Tokenization of Commercial Real Estate

in blockchain •  8 years ago  (edited)

The commercial real estate industry is ripe for technological disruption, particularly in terms of data transparency.  Access to market information is tightly controlled by brokerage firms, institutional investors, and expensive market data providers. Investment brokers play a critical role because of their relationships with buyers and sellers and ability to gather information from these participants.  On the other hand, given all of the administrative and legal hurdles associated with trading commercial real estate assets, transactions are slow and costly.


The blockchain will enable real estate assets to be tokenized and traded similarly to Bitcoin.  Property titles and ownership histories will be recorded on the blockchain, and the value of a property will be represented on the blockchain by a token.  Blockchain will allow commercial buildings to have a digital address that contains information regarding occupancy, physical characteristics, legal status, historical perfomance, and financial position.  As commercial property information continues to disseminate across the globe, brokers will lose their information assymetry advantage.  The data will be available online and relatable across submarkets and property types. When it becomes easier for investors to gather information on potential acquisitions, it will be easier to price buildings without investment brokers.  


In terms of how the marketplace infrastructure could evolve, an exchange platform could be built as an application on top of a universal real estate blockchain, which would allow two parties to make real estate trades in a much more timely and less costly manner.  Commercial property could be traded similarly to equities.  Transaction times will be reduced from weeks/months to minutes.  Peer-to-peer commercial real estate trading will become a reality as blockchain technology erodes the information advantage of commercial brokers and operational impediments are reduced.  Commercial real estate will become a much more liquid and actively traded asset class.


Steem on,

Josie

#blockchain #realestate #blonde #investments #transactions

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  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Co-founder of a startup in RETech - I certainly agree with you here. Maintaining the accuracy of this data though - that's a serious challenge.

Building an incentivization model around all of this to create an ecosystem... if you have ideas, hit me up.

Have you checked Bitshares yet?!? ;) there's a platform we can all use to develop such product I believe... Namaste :)

@eric-boucher, I look forward to Bitshares mooning. Nakamoto be with you.

What about ethereum, or hyperledger?

I wouldn't know, but have great confidence in the Bitshares/Bitcoin crew who created this in the first place. :)

@vongohren, I think there will be a lot of opportunity to develop real estate applications on top of ethereum. Here is an example http://www.reidao.io

@jacobt, thank you

@jacobt @blockchainblonde I'm close to luanching this very thing and would be happy to chat with each of you for insights, input and thoughts on the evolution of the concept since this convo was posted a year ago.

This is being worked on by the big players already.
See JP Morgan's report on how blockchain tech will change the industry:

"The third wave involves the adoption of blockchain
technology in major pieces of capital markets infrastructure.
Once assets are held as tokens on the blockchain, the clearing
and settlement of trades across multiple asset classes can
move to distributed ledger-based infrastructure, as opposed
to the hybrid or dual systems that we project through the
first two waves. This will drastically cut processing cycles
and unlock liquidity...
Use Cases: Builds on peer OTC trading networks
referenced above, but digitizes assets
such that ownership can be transferred
and recorded via the ledger
Eliminates need for agents and
intermediaries
Significantly speeds up settlement
processes "

Full report:
http://www.oliverwyman.com/content/dam/oliver-wyman/global/en/2016/july/joint-report-by-jp-morgan-and-oliver-wyman-unlocking-economic-advantage-with-blockchain-A-Guide-for-Asset-Managers.pdf

Its full on already with FACTOM. Its been adopted around the world, China is front out on a blockchain based Kataster. IBM and BNY Mellon are in on it. https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/49632.wss

Commercial real estate will become a much more liquid and actively traded asset class.

Amen!

In the furture all of assets to be tokenized and traded similarly to Bitcoin.
Example : Gold https://digix.io/

Agreed...we will all be out of jobs! Yikes!

Great article and ready for some extra Bitshares knowledge to come across you to use as a platform for proper incentivization. The Bitshares platform itself is the ecosystem you are looking for I believe and, while working on maintaining accurate data, uses blockchain technology such as Steem! ;) Enjoy! Namaste :)

👍great post Josie...

Thanks :)

Even though this sounds like a good idea, we are still at an experimental stage of cryptocurrency and there are really no systems bulletproof enough to put legal obligations for house titles on. A currency that you don't have all your wealth in is one thing, but if the only place your house title was stored is on the Bitcoin blockchain, that would be kinda scary when a "Bitcoin Classic" vs "Bitcoin Core" rough consensus attack occurs.

Don't wish for too much from the "blockchain", otherwise you're going to get a federated chain government ledger forced on you.

Great article. It is clear that blockchain will introduce an element of disintermediation to real estate buying and selling. Do you have any thoughts on what effects the blockchain have on ownership? How will affect landlords? How will it affect renters? How will it affect financing?

@jrtowell, I think in terms of financing, it will allow various aspects of the financing process to be automated with smart contracts. There are a lot of pain points within the financing of real estate construction projects that could be eased with programmable financial logic.

One more to check out:

http://www.ibtcrea.org/

Just came across this:

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ubitquity-using-bitcoin-blockchain-secure-real-estate-titles-1548574

https://www.ubitquity.io/home/index.html

Curious as to what other leaders there are in this domain - and what advantages Bitshares might have as a platform for development on, catering to the property niche...

Microsoft and IBM are the big players in enterprise block chain.

They are actively investing money into this. Microsoft will be offering block chain as a service via azure to enterprise customers. So if anyone will be doing this on a large scale it will be them.

I know we have others already in the space that can accomplish this. But ms and ibm are big players that can either buy up or just bulldoze the competition. Either way it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Interesting take on applying blockchain technology to real estate.

I know nothing of real estate personally other than that you transfer deeds or ownership at some point while selling properties.. I imagine blockchain tech and it's immutable ledger would serve great purpose.

@calva upvote this lady for me please

Really interesting idea! I've been looking for a way to find the Real Estate market in a chart form. If it was on the blockchain that would be super cool!

Why someone else votes (230) 3,500 $ give someone 20 $ ?

Nice story about commercial real state. wish you the best.

Hi!I am deng,Welcome to my space
https://steemit.com/@changli-deng

Very well, but if nothing is done here, is what will happen to steemit: Read this is very important https://steemit.com/steem/@stea90/read-very-important-why-the-market-volume-and-value-of-steem-continue-to-decrease-what-will-happen

Really enjoy this short and concise post. It is only a matter of time before blockchain technology revolutionizes the real estate industry. Btw, what city was this photo taken in? Those are some grand buildings if you ask me!

Would love to see the world of renting be integrated into a blockchain system. Currently, renting is a mess. From application fees, to damage deposits and pet deposits, to shitty landlords. With renting on the rise I think blockchain implementation could revolutionize the renting market. Making the process easier for everybody involved. Thanks for the post @blockchainblonde

Yes Josie, this is called a Colored Coin.

@lrod1992, while colored coins is an interesting idea, I don't think the Bitcoin network will ever have the capacity to handle all sorts of digital asset transactions. After the Ethereum hard fork debacle, I don't see block size being expanded at the risk of tearing the Bitcoin community apart. I believe Bitcoin will remain as a sort of digital gold. What are your thoughts on Ethereum Classic?

@blockchainblonde the general consensus is that there will supposably be a positive correlation between increasing the block size and the centralization of bitcoin mining, which can be dangerous. We are nearing the verge where the cost of not increasing the block size will soon overcome the benefit of a more decentralized bitcoin mining experience. Of course, protocols such as the lightning network and seg wit will make bitcoin more efficient but I feel like raising the block size will be inevitable. In regards to ETC, I personally support the immutability of the original eth chain, but only the market will eventually decide which chain will eventually become triumphant.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Bitland (CADASTRAL) is working on a blockchain that will keep records of land ownership documents. This, in an effort to help locals fight corrupt governments in African countries, starting with Ghana. Checkout the Bitland whitepaper written by Security Specialist, Chris Bates. It's an apealing thought

@coindup, thank you

Fashion fades, only style remains the same
A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.» Coco Chanel (it is about the author)))!

im from chicago as well and a real estate agent...

Mix houses with trading.....i dont think it is a good idea. People needs where to live.

Great post :)

you are very sexy lady

Interesting thoughts and I would personally be in favor... because it would definitely make my job easier (or obsolete?)! I'm a certified general appraiser. My experience is not so much that the information is simply not available, it's that the CRE markets are complicated and imperfect. This is an inherent quality of real estate, most especially commercial. I see potential in your idea, but see massive technical, regulatory, and institutional pushback hurdles. You're way ahead of your time blondie.

Thanks @beastmastermason. I agree that there will be institutional pushback, but if you look at what's happened with investment bank trading arms over the last several years, I think it is clear that the role of commercial brokers will be reduced significantly in the years ahead.

Nice story

Hi Josie. As always Wonderful Post from you.
Btw, don't mind but you are my crush on Steemit. :D
Following you :)
I would be more than happy if you follow me & can review my Posts at https://steemit.com/@iknownothing/.

I would like to know more about the investment opportunities on real estate as more and more Chinese are looking at overseas properties.

  ·  8 years ago (edited)

Bill Davidow from Intel, makes the case that short transaction times in part contributed to the recession.

Perhaps banks provide security in slowness. Giving people enough time to contemplate. Perhaps it's a good system on top of a broken one.

Two important facts spring to mind 1) the status quo is feeding a lot of people and 2) the status quo is not inclusive enough.

They say that even in science and mathematics, change happens only a generation at a time... think about that. Maybe the older generations deserve to have their worlds upended. Maybe they don't.

Nice post...

@blockchainblond, What do you think CoStar will do about all CRE data going to blockchain?

  ·  8 years ago Reveal Comment

Why so Salty?