La Trobe Financial has backed the fledgling fractional property investment company, DomaCom, with a A$50 million facility. DomaCom, which has struggled to source funding, announced yesterday that La Trobe's "initial" funding would be used to provide property investors using the DomaCom platform with a credit facility.DomaCom chief executive Arthur Naoumidis said in a statement: "This is a significant development. Financial advisers can now leverage their clients' investment properties."DomaCom has acquired more than 50 properties on behalf of investors to data - almost all of them ungeared. It has about $50 million of funds under management. "The final piece of the jigsaw is in place," Naoumidis said.The company received extensive coverage last year, when it went to court to test whether its investment process stood up under various superannuation rules. In 2015, Aussiegolfa, the trustee of a self-managed superannuation fund, invested in a managed investment scheme known as the DomaCom Fund. The units it acquired were associated with the acquisition of a property in Burwood, Victoria - the Burwood Sub-Fund.Twenty-five per cent of the units in the sub-fund were held by Aussiegolfa and the balance by relatives of the SMSF member. The custodian of the DomaCom fund entered into a leasing and management arrangement with Student Housing Australia and in April 2017 Student Housing Australia leased the property to the SMSF member's daughter.The sole purpose test requires that a trustee ensure that a fund is maintained for the sole purpose of providing retirement benefits to its members. Leasing an asset to a family member could be a breach of that rule.Aussiegolfa took the case to court with the support of DomaCom, to test whether the units in the DomaCom fund constituted an in-house asset and whether the leasing of the property to the daughter was a breach of the sole purpose test.In a win for DomaCom, the Federal Court ruled last September that Aussiegolfa did not breach the sole purpose test when the fund leased property to the daughter of the fund member.Since then DomaCom has been ramping up its marketing to SMSFs. Naoumidis said the La Trobe funding would give it a more complete offering for that sector.DomCom was in the news again in February, when it announced that it was running a pilot in collaboration with one of the big banks. If successful, it may lead to commercial deployment within the bank.Fractional property investment is not a new concept. Listed and unlisted property trusts, syndicates and partnerships all allow investors to purchase an interest in an asset they would not have been able to buy outright.However, in the property market most of those vehicles have been used to acquire commercial property.Newer online platforms allow investors to invest fractionally in residential property. The main players in the market are BrickX and DomaCom.