Transaction costs, information asymmetry, significant financial entry barriers and low levels of
liquidity usually prevent individual investors to take advantage of real-estate asset class. This is
obviously detrimental for individual investors' portfolio diversification and risk management and
gives free rein to institutional investors to take the lion's share.

Historically, the main characteristic of financial innovation (both product and process innovation)
is to reduce (if not suppress) all these impediments and give investors access to a broader range
of asset classes and services, whatever their size, location, and wealth. Real estate investment
trusts (such as SCPI in France) are instances of product innovation that gives individual investors
access to real estate by investing in a diversified portfolio of real estate managed by a wealth
management company. Real estate platforms are instances of process innovation whereby a
growing number of individual investors have access to assets that were hitherto reserved to
wealthy professional investors. Real estate crowdfunding platforms also allows promoters to
raise funds. Digitalization and Fintech obviously pick up the pace of democratization and
diversification.