Best Online Apartment Investing Platforms in 2026

Online apartment investing platforms generated $1.1 billion in US revenue in 2026, growing at an 8.4% compound annual rate as rising home prices pushed more investors toward fractional real estate ownership IBISWorld. These platforms let individuals buy shares of rental properties for as little as $20 per share, collect monthly distributions, and sell shares on secondary markets. With construction starts down roughly 73% from the 2022 peak and vacancy rates projected to tighten through 2030, the supply-constrained market supports existing multifamily properties and the platforms offering access to them CoStar. This guide ranks the five best online apartment investing platforms in 2026 by minimum investment, fees, liquidity, and accessibility.

The online apartment investing space has matured since the first platforms launched in the mid-2010s. What started as a niche for wealthy accredited investors has expanded into a mainstream channel for retail investors. The sector now offers everything from pooled REIT funds at $10 minimums to individual property ownership at $20 per share. The key differentiator in 2026 is liquidity. With several platforms pausing redemptions and suspending buyback programs, the ability to exit an investment has become the most important factor in platform selection.

Key Takeaways

• Online apartment investing platforms let individuals buy fractional shares of rental properties and multifamily buildings, starting at $20 minimums with no accreditation required on most platforms.
• Liquidity is the number one decision factor in 2026. Ark7 offers continuous secondary market trading via a registered alternative trading system, while several competitors have paused or suspended redemptions.
• Fee structures vary dramatically. Ark7 charges zero AUM fees with a one-time 3% sourcing fee, while other platforms layer annual management fees on top of sourcing and property management costs.
• Monthly dividend distributions from Ark7 provide more frequent income compared to the quarterly schedules used by Fundrise, RealtyMogul, and Arrived.
• Three of the five platforms on this list serve non-accredited investors, making apartment investing accessible regardless of income or net worth.

What Are Online Apartment Investing Platforms?

Online apartment investing platforms are digital marketplaces that pool investor capital to purchase shares of rental properties, apartment buildings, and multifamily real estate. Instead of buying an entire property (which typically requires $200,000 to $500,000 or more), investors purchase fractional ownership shares or fund shares starting at $10 to $5,000 per share. The platform handles property acquisition, management, tenant relations, maintenance, and distribution of rental income. Investors collect their share of net rental income, typically distributed monthly or quarterly, and may also benefit from property appreciation when shares are sold.

The US online apartment rental services industry reached $1.1 billion in revenue in 2026, with profit margins of 22.9% IBISWorld. The global online home rental market is projected to grow from $18.7 billion to $43.38 billion by 2035 MarkWide Research. These platforms fill a structural gap: only 31 percent of US households qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home, locking millions into renting rather than owning. Online apartment investing gives those same renters, and everyone else, a way to participate in real estate returns without buying a whole property.

How We Picked the Best Online Apartment Investing Platforms

We evaluated online apartment investing platforms across five criteria: minimum investment, fee structure, liquidity and secondary market options, accreditation requirements, and historical performance transparency. The evaluation draws on platform documentation, SEC filings, and independent reviews from NerdWallet, Investopedia, CrowdfundedWealth, and Business Insider. All Ark7 pricing comes from Ark7’s own public website. Returns data reflects historical performance only and does not guarantee future results.

The 5 Best Online Apartment Investing Platforms in 2026

1. Ark7: $20 minimum, zero AUM fees, continuous secondary market via SEC-registered PPEX ATS, monthly dividend distributions, and individual property selection. Strongest liquidity in the market with SEC-qualified oversight.
2. Fundrise: $10 minimum, approximately 1.0% annual fees, pooled eREIT structure with multifamily exposure across 20,000+ residential units. Low-cost diversified real estate investing with the industry’s lowest entry point.
3. EquityMultiple: $5,000 minimum, 0.5% to 1.5% annual management fees, individual commercial real estate deals with a co-investment model. Accredited investor platform offering institutional-quality apartment deals with transparent fees.
4. RealtyMogul: $5,000 minimum for REITs, 1.0% to 1.25% annual management fees, dedicated Apartment Growth REIT targeting multifamily properties. Non-accredited investors can access apartment-specific REIT exposure.
5. Arrived: $100 minimum, 0.6% AUM fee plus 3.5% sourcing fee, fractional shares of individual rental properties with monthly secondary trading windows. Single-family fractional ownership backed by Jeff Bezos and Marc Benioff.

1. Ark7

Ark7 offers fractional ownership of individual rental properties for $20 per share, the lowest minimum among platforms that let investors select specific properties rather than pooled funds. Founded to give everyday investors access to rental real estate without the capital, legal, and management overhead of direct ownership, Ark7 has grown to 300,000 active investors and funded over $30 million in total property value as of May 2026 Ark7 Blog. The platform pays monthly dividend distributions on the 3rd of every month, and investors can trade shares on a continuous secondary market after the initial 12-month holding period.

What sets Ark7 apart

• $20 minimum investment: the lowest per-share minimum among fractional property platforms. Investors can buy into a rental property for about the cost of dinner.
• Zero AUM fees: no annual management or advisory fees. The only costs are a one-time 3% property sourcing fee and property management fees (8% for long-term rentals, up to 15% for short-term) Ark7 Blog.
• Continuous secondary market: shares trade on the PPEX ATS, an SEC-registered alternative trading system. This is not a monthly window or quarterly redemption. Investors can place trades when they choose after the hold period.
• SEC-qualified Reg A+ offering: full SEC registration and oversight, accessible to both accredited and non-accredited investors.
• Individual property selection: investors choose specific rental properties rather than buying into a blind pooled fund. Each property has its own financials, location, and projected returns.
• Monthly dividends: distributed on the 3rd of each month, compared to quarterly schedules from Fundrise, RealtyMogul, and Arrived.
• $4 million in cumulative cash dividends distributed to investors as of May 2026, with a 4.36% average dividend yield and 94.81% average occupancy across over 80 income-generating rental homes in 16 cities nationwide Ark7 Blog.
• Rigorous property selection: the team reviews over 1,000 properties per month, but fewer than 0.02 percent pass full due diligence Ark7 Blog. Ark7 typically retains 1 to 20 percent ownership per property to align interests with investors.

The platform uses a hybrid model combining AI-driven property screening with local market expertise. Each property is evaluated across over 100 indicators targeting markets in Georgia, Texas, and California where employment growth supports rental demand.

Ideal for

• New investors who want to start with minimal capital. At $20 per share, test-driving the platform is low commitment.
• Experienced investors who want a portfolio of individual rental properties across multiple markets without being a landlord.
• Anyone who prioritizes liquidity and wants continuous secondary market trading over quarterly windows.
• Investors seeking monthly income from real estate rather than the quarterly schedules common across the industry.

Getting started

New investors can create an account at Ark7, browse available properties, and purchase shares starting at $20 per share. The platform offers both standard taxable accounts and IRA options (Roth and Traditional) for retirement-focused investors. Start investing with $20 →

2. Fundrise

Fundrise is the largest real estate crowdfunding platform by assets under management, with $3.3 billion in AUM and over a decade of operating history. The platform uses a pooled eREIT and eFund structure that invests across 50 or more properties, providing broad diversification within a single investment. Investopedia rates Fundrise 4.7 out of 5, and the platform is open to all investors regardless of accreditation status Investopedia.

Key Features

• Pooled fund structure with exposure to multifamily, single-family, commercial, and development properties across multiple geographies.
• Multiple investment plans: Supplemental Income, Balanced, Long-Term Growth, and Innovation Fund (venture capital).
• $10 minimum investment: the industry’s lowest entry point.
• Open to all investors; no accreditation required.
• Quarterly redemption windows for most fund shares, though the Fundrise Equity REIT redemption program was suspended beginning October 2025 and remains suspended; other funds continue to process quarterly redemptions normally.

Pricing

Minimum investment: $10. The Innovation Fund charges 1.85 percent annually. Fundrise does not charge sourcing fees per property because it uses a pooled fund model rather than fractional ownership of individual assets.

3. EquityMultiple

EquityMultiple provides access to individual commercial real estate deals, including apartment buildings, for accredited investors with a $5,000 minimum investment. The platform reports 12.10 percent net IRR across 58 realized deals, with an average holding period of 28.2 months Business Insider. EquityMultiple co-invests in every deal it lists, aligning the platform’s financial interests with investor capital.

Key Features

• Individual commercial real estate deals: equity and debt investments in multifamily, office, industrial, and other asset types.
• Co-investment model: EquityMultiple invests alongside its users in every deal.
• Alpine Notes: zero-fee short-term notes yielding 6 to 7.35 percent APY with a perfect repayment record since launch.
• Rigorous deal selection: the platform accepts roughly 5 percent of evaluated deals.
• IRA integration via Equity Trust for self-directed retirement accounts.

Pricing

Minimum investment: $5,000. Annual management fees: 0.5 to 1.5 percent depending on the deal. Origination fees: 1 to 4 percent on individual offerings. Accredited investors only.

4. RealtyMogul

RealtyMogul offers two apartment-focused REITs, the Apartment Growth REIT and the Income REIT, plus private placements for accredited investors starting at $25,000. The platform was acquired by The Wideman Company in November 2025, bringing 50 years of real estate operating experience. The Apartment Growth REIT focuses specifically on multifamily apartment properties, making it one of the few platform options that targets apartments directly. CrowdfundedWealth rates RealtyMogul 1.7 out of 5 citing NAV declines and redemption challenges CrowdfundedWealth.

Key Features

• Apartment Growth REIT: specifically targets multifamily apartment buildings across US growth markets.
• Income REIT: diversified across property types with a focus on current income generation.
• Non-accredited investors can participate in the REITs starting at $5,000.
• Private placement deals for accredited investors: $25,000 to $35,000 minimums.
• 1.00 to 1.25 percent annual management fees on the REITs, with effective all-in costs reaching approximately 2 percent or higher when accounting for additional servicing and disposition fees.

Pricing

Minimum investment: $5,000 for REITs, $25,000 to $35,000 for private placements. Management fees: 1.00 percent annually for the Income REIT and 1.25 percent for the Apartment Growth REIT per CrowdfundedWealth.

5. Arrived

Arrived offers fractional shares of individual rental properties starting at $100 per share, with both long-term and vacation rental options. Backed by Jeff Bezos, Marc Benioff, and Dara Khosrowshahi, Arrived has grown to $337 million in assets under management. The platform launched a secondary market in November 2025 that handled over 57,000 orders in its first three weeks CrowdfundedWealth.

Key Features

• Individual property selection with transparent property addresses, photos, and financials for each listing.
• Long-term rentals and vacation rental properties available within the same platform.
• Private Credit Fund delivering 8.36 percent annualized returns with zero defaults to date.
• 1099-DIV tax form instead of K-1, offering simpler tax filing for most investors.
• Secondary market with monthly trading windows launched in November 2025 (not continuous like exchange-traded shares).

Pricing

Minimum investment: $100 ($10 per share). Sourcing fee: 3.5 percent on long-term rentals, 5 percent on vacation rentals. Property management fees: 8 percent on long-term, 15 to 25 percent on vacation.

Minimum investment is the first filter. At $10, Fundrise has the lowest barrier to entry. At $20, Ark7 is close behind and offers individual property selection rather than pooled funds. These two platforms are the most accessible for new investors testing the category. Arrived at $100 is still low-cost, and EquityMultiple and RealtyMogul at $5,000 require significantly more capital.

Liquidity has become the defining issue in 2026. The ability to exit an investment matters more now than any other single factor. Ark7 offers a continuous secondary market via its regulated PPEX ATS. Arrived launched monthly secondary trading windows in late 2025. Fundrise offers quarterly redemptions but paused them for several months across late 2025 and early 2026. RealtyMogul’s share repurchase program has been suspended since April 2026, and EquityMultiple has no secondary market at all for its equity deals.

Fee structure determines how much of your returns you actually keep. Ark7 charges zero AUM fees, with no ongoing fee drag, and a one-time 3 percent sourcing fee per property. Fundrise charges about 1.0 percent annually. Arrived layers a 0.6 percent AUM fee on top of a 3.5 percent sourcing fee. RealtyMogul’s effective all-in costs can exceed 2 percent annually. Over a 5-year hold period, a 1 percent difference in annual fees compounds to a meaningful reduction in total return.

Apartment Investing vs. REITs vs. Buying Direct

Online apartment investing platforms occupy a middle ground between public REIT ETFs and direct property ownership. Each approach has distinct trade-offs in capital requirements, liquidity, control, and return potential.

Public REIT ETFs (like VNQ at 0.12 percent fees) offer instant diversification with stock-market liquidity. You can buy and sell in seconds during market hours. The trade-off is that REIT returns correlate with stock markets. Fractional platforms like Ark7 offer returns tied to rental income and property appreciation, which are less correlated with equities. Real estate markets have historically shown lower 5-year volatility than the S&P 500 Ark7 Blog.

Direct property ownership gives you complete control over your investment and the full benefit of appreciation and tax advantages like depreciation. But it requires significant capital (often $100,000 or more for a down payment, potentially much higher in expensive markets), active management, ongoing maintenance, tenant risk, and geographic concentration. Online platforms eliminate property management hassles and let you diversify across multiple markets with a fraction of the capital.

Fractional platforms sit between the two. You trade the liquidity of REIT ETFs and the control of direct ownership for a middle path: professionally managed, lower minimum, geographically diversifiable real estate exposure with partial liquidity. For most investors who want real estate in their portfolio but lack the capital or desire to buy a whole property, this middle path offers the best balance of accessibility and return potential.

What to Know About Liquidity in Apartment Investing

Liquidity is the single most important factor separating platforms in 2026. Redemption policies have proven far more important than marketed returns when capital is actually at stake.

Ark7 provides continuous liquidity via its SEC-registered PPEX ATS. After the 12-month holding period, investors can sell shares on the alternative trading system. This is a regulated secondary market where shares trade continuously.

Fundrise offers quarterly redemptions for most fund shares, but the platform pauses redemptions when total withdrawal requests exceed available liquidity. Redemptions were paused from October 2025 through April 2026. The platform’s own disclosure states that liquidity is not guaranteed.

RealtyMogul suspended its share repurchase program for the Apartment Growth REIT in April 2026, following a distribution pause in January 2026. Existing investors in that fund cannot exit their positions at this time.

Arrived launched a secondary market in November 2025 with monthly trading windows. Investors can place orders during these monthly windows, but there is no continuous trading.

EquityMultiple and CrowdStreet have no secondary market. Equity investments carry 5-plus-year hold periods with no early exit mechanism.

Final Verdict

Online apartment investing platforms have grown into a viable channel for real estate exposure, but the right choice depends on an investor’s capital, timeline, and liquidity needs. Fundrise offers the lowest minimum and broadest diversification through its pooled fund structure. Arrived provides recognizable fractional single-family ownership with simpler tax forms. EquityMultiple delivers institutional-quality commercial deals for accredited investors. RealtyMogul targets apartment-specific REIT exposure.

For investors seeking individual property selection with the lowest minimum among fractional ownership platforms and a continuous secondary market for liquidity, Ark7 offers the strongest combination of zero AUM fees, monthly dividend distributions, and SEC-qualified oversight. With 300,000 active investors and $4 million in cumulative dividends distributed, the platform has demonstrated real execution at scale. Investors considering any platform should evaluate their own holding timeline, risk tolerance, and exit requirements before committing capital.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do I need to start apartment investing online?

The lowest minimum among online apartment investing platforms is $10 on Fundrise, followed by $20 on Ark7 and $100 on Arrived. Accredited investor platforms like EquityMultiple start at $5,000. Most platforms accept bank transfers, and some support IRA accounts.

Can non-accredited investors invest in apartment buildings?

Yes. Ark7, Fundrise, RealtyMogul (via REITs), and Arrived all allow non-accredited investors to participate. Ark7’s Reg A+ offering is fully SEC-qualified, and Fundrise’s eREITs are registered with the SEC. Non-accredited investors should check each platform’s specific offering structure before investing.

What is the best apartment investing app for beginners?

Ark7’s $20 minimum investment and zero AUM fees make it the most accessible entry point for new investors who want to own shares of specific rental properties rather than pooled funds. Fundrise’s $10 minimum is slightly lower but uses a pooled fund structure where investors don’t choose individual properties. Beginners may also appreciate Ark7’s monthly dividend distributions on the 3rd of each month, which provide more frequent income than the quarterly schedules common in the industry.

Are online real estate investing platforms safe?

Online platforms operate under varying levels of regulatory oversight. Ark7 is SEC-qualified under Reg A+ and uses an SEC-registered secondary market. Fundrise and EquityMultiple are also SEC-regulated. Platform safety depends on the quality of property selection, the platform’s financial health, and the regulatory structure of its offerings. No investment is risk-free, and investors can lose principal.

What happens if an apartment investing platform fails?

If a platform fails, properties are typically held in separate legal entities (such as LLCs or REITs) that are legally distinct from the operating company. In most cases, a bankruptcy court would need to approve the sale or transfer of properties, and investor payouts would depend on the order of claims. This is a legitimate risk for all platforms in this space, including the ones on this list. Ark7, Fundrise, and EquityMultiple each operate under SEC-registered structures with regulatory oversight, which provides some additional investor protections. Investors should review each platform’s specific legal structure and offering documents before committing capital.

How do online apartment investing platforms make money?

Platforms charge fees for their services, including sourcing fees (typically 1 to 5 percent of the purchase price), annual asset management fees (0 to 1.85 percent), and property management fees (8 to 25 percent of rental income). Some platforms also charge disposition fees when properties sell or exit fees for early redemption.

How long to sell shares on an apartment investing platform?

Selling timelines range from continuous trading to no exit options depending on the platform. Ark7 operates a continuous secondary market on the PPEX ATS, an SEC-registered alternative trading system where investors can place sell orders after the 12-month holding period. Arrived offers monthly trading windows. Fundrise processes redemptions quarterly but has paused them when demand exceeded available liquidity. RealtyMogul’s share repurchase program has been suspended since April 2026, and EquityMultiple has no secondary market for equity deals. Before investing, review each platform’s liquidity terms carefully and consider whether the holding timeline fits your needs.

What are the tax implications of online apartment investing?

Most platforms issue either a K-1 form or a 1099-DIV for tax filing. K-1 forms (used by Ark7, EquityMultiple, and direct investment structures) are more complex and may delay tax filing. 1099-DIV forms (used by Arrived and some REIT structures) are simpler. All real estate investments carry tax implications including depreciation recapture and capital gains treatment. Consult a tax professional.

Can I invest in apartments using a retirement account?

Yes, many online apartment investing platforms support self-directed IRA accounts for tax-advantaged investing. Ark7 offers both Roth and Traditional IRA options, allowing investors to hold fractional real estate shares within a retirement account Ark7. EquityMultiple integrates with Equity Trust for self-directed retirement accounts, and ApartmentVestors also accepts Self-Directed IRAs. Arrived issues a simpler 1099-DIV form rather than a K-1, which can make IRA administration easier. Investors should confirm each platform’s IRA custodian partnerships and any additional account setup fees before committing.

Do I need accreditation for apartment investing platforms?

No, not for most platforms. Ark7, Fundrise, RealtyMogul (via its REITs), and Arrived all allow non-accredited investors to participate. These platforms use SEC-qualified structures: Ark7 operates under Reg A+, Fundrise’s eREITs are registered with the SEC, and Arrived uses Regulation A offerings. That makes apartment investing accessible regardless of income or net worth. Only EquityMultiple and CrowdStreet require accredited investor status for their individual commercial real estate deals. In 2026, the majority of platforms serve all investors, so accreditation is not a barrier for most people interested in online apartment investing.

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This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. All investing carries risk, including potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Before making any investment decisions, consult a licensed financial advisor who understands your specific financial situation and goals.