On the surface, investing in real estate with cryptocurrencies seems counterintuitive and unnecessarily complex. There are, however several benefits that could provide more incentives to consider cryptocurrency as a better medium for real estate investment. Real estate investors stand to gain from greater access to real estate markets, quicker transactions, less fees, and less volatility.
Investing in Real Estate With Cryptocurrencies
The tokenisation of real estate assets creates more sales opportunities for individuals selling real estate. A wider pool of investors can purchase portions of real estate on account of the fact that each token can represent a portion of a real estate asset. For investors, this means they don’t have to purchase entire properties, allowing them to purchase a portion of property in relation to their purchasing power. For those selling real estate, this means, they could have more opportunities to create new types of financial products with their property. With cryptocurrencies, new classes of real estate investments could be made, allowing for new market opportunities.
Tokens based on real estate may represent a safer, less volatile form of investment than conventional cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency funds that are backed by real estate tend to be less volatile than other cryptocurrencies. This, however is not always the case. Some cryptocurrency real estate projects are mere funding exercises for private companies looking to make what they perceive to be “quick money” from the cryptocurrency “gold rush”.
Smart Contracts
Slow transactions in the real estate market could become a thing of the past with real-estate based cryptocurrencies. While the time taken to invest in real estate can take months to a year in many regions, several cryptocurrency platforms allow for investments in seconds. The transparency on real estate offered by blockchain technology coupled with the ease of making purchases of cryptocurrencies allows for seamless transactions.
As the development of smart contract advances, it will become a lot easier to automate several processes in real estate transactions. Smart contracts record data about the real estate industry to enable quicker transactions. The quality of smart contracts maintained by issuers of real-estate based cryptocurrencies will define not only the security of investments but also the ease with which investors may make transactions with such cryptocurrencies. With quality smart contracts in place, real estate transactions can be much cheaper for investors, whether they intend to buy whole properties or just portions of properties.
Legal Hurdles
Increasing opportunities to invest in real estate with cryptocurrencies may be accompanied by more risks which can leave investors feeling much more than a pinch. It is important that cryptocurrency projects that offer real estate investment opportunities provide enough information about the legal implications of their projects. The legal status of the cryptocurrency should also be made clear. Securities laws and tax laws can open up a can of worms for investors if not properly addressed with issuers of real-estae cryptocurrencies.
Edel is an Editor with a decade of print and digital media experience – specializing in Science, Technology, Finance, Entertainment, and Advertising. He is also a stock and cryptocurrency investor. When Edel is not editing or analyzing charts, you can find him with his DIY lightbox taking timelapses of plants.