Will US Real Estate Prices Skyrocket When the World Realizes You Can Buy It with Crypto?

A new report from Cushman & Wakefield reveals that Asia dominated the global real estate market in 2017, propelling it to an all-time high. There is no end in sight, as the range of capital sources proliferate.

According to The Global Investment Atlas 2018 study, which reviews international investment patterns from 2017, market performance showed “the highest level of real estate investment on record with a total of US $1.62 trillion compared to US $1.43 trillion in 2016 and anticipates a further improvement in 2018.”

The swell mirrored the epic rise of Bitcoin in 2017 when it reached an all-time high of $20,000, largely due to millions and millions of individual Asian investors from China, Japan and South Korea.

A pointed highlight from the report indicates “new segments and style of investing in all regions as portfolios become more diversified”– and ‘alternative’ sectors are now mainstream. Asians are the top investors as they made up 46% of buyers in cross-border investments.

Americans – not so much. They lagged, posting a fall in activity and decreasing their exposure to most markets.

Enter the Baroness

In February, lingerie tycoon and baroness Michelle Mone sold 50 luxury apartments in Dubai for Bitcoin via BitPay. Her billionaire partner Doug Barrowman manages the properties in a portfolio of £1.5 billion in assets run by his firm Aston Developments. (They’re also launching “Equi” a new cryptocurrency dubbed the British Bitcoin.) The real estate images on AshtonPlazaCrypto.com are eye-popping.

Ashton Plaza Crypto Apartments range from $133,000 for a studio to $223,000 for a one-bedroom and $343,000 for a two-bedroom apartment.
And they’re not the only real estate firm attracting big crypto buyers and sellers.

Cryptocurrency investors who amassed new wealth are in the market to make real estate purchases with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum. The first such real estate purchase was made in March in New York City, brokered by Magnum Real Estate Group. A $3.6 million two-story penthouse-for-Bitcoin is up for grabs in Panama. And a turn-key one bedroom condominium in San Francisco is ready to go for $220,000 in USD or Bitcoin.

Head of Cushman & Wakefield’s EMEA Investment, David Hutchings, who authored The Global Investment Atlas 2018 report said, “Trade wars could knock us off-course but as solid economic momentum and tighter labor markets encourage more business investment, the cycle is still likely to be extended. It could be boosted further by the successful adoption of new technology and ways of working. At the same time, we are likely to be at the start of a rising trend in inflation, but the pace of interest rate tightening should remain slow and policy will be stimulative for much of 2018.”