Can Airbnb Villas Be a New Investment Class? This Startup Founded by IITians Thinks So - and Has the Numbers to Prove It
For decades, real estate has been a slow-moving, capital-heavy investment vehicle - often limited to HNIs and institutional players. But what if you could earn 25%+ IRR from luxury homes, without owning them?
A new Indian startup, Spacez, has introduced its platform EDGE, which is redefining how people invest in physical assets - not by buying property, but by backing Airbnb-style villa businesses that generate high-yield cash flows in metro cities.
This isn’t real estate investing. Its fractional investing in profitable homestay operations - and Edge by Spacez has the playbook (and numbers) to prove it works.
The New Play: Villas as Micro-Hospitality Businesses
Founded in 2024 by IITians, Spacez leases villas in prime urban locations, transforms them into luxury homestays, and sells on a per-night basis on its own website, apps, and other platforms like Airbnb, MMT, and for private bookings.
Each villa is designed for premium use cases: family stays, corporate off-sites, brand shoots, weekend getaways, and more. You invest in the capex and setup, and share the profits.
“We’re not buying the villas. We lease, renovate, operate, and split the profits with fractional investors. You’re not owning land, not investing crores but you still get a chance to earn more than the average rental yield - you’re owning a piece of a business,” says Hardik Lodha, CEO of Spacez.
Investors typically come in with ₹3-5 lakhs, taking 1 of 4 slots per villa project, with returns starting within 3 months of go-live and quarterly pay-outs thereafter.
Over 100 people have already trusted Spacez Edge, and this model, coming from diverse backgrounds, including early-stage founders, doctors, finance and tech professionals, and even family offices, all looking for diversification and high-yield returns without property ownership risk.
Addressing the most common investor question around consistency of returns, Hardik adds, “Our edge lies in operational control. We take complete ownership of pricing, cost efficiency, and day-to-day execution. This allows investors to remain fully passive while we focus on delivering stable and predictable outcomes through disciplined operations.”
“I didn’t have crores to invest but wanted regular cash flow. Spacez offered exactly that - a high-yield hospitality model with full transparency,” says Dixit Jain, an early investor in multiple Spacez Villas.
“This is the perfect moment for an alternative-yield model like ours,” says Hardik. “Airbnb-style travel is exploding across Indian cities, and more people now prefer private villas over hotels for privacy, space, and flexibility. The demand curve has shifted permanently, and we’re building right at the centre of that change”.
Scaling with Precision: 40 Villas and Counting
Spacez started operations in 2024 and, in just over a year, has scaled to 40 fully managed villas across Mumbai and Bangalore, with 75%+ occupancy.
The team is now targeting 400 managed villas across India’s top six cities and is actively raising capital through fractional investments to fuel the next phase of growth.
A New Category: Yield from Branded Hospitality
Spacez isn’t just a hospitality company. It’s building a new investment category - where anyone can co-invest in operational luxury villas, access structured returns, and track performance like a portfolio.
The team believes this model can unlock financial participation in real assets for a broader investor base - without the friction and stagnation of traditional real estate.
If you’re interested in participating in the next set of villa opportunities, visit https://edge.spacez.co or contact the investment team at +918792817217, Email: investments@spacez.co. Investment slots start at ₹3-5 lakhs, with early access to pre-vetted properties.
