Appreciation Rights: Fractional Exposure Without Owning Anything
Most of the structures in this hub give you a security in a company that owns a property. Appreciation rights give you less than that and are honest about it: a contractual claim on part of a future price change, with no title, no equity, no rent and no occupancy. Sols Lot, the one platform on Threeworld built this way, records a share of the financial rights under a forward sale agreement in a token it calls a SmartDeed, currently as a testnet alpha on the Chia blockchain with no monetary value. This page explains what such a right is, how it differs from owning a fraction, where it sits in US securities law, how you would exit, and what to check if the model ever moves from testnet to money.
Who uses this structure on Threeworld
- Sols Lot
A SmartDeed records a share of the financial rights under a forward sale agreement, not title, equity or occupancy. Today a testnet alpha on Chia with no monetary value
None. Sols Lot Inc. says it is not registered with the SEC and is not a broker-dealer or adviser. Sols Lot help and terms, checked October 24, 2026.
Table of contents
What You Actually Own
An appreciation right is a contract. One party agrees that if a defined asset is sold or valued at some future point, the holder receives a defined share of the difference between today's reference price and that future figure. The holder never owns the asset, never appears on a deed and has no claim on rent or use. If the asset's value falls, the right may be worth nothing. Sols Lot's registry row describes its SmartDeed as recording a share of the financial rights under a forward sale agreement, not title, equity or occupancy. The underlying is a lot of land, the agreement is between Sols Lot and a seller, and the SmartDeed is the token that records your share of what Sols Lot would receive. Royalty rights work on the same logic with income instead of price: a share of whatever a property or portfolio earns, paid by contract, with no ownership of the thing earning it. The practical point is that your counterparty is the issuer. With an LLC interest the property backs your claim through the company that owns it. With an appreciation right the issuer's willingness and ability to pay backs it, and the land is only indirectly relevant.
Where It Sits in US Law
A contract whose value depends on an asset's price, sold to many holders who rely on the issuer's efforts, is the shape of an investment contract under the Howey test, and most US securities lawyers would treat appreciation rights sold to the public as securities. Sols Lot's position, per its help pages and terms, is that it is not registered with the SEC and is not a broker-dealer or adviser, and that the SmartDeeds today carry no monetary value because the network is a testnet. That is a different claim from Regulation A+ or Regulation D, where an issuer relies on an exemption it names. Here there is no named exemption and no filing to find. When money enters, the issuer will need one, and which route it picks will decide who can buy and what you get to read. Until then the structure is best understood as a prototype, which is how Sols Lot describes it.
Who Can Buy
Today, anyone Sols Lot onboards to its testnet, and nobody is paying anything. There is no accreditation test because nothing is sold. If and when the model carries value, the answer will come from the exemption chosen: everyone under Regulation A+ or Regulation Crowdfunding, accredited investors under Regulation D, non-US persons under Regulation S. Appreciation rights in general have been sold in the US before, mostly through home equity agreements where a company pays a homeowner now for a share of the home's future value. Cityfunds, which Threeworld lists under Regulation A+, holds exactly these agreements. The difference is that Cityfunds sells you a share of a company that owns many such contracts, with a qualified circular, while a direct appreciation right sells you one contract with the issuer.
How You Would Exit
A contract has no market unless someone builds one. Sols Lot's registry row says a SmartDeed can be swapped for its Sols token when an approved route exists, or redeemed through a separately approved and funded redemption, and that there is no peer-to-peer market. Its terms say no exit is guaranteed and a secondary path should never be treated as liquidity. That is the structural truth of appreciation rights everywhere: you are owed something by the issuer at a future event, and before that event you can only sell to someone who trusts the issuer as much as you did. The guide to how you get your money out puts this beside the platforms that run real order books.
Compared With Owning a Fraction
Against a Regulation A+ share or a DFSA crowdfunding share, an appreciation right drops three things. There is no rent, because you own no part of the thing that earns it. There is no asset backing your claim, because the land belongs to whoever the forward sale names, not to a company you hold shares in. And there is no document a regulator has seen. What it offers in exchange is simplicity and, in Sols Lot's case, an entry point in land rather than built property. Land has no tenant to manage and no roof to replace, so a price-only contract fits it better than a yield-bearing share would. Whether that trade is worth making is a question for when the testnet becomes a market.
What to Check Before You Buy
Confirm whether the right carries monetary value yet. On Sols Lot today it does not. Read the forward sale or royalty agreement itself, not the token page. Find the reference price, the trigger event, your share, and who pays you. Ask which securities exemption the issuer relies on once money is involved, and find the filing. No filing means no exemption claimed. Identify your counterparty and what happens to your right if the issuer stops operating. An LLC interest survives its manager, a contract with the issuer may not. Treat any swap or redemption route as a feature the issuer can close. The terms say so. Compare with a share in a company that owns the same kind of asset, and price the missing rent and the missing asset backing.
Questions people ask
What are appreciation rights in real estate?
- A contract that pays the holder a share of an asset's future price change without giving them title, equity, rent or use. Sols Lot records such a share of a forward sale agreement in a token called a SmartDeed, today on a testnet with no monetary value.
Are appreciation rights regulated?
- Sold to the public for money, they would most likely be securities under US law. Sols Lot says it is not registered with the SEC and relies on no named exemption because its SmartDeeds carry no value yet. There is no filing to read.
How do I sell an appreciation right?
- Only through a route the issuer opens. Sols Lot allows swaps for its Sols token or a funded redemption when approved, runs no peer-to-peer market, and says no exit is guaranteed. Before the trigger event you depend on the issuer entirely.
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