While some people still feel hesitant to accept cryptocurrencies, we see an increasing trend in the real estate markets. Over the last few months the number of sales of houses and land properties conducted in bitcoin have risen considerably.
A New Way of Transferring Money
Yee (right) and Chin showing online payment via Luno wallet.
One businessman in Sabah, Malaysia agreed to be paid in bitcoin for a piece of land in Sabah’s Libaran Island.
Alexander Yee, one of Sabah’s top tourism entrepreneurs, has made a land deal with his friend Polycarp Chin using Bitcoin. Yee agreed to sell 1.219ha of land on Libaran Island to Chin for half a bitcoin ($5,758). The transaction was sealed this Monday with a 10% deposit paid via 0.05 bitcoin, or $588 at the time the deal was signed.
At the signing ceremony, Chin transferred the money from his Luno wallet directly into Yee’s wallet. “It is about a new way of transferring money,” said Yee. He added that this was just an ordinary sale that was paid in bitcoin and the remaining 0.45 bitcoin would be paid once the transfer was completed.
Another Way to Sell Property
Ed Casson and Oliver Hookway, from Go Homes, have sold two homes in the UK for bitcoin.
Property developer Go Homes last December successfully sold two luxury homes in the UK using bitcoin currency.
The first property sold was a four-bedroom detached £350,000 family house in Colchester. The unnamed buyer is a bitcoin miner who made an early killing on the cryptocurrency. He bought the new house as an investment property in hopes of renting it out in bitcoin. The buyer of the second property, a £595,000 four-bed townhouse in Hertfordshire, is also a bitcoin miner.
“This re-writes the rule book and shows there is another way to sell property,” said Ed Casson, group sales director of Go Homes. He believed that selling homes for bitcoin will become common in the next five years as it benefits both buyers and sellers due to transactions being swift. “Because bitcoin is so volatile purchasers buy a property outright, with no deposit,” added Ed Casson. “They exchange and complete at the same time.”
The Early Days of the Internet
This trend is seen globally. An Australian vendor planned to sell a family house in Melbourne’s outer east and was willing to accept Bitcoin as payment.
Rob, an experienced builder, whose latest project, 1411 Mountain Highway, The Basin, is up for sale with its listing declaring the “owner is agreeable to accept part payment in Bitcoin”.
“I see cryptocurrency at the moment as like the early days of the internet dot com era,” said Rob. But at the same time, he is also aware of the financial risks involving in trading bitcoin.
A day in bitcoin is like a week or a month in the real world. It’s volatile, and in volatility there’s a lot of money to be made and a lot of money to be lost.
Will bitcoin and its alternatives penetrate the real estate industry? Do you think this will raise questions about legalities? Leave your thoughts below.
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