Property developments like The Aston Plaza & Residences development at Dubai Science Park offers apartments that can be purchased in solely in bitcoin or a combination of bitcoin and fiat currencies.

A growing number of investors are attracted to Dubai, one of the world’s hottest real estate markets and they’re making their real estate purchases with bitcoin (via BitPay). Property developments like The Aston Plaza & Residences development at Dubai Science Park offers  apartments that can be purchased in solely in bitcoin or a combination of bitcoin and fiat currencies. In fact, a growing number of real estate purchases using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have become such a phenomena that esteemed tech universities like Cornell have dedicated departments to study this emergent, fast growing fintech trend.

Cryptocurrencies and smart contracts are emerging into a rich spectrum of new financial instruments, blending finance with computer science in unprecedented ways. The Initiative of Cryptocurrencies and Contracts or IC3 is an initiative of faculty members at Cornell University, Cornell Tech, UC Berkeley, UIUC and the Technion.

“Cryptocurrencies enable the quick, frictionless transfer of value across the globe, this enables someone in Russia to be able to easily send bitcoins to purchase land in Belize.” – Emin Gun Sirer, Associate Professor, Cornell University to CNBC

Ben Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group is redeveloping a building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and his $700,000 to $1.5 million condominiums will also accept Bitcoins which he believes will give him an edge against his competitors.

A Growing number of Real Estate transactions use Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin

British entrepreneurs Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman’s bitcoin based Aston Plaza & Residences are among the growing number of luxury properties being transacted with cryptocurrencies like bitcoins and it is a growing trend in cities like Los Angeles, New York, Miami, London and even Dubai. Aston Plaza & Residences initial tranche of 150 apartments will be sold at a starting price of 30 BTC worth $133,918.

Ben Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group is redeveloping a building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and his $700,000 to $1.5 million condominiums will also accept Bitcoins which he believes will give him an edge against his competitors. Tellingly, Shaoul, also an art collector, told CNBC that he wasn’t going to convert his cryptocurrency payments into fiat currency either, as art galleries were increasingly receptive to cryptocurrency transactions.

Ben Shaoul, president of Magnum Real Estate Group

That said, Michael Wan, Senior Associate Director of Savills Residential Pte Ltd is cautious on cryptocurrencies and what it means for real estate financing and purchasing,

“I think the unregulated nature of cryptocurrencies and its volatility make a poor financial medium for real estate transactions, especially when you’re exchanging something digital for brick and mortar buildings with land. But, there could be some use for cryptocurrency payments for use in month-to-month rentals” – Michael Wan, Senior Associate Director of Savills Residential Pte Ltd

According to CNBC, ManageGo, a Brooklyn, New York-based rental platform offers landlords and tenants payment and maintenance scheduling services through digital applications, added Bitcoin to the list of payment modes. The tenant uses bitcoin and then ManageGo converts the bitcoin to dollars using Coinbase, a digital cryptocurrency broker. The landlord gets the rent payment in dollars. Since bitcoin is extremely volatile, the value is locked in at the time of the payment.

Propy follows Aditus in tapping a community of newly minted millionaires and billionaires looking to spend their crypto-assets.

Blockchain technologies tapping on new market of “crypto-affluents” growing rapidly

Meanwhile, the sky-rocketing values of Bitcoin have created a new breed of crypto-affluents which companies like Aditus and now Propy are positioned to tap on. Propy follows Aditus in tapping a community of newly minted millionaires and billionaires looking to spend their crypto-assets.

“To [bitcoin or ethereum users], holding just crypto is like holding everything in one basket, so users are looking to diversify through purchases like real estate. They will use us because it’s an easier way to diversify their investment and use cryptocurrency right away,” Propy CEO Natalia Karayaneva told Benzinga.

Where Aditus serves as a smart invitation platform which facilitates the interaction between premium high end merchants and brokers and their community of crypto-affluents. Propy offers their members a way to diversify their crypto-assets into tangible real estate without the hassle of transferring your investments to fiat currency. Propy recently closed its first blockchain powered real estate deal in October in the Ukraine, approved by the government. Propy is now looking into enter California.

ATLANT introduces tokens backed by real estate, and with a revenue generation model similar to Maeanas, allows their token to represent portions of property to split rental income generation and capital appreciation from the underlying real estate.

Growing ‘tokenisation’ of assets, from gold to real estate

Aditus partner Digix, was among the pioneering batch of Blockchain powered start ups to present a compelling argument for the “tokenisation of assets”. Digix backs their DGX token with grams of gold and there is a rising number of Blockchain start ups offering tokens backed by real estate.

Real Estate Revolution (REX) provides universal access to real estate information through a global listing service and streamlines the transaction process via sale and lease “smart” contracts to provide “tokenised” real estate.

ATLANT introduces tokens backed by real estate, and with a revenue generation model similar to Maeanas, allows their token to represent portions of property to split rental income generation and capital appreciation from the underlying real estate. Furthermore, REIDAO includes a Public Trust Company to create the link between the tokens and the actual properties.

Cryptocurrencies have a combined market cap of $300 billion and it’s only the beginning to what the underlying blockchain technology means in terms of value creation

For more information on how Aditus connects crypto-affluents to premium merchants and brokers, please visit www.aditus.net