Manhattan’s real estate market is embracing bitcoin for property payments as the digital currency increases in value.
One property developer who is hoping to capitalise on the recent digital currency boom is Ben Shaoul, of Magnum Real Estate Group.
Speaking to The Express, Shaoul said:
We were approached by a buyer who has been collecting bitcoin for many years and was interested in using it to buy property.
Since then there have been a further two to three customers who have approached the developer to see if they can purchase luxury condos with the cryptocurrency. Prices for these properties range in price from $700,000 to $1.5 million.
With prices rising in the digital currency space more homeowners are turning their attention to the market. As a result, several are reported to have listed their properties with the option of paying in bitcoin.
Last month, a Notting Hill mansion in London was put up for sale with the asking price of $17 million, believed to be a first for the metropolitan city. In this case, though, the seller is only accepting bitcoin. In the last week it has been reported that a 49-year-old man has put his £80,000 house up for sale, with the option of accepting the digital currency.
Yet, while the market is proving quite attractive for potential buyers and sellers, there is a high risk to trading with large sums of money. Due to the currency’s volatility market prices change on a daily basis. This was evident over the weekend when bitcoin’s price dropped to $5,500 after surging to $7,800 a few days before at the news that the planned SegWit2x upgrade had been suspended.
Despite this, though, Shaoul, who owns some bitcoin, doesn’t see the risks with too much concern, adding that the cryptocurrency market is volatile just like the stock market.
He said:
Would you stop investing in stock markets? No, you wouldn’t. Each person is going to have a risk assessed judgement on whether or not they want to invest in bitcoin.
According to him, since starting the company he has always played aggressively and believes that the acceptance of digital currencies puts them ahead of others who are continuing to do things via an ‘old-school’ method.
While other countries are becoming more embracing of the digital currency market, such as Japan, America is lagging behind. According to David Johnson, CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency platform Latium, the U.S. will be the last to take the plunge in regulating digital currencies.