A house in Portugal sold for 3 bitcoin (BTC)

A new regulation in Portugal

The feat was possible thanks to new rules that came into force last month, which lays down guidelines on how landlords and real estate agents can directly sell properties in cryptocurrency. Prior to these rules, a person buying a house with bitcoins in Portugal had to first convert them to euros at the time of purchase in order to complete the transaction and receive the deed.

”This act represents a historic step, the transfer of a digital asset to a physical asset – a house – without any conversion into euros“, said the real estate company Zome, according to the report, which participated in the sale in collaboration with a group of lawyers and other partners.

For Carlos Santos, Chief Technology Officer at Zome, "the future of mediation will be through crypto-assets, so we believe this transaction will start a whole new world of possible business“, he underlines quoted in a statement.

”This type of business will have an exponential increase and Portugal is showing very promising signs in terms of digital economy, so we believe that this operation can be a great opportunity for growth and value creation." adds Nuno da Silva Vieira, lawyer and partner responsible for the legal intelligence practice area of ​​Antas da Cunha ECIJA.

More and more cryptocurrency sales

In November, Latin American real estate technology (proptech) market leader La Haus announced that it would begin accepting BTC as payment for homes on the blockchain and on Lightning through an integration with the OpenNode bitcoin payment processor.

The Haus sold its first real estate in bitcoins two months later, when buying an apartment in Mexico for 5.78 BTC. The following month, the company sold another bitcoin property, the first in Colombia.

In late April, Dubai-based luxury real estate developer DAMAC Properties said it would soon start accepting bitcoin payments for real estate sales in the region. This move represents the latest big push for the UAE to establish itself as a welcoming region for the promotion of cryptocurrency businesses and services.

The rules for buying a property in cryptocurrency in Portugal

In order to avoid any money laundering by these expenses in cryptocurrencies, it is necessary to respect some rules,

– Understand where the money comes from (bank account);

– Understand the flow of money to reach the digital asset;

– Inform of the number of the digital wallet;

– Identify the parties involved in the case (name, profession, address);

– Prove that the money is moving from one wallet to another at the time of the transaction.

If the real estate transaction with cryptocurrencies had exceeded 200 thousand euros, in addition to the aforementioned prior communications, the transaction should be communicated to the authorities and it would still be necessary to compare the value of the cryptocurrencies on the date of the promissory contract and its value on the date of the authentic act. This can greatly complicate the transaction because cryptocurrencies remain very volatile, even bitcoin.

We are entering a new era where it will no longer be necessary to go through euros or other fiat currencies in order to acquire certain goods. This will offer new investment opportunities but it will be necessary to follow the regulations which will evolve throughout Europe on these new practices.

Source: The crypt news