The future of cryptocurrency in homebuying

by Rebecca Pike17 Sep 2018

The founder of a cryptocurrency firm has said it is becoming more and more common for people to purchase property with the digital money.

According to the man behind crypto investment fund Surge, Gary Ng, property investors are making a lot of money by paying with cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.

He believes it will become a mainstream form of currency, as it already is in Japan where people are paying for goods over the counter with crypto.

However, he said people are currently uncertain of investing in cryptocurrency because of bad press.

Wanting to dispel myths about cryptocurrency, Ng said, “It’s just like any form of payment. If the seller is accepting cryptocurrency they would have an address like a normal bank account number you’d have a crypto address for people to send the payment to.”

For those wanting to purchase property, the buyer would need to have the total amount for the property in cryptocurrency: there are no mortgages or crypto-loans to speak of. Although Ng said that could be something for the future.

Extra costs such as stamp duty would also need to be paid in cash.

Discussing the crypto property market, Ng said, “It depends on the way you look at it. People wanting to sell a property it’s a big investment.

“The value of Bitcoin it’s still very low compared to where it’s going to be in 10 years’ time.

“It’s still less than 0.1% of the world transactions right now, so the stronger argument right now is we don’t know whether Bitcoin is going to get to being a million dollars or if it’s going to get to nothing.

“So from that standpoint it can be risky to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.

“Usually what they do is they look at if the property is worth a million dollars and the current exchange rate, how many bitcoins would you need? And based on the time of transactions it can go up and down.”

So does Ng believe buying property with cryptocurrency is the future?

“I think there are becoming more and more property investments sold in crypto, sure. It’s very attractive.

“If they can pay a property upfront using their crypto it’s going to be a growing trend I think. Longer term, we’re moving towards a cash free society.”

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