reporting and distributions.
Be first in the room
Our rounds are small and they have closed early. Waitlist members get 72 hours of priority access before a new property goes public, and the investor guide to read before deciding.