Seoul-based co-working space operator SparkPlus has partnered with blockchain funding platform Kasa Korea, according to a Dec. 17 report from The Investor. The partnership will aim to innovate the city’s sharing economy by means of a decentralized platform that reduces the barriers to entering the real estate market by promoting collective and indirect fundraising. Tokenizing real estate According to the report, SparkPlus plans to open co-working centers at properties listed on Kasa Korea’s blockchain platform. The latter’s platform has been designed for the tokenization of real estate beneficiary securities in the form of issuing digital asset-backed securities that have real …

Real estate tycoon Ben Shaoul has sold a retail condo in Manhattan’s prestigious Upper East Side for $15.3 million in Bitcoin (BTC). The news was reported by New York real estate magazine The Real Deal on Nov. 1. Shaoul — who is president of the Magnum Real Estate Group — sold the 11,400-square-foot property to a Taiwan-based entity “Affluent International LCC,” according to a person familiar with the deal. Luxury properties increasingly bought and sold for BTC While Shaoul himself has reportedly declined to comment, Eric Hedvat — a broker with Jet Real Estate, which represented Magnum in the deal …

Overstock’s blockchain arm tZERO will provide its technology to tokenize River Plaza, a luxury residential development in Manchester, United Kingdom. Following a partnership with U.K.-based real estate investment firm Alliance Investments, tZERO plans to tokenize at least $25 million of River Plaza on the Tezos blockchain, according to a press release on Oct. 30. A 180-unit luxury residential development, River Plaza is the first initiative of Alliance Investments’ real estate tokenization plan to tokenize around $640 million of real estate projects across the U.K. over the next several years. The security token offering is expected to launch in Q1 2020. …

The use of blockchain to cement ownership rights for real estate and business has been ongoing since 2016, when the technology was first used to organize new forms of registries and registration of transactions. The blocks are used to record information onto the blockchain system, which can then certify the process of transfer of ownership of the property or entity. This process excludes intermediaries that collect commissions in the process of, for example, conducting real estate transactions while also lowering the risk of fraud. Specialized blockchain platforms can prevent data forgery and simplify the process of checking real estate objects …

Dubai-based real estate giant Emaar Properties has released its new blockchain token-based referral and loyalty platform. Real monetary value Emaar, which developed the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, as well as the Dubai Mall, is planning to launch the EMR token for rewarding its customers, local publication Arabian Business reports Oct. 17. Based on JPMorgan’s blockchain platform Quorum, EMR tokens will be redeemable not only within Emaar’s real estate network, including hotels, ecommerce operations and malls, but also can be traded with other users, the report says. According to Arabian Business, both the blockchain platform and EMR token are …

A 150-year-old English church is being sold for $1.5 million with the vendor accepting payment in Bitcoin (BTC). Vendor is willing to receive payment in Bitcoin According to a listing on Rightmove, a major British online real estate portal and property website, a vendor put an 18th-century church converted into a seven-bedroom character property up for sale and is willing to accept Bitcoin as payment. While the property unit is priced at 1.2 million British pounds ($1.5 million), the final price in Bitcoin is to be agreed and confirmed with the vendor and will depend on the market price of …

The concept of illiquidity discounts, how it relates to markets like commercial real estate, and the benefits that tokenization could bring to the industry are topics that I have already discussed in previous articles. In this article, I am taking a closer look at the relationship between liquidity preference and the future demand for tokenized real estate investments. Related: Tokenizing Commercial Real Estate and the Promise of Liquidity Illiquidity discounts reflect the reduction in price that gets applied to an asset due to a shallow market and are particularly pronounced in real estate, sometimes reaching 30% to 50% of the …

Blockchain real estate investment firm AssetBlock has launched its commercial real estate investment platform on Algorand’s (ALGO) blockchain. According to an AssetBlock news release published on Sept. 17, the company has partnered with luxury hotel asset manager Lodging Capital Partners (LCP) to tokenize $60 million of exclusive hotel properties on Algorand. Opening real estate investment to everyone As a result of the partnership, crypto-savvy investors will have access to properties that are unavailable to the public and will be able to exchange the blockchain’s native tokens for those assets. CEO and founder of AssetBlock Mike Liddell said: “We created AssetBlock …

The startup Harbor announced a partnership with Seattle-based real estate investment firm iCap Equity to tokenize $100 million in real estate funds. On Sept. 16, Harbor announced in a blog post that iCap Equity is using Harbor’s blockchain-enabled platform to improve its liquidity in four of its real estate funds which manages over $100 million in assets. Harbor created the tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, which represent portions of the funds. The partnership between the two companies will allow iCap Equity’s investors and placement agents to buy and sell iCap securities with one another. Tokenization of the funds will purportedly …

The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) teamed up with local tech startup Igloo to launch a blockchain-based tenancy agreement platform by the end of 2019. As news outlet ZDNet reported on Sept. 15, REIQ general manager Josh Callaghan stated that the new platform will use smart contracts to create “a simple and secure transaction for each tenancy agreement to leverage the benefits of the technology as an irrefutable source of truth,” adding: "All parties will have visibility over the contract at any time from the palm of their hand. By executing as a smart contract, we're also able to …

SK Securities, a branch of South Korea's largest telecom SK Group, has partnered with a local blockchain firm for a digital real estate beneficiary platform. The securities operator has signed a business agreement with Kasa Korea, a Seoul-based startup developing a digital securities blockchain platform for thereal estate market, Korean news outlet Yonhap News reported on Sept. 4. SK Securities and Kasa Korea agreed to collaborate on a digital platform for distribution of real estate beneficiary securities. Based on real estate securitized beneficiaries issued by real estate trust companies, Kasa Network’s digital property shares will allow investors to trade pieces …

Japanese commercial giant Sumitomo Corporation has partnered with a sister company of local cryptocurrency exchange bitFlyer to launch a blockchain real estate business. As Cointelegraph Japan reported on July 23, bitFlyer Blockchain will develop an umbrella platform for renting real estate, driven by smart contracts on its in-house Miyabi blockchain. Speaking to local tech news outlet CNET Japan, Yuzo Kano, managing director of bitFlyer Blockchain, added that the aim of the project was to enable rental parties to complete the entire process from a smartphone. “It can greatly simplify the real estate rental contracts process, and the intermediary company can …