Over the past few months, news about NFT-linked physical real estate being sold has permeated our airwaves, and today we’ll look into how NFTs and DeFi are redefining home ownership
The US Real Estate Market: A fractured System
Ask anybody that has tried to purchase a home in the US market about the process, and be prepared to hear horror stories of unnecessary paperwork, discrimination, price gouging, and general unfairness. To say that the US real estate market is far from perfect would be the understatement of 2022.
Admittedly, the entire process of buying or renting a home can take more time than it needs to. Still, one thing that homeowners worldwide complain bitterly about is the swarm of unnecessary middle people and organizations at every step of the way.
Doing business in the US real estate market is an unpalatable experience for most people. Even seasoned homeowners and renters do not enjoy the process because it seems like every step is optimized to frustrate you as much as possible.
It may interest you to learn that NFT and DeFi homes are now a thing. Although NFT-backed real estate isn’t the silver bullet needed to fix the global real estate market, they’re a step in the right direction in the sense that companies behind such projects are geared towards making their sales as seamless and straightforward as possible.
DeFi Home Equity
There’s no denying that real-estate-based projects on blockchains are gaining popularity worldwide, and one of the companies at the forefront of the real estate DeFi movement is Vesta Equity. On February 15, 2022, Vesta Equity announced the launch of their project, and with them, homes can be fully tokenized, affording homeowners more financial freedom.
Vesta Equity is working towards being the first real estate-backed peer-to-peer marketplace for NFT assets, and investors can now invest in real estate-backed NFTs as securities. Soon, homeowners who fully own their homes can access equity through tokenization, and when you tokenize a home on this platform, you can sell off a piece of said home as a fractionalized NFT.
Real Estate NFTs
Propy is the leading service in the real-estate-focused space in the cryptocurrency/NFT market. This company has successfully auctioned off homes in Europe and North America over the past few months.
Propy focuses on automating buying a home and achieving a more secure and faster real estate sales process. In 2021, Propy facilitated the sale and ownership transfer of a Ukrainian apartment belonging to the founder of TechCrunch. This apartment has an excellent history as it was purchased in 2017 using only Smart Contract on the ETH blockchain.
Earlier in February 2022, Propy replicated its success in the US as it facilitated the sale of an NFT-backed apartment in the city of Tampa, Florida. Propy’s first US sale was for 210 Ether. The auction winner got the rights to a US-based entity that owns the home, and this home comes with a mural from a local artist.
Furthermore, Okada, a New York real estate firm put a commercial building up for sale as NFTs.
