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| Source: Walton. The Lake Ridge Parkway land parcel in Texas, US. |
Under Walton’s exit-focused pre-development land investment model, Walton acquires a parcel of land that a public home builder desires to develop in the near term and offers that land to investors around the world, including in Asia. At the same time, Walton enters into an exit-focused letter of intent with the home builder.
This win-win solution allows the builder time to work on their development plans and to negotiate the terms of a phase-by-phase purchase of the property. When there are ready buyers of homes, the home builder will then purchase Walton's land and develop properties on it. In this way the home builder is able to improve their returns on capital by aligning land payments with actual home sales activity. In turn, investors benefit from a stream of income for the duration of the development.
By working with the largest public home builders and focusing on the fastest growing regions in the US, Walton offers a unique way for investors to diversify their portfolios. The assets aim to generate short to medium term US-dollar income for investors.
Bill Doherty, CEO, Walton International Group, said: “We are extremely pleased that our exit-focused land investment has received the endorsement of Amanie. This is important as our expanding Muslim client base can now be reassured that our investment products are shari'ah-compliant. This endorsement provides an opportunity for Walton to offer our land-based investment products in Islamic finance centres throughout our regions.”
Amanie Advisors is a shari'ah advisory firm specialising in Islamic finance solutions covering services such as shari'ah advisory and consultancy, training and research and development for institutional and corporate clients. It has a presence in Malaysia and UAE among other locations.
Maya Marissa Malek, CEO of Amanie Advisors said: “We are excited to see this commitment from Walton to tailoring its investment structures to comply with shari'ah guidelines. As the Islamic investment industry grows, investors increasingly demand a broader pool of offerings to diversify their portfolios. Amanie is very pleased to be able to provide clarity on structures that satisfy shari'ah requirements.”
Walton is a privately-owned. It manages and administers US$3.39 billion of real estate assets in North America on behalf of its investors and business partners. Walton has more than 104,000 acres of land under ownership, management and administration in the US and Canada.