The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that a commercial property-sharing start-up aimed at retail investors is the latest real estate venture to face trouble amid higher borrowing costs. The Globe's Rachelle Younglai writes that Willow LP, which was acquired by an on-line rental-services company in late 2023, was part of a new wave of property investing called "fractional investing or prop sharing" that became popular during the pandemic. Unlike real estate investment trusts, in which investors purchase units in an entity that owns a large portfolio of properties, fractional-investing companies give individual investors a chance to own a piece of a retail building or office tower. Willow charged $36.06 to buy one unit of a retail and residential property in a shopping area of Queen Street West in Toronto in 2022. Now, with higher interest rates, hundreds of small investors have seen the value of their investment decline between 50 and 60 per cent. Willow launched in early 2022 and bought two commercial properties just before interest rates started to rise. The company got a variable-rate mortgage from subprime lender Timbercreek because it did not raise enough equity to qualify for a conventional loan.