‘First bitcoin homes sold in the UK’ as crypto investors cash in

Two homes have been sold using bitcoin currency by a small property firm.

Go Holdings includes an estate agency, Go Move, covering Hertfordshire and a new homes development company, Go Homes.

Director and estate agent Ed Casson believes he is the first in the world to actually sell a home through bitcoin, although some landlords are accepting rent in the currency.

The first bitcoin home to have sold is a four-bed detached home developed by Go Homes in Colchester worth £350,000. The buyer is an investor who made early profits on the cryptocurrency and is now converting the funds into property.

He plans to let out the house to tenants who will pay in bitcoin.

The other property to have sold is also new, a £595,000 four-bed townhouse in Hertfordshire.

Casson said the buyer made profits by bitcoin mining and trading in online games.

He said: “This rewrites the rule book and shows there is another way to sell property. Selling homes for bitcoin will become common in the next five years.”

He said that the Land Registry has, for the first time, agreed to let the buyer have the sale price recorded in bitcoin.

He told EYE: “We have had lots of buyers in bitcoin approach us to spend their ‘currency’ as they still see property as the ultimate investment.”

Casson said that the success of Go Homes in selling bitcoin property will be copied by the estate agency business shortly.

He said: “We are due to roll out a cryptocurrency service in the agency next year as the demand to buy in and sell in bitcoin/ether etc has been so high.

“We trialled this on our own homes that we are currently building which made sense, to get it right. We are investing money next year into smart contracts on blockchain technology to speed the home buying and selling process up. Watch this space.” Meanwhile, yesterday on Twitter Andrew Montlake of mortgage broker Coreco tweeted: “Just had our first bitcoin enquiry!”

 

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15 Comments

  1. ArthurHouse02

    Nothing screams money laundering problems more than selling properties for bitcoins

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  2. AgencyInsider

    Rather ironic for them to highlight ‘ they still see property as the ultimate investment.’ when bitcoin is the Tulipmania of the age.

     

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    1. JMK

      You might enjoy this  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/there-never-was-real-tulip-fever-180964915/

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      1. P-Daddy

        Well done for finding this article….great stuff.

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        1. AgencyInsider

          An interesting piece indeed. Thanks for that.

          Notwithstanding, I’ll stick with my view that bitcoin is a bubble that will eventually burst.

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    2. Mark Connelly

      AgencyInsider.  I think your observation may be lost on them. I however think its great ” Bitcoin this, Bitcoin that, cryptocurrency is the future. I have made squillions in profit from the worlds current biggest Ponzi scheme. Oh actually, let me just invest these profits in property, where its safe. Phew got out in time.

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      1. Cheltenhamproperty98

        What is your definition of a ponzi scheme?
        I like this one:-
        “A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator generates returns for older investors through revenue paid by new investors, rather than from legitimate business activities or profit of financial trading.”
        Although there are many new bitcoin investors, hence the value as measured by paper currencies is rising, it is not a requirement and therefore I would say it is not a ponzi scheme.

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  3. Cheltenhamproperty98

    This will become more common in the future. Either bitcoin or another decentralised digital currency will need to be used as a means of exchange because we can’t keep using pound sterling when we have a central bank (ie the Bank of England) continually creating ever greater amounts of currency. Just follow this link https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/quantitative-easing and scroll down the page a little. You will see the latest QE programme is creating another £435 Billion. Yes, £435 BILLION!! Sure, they have created money in the past but not on this scale.

    Of course the government has managed to create a narrative about terrorism, money laundering etc with in connection with digital currencies as was the case in the early days of the internet and there will be comments on this site and others that will repeat this by agents who have had to spend considerable time adhering to much nonsense legislation in this respect.

    The QE programme that BofE employs obviously causes huge asset price inflation in assets such bonds, stocks, and property. In the case of property, it is especially true in the London where much of the QE funds end up. The property price inflation then leads to government interference in the property sector with programmes such as help to buy. I would say just stop the central bank QE and commercial bank reverse fractional lending to help solve the problem.

    Bitcoin or something similar will be the future. It is sound/positive money rather a debt based system and should be embraced for the benefit of mankind.

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    1. JMK

      Spot on Cheltenhamproperty!  Spot on!!

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      1. Cheltenhamproperty98

        Thanks JMK.

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        1. P-Daddy

          You can see how the concept of Bitcoin has caught the eye…in particular the twins who were also involved with the start of Facebook. In the Banks own words, they create new electronic (virtual money) to buy the assets. You know why they are doing this though…the ECB is cutting its huge QE policy which in turn will hurt the city of London at a time it is being marginalised in the Brexit thing! £435bn of Monopoly money to keep the wagon rolling.

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  4. Nix

    Without wishing to appear overly conspiratorial, to me this story looks like more propaganda for pushing the Bitcoin agenda, than reality.  The part about the Land Registry, of course, adds gravitas … but, easily written.  I would be curious to see some genuine evidence before being convinced we’re not simply looking at ‘fake news’ ! 

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    1. Cheltenhamproperty98

      I think bitcoin will manage without this Go Homes story somehow.

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  5. Property Paddy

    digital currency and Quantitative easing is pretty much the same thing, either one you can generate on the push of a button or keyboard.

    Bitcoin – Sterling- US Dollar, in fact any country that has moved away from the gold standard and used quantitative easing.

    The real value of currency isn’t currency !

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  6. Cheltenhamproperty98

    It is handy knowing the maximum number of notes/coins that will end up in circulation though. We don’t have that luxury with Sterling, Dollar etc.

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