I've come across a business that facilitates fractional property investing.
Basically you select a property you want to invest in and they find other people that want to invest in the same thing and buy it outright?

Capital gains is obviously lower as you are not leveraged, but it would provide immediate rental incomes as there is no mortgage.

Has anyone been involved in this sort of stuff before?

It can be done - I believe this is not too uncommon in commercial property - but you need to ensure you have a legal document on how the agreement and division of capital applies.

What is the appeal? Property only makes sense as a leveraged investment. Why give up the golden egg? Just another scheme to give poor people housing equity, kids noisy homes they can't study in. Better than no home mind you. But renting might be better until you save a deposit, and just buy a place in the third world and rent it, or even Japan. You can buy an apartment in Japan for $30,000, same in the Philippines.