Real estate firm Coldwell Banker (CB) plans to tokenize luxury real estate assets, starting in Thailand. The local office has partnered with blockchain firm Coinweb targeting luxury properties. A Beta launch is scheduled for Q3 2022, subject to Coinweb acquiring an exchange license from the Thai SEC.
Tokenization promises to improve the liquidity of various assets, including real estate, by fractionalizing the investment and lowering backend investment costs.
Many real estate assets that are tokenized are commercial properties or rental units. Peter Meyer, CB Operations Director in Thailand, said the company sells and manages a large portfolio of luxury villa rentals in Thailand and worldwide.
“On a rental basis, they throw off not insignificant yields during normal times. Coinweb identified with us that liquidity could be unlocked via tokenisation using part of the yield. Much of the time luxury can be more illiquid than other asset classes, so the proposal was a good fit,” said Meyer, responding to Ledger Insights questions via email.
CB sounded out some of its larger clients and managed to get commitments before entering an agreement with Coinweb.
Subject to the success of the Thai pilot, Coldwell Banker Thailand has agreed to introduce the Coinweb solution to other CB head offices where the regulatory climate is conducive. “We have a pretty unique relationship with other head offices of different territories due to referrals we receive from them,” said Meyer. “Ultimately, UHNWs all around the world looking to buy luxury properties in Thailand get funnelled to our office from the other head offices in the different territories.”
Coinweb is a blockchain project that is not well known and has not been widely independently reviewed. It’s a layer 2 solution (not a blockchain) that enables interoperability by allowing data to sit on multiple blockchains while the smart contract performs calculations on Coinweb’s InChain. This is “cross-chain computation platform”.
The tokens are issued via Coinweb but the data can be stored on one or more blockchains. “We aim to unify interoperability where all underlying chains can be treated as if they are one,” a spokesperson told Ledger Insights via email. For now, InChain supports Bitcoin derived blockchains, with Ethereum derived blockchains and others on the roadmap.
Moore Global recently predicted real estate tokenization could reach $1.4 trillion within five years.
Meanwhile, several major institutions in Japan have started tokenizing real estate. Mitsui partnered with SBI and MUFG to issue real estate security tokens. And Tokai Tokyo partnered with Singapore’s ADDX. And in Germany, the Deutsche Börse and Commerzbank invested in digital asset venture 360x, which plans to tokenize real estate.
Update: The Coinweb description was updated to clarify it is not itself a blockchain.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
