A Gold Coast property developer is accepting Bitcoin as a deposit for its latest luxury apartment development.
Azzura Investments is offering Bitcoin as a form of payment for the 10 per cent deposit on its latest projects, the Regal Residences and Regal Azzura Luxury Apartments in Southport’s CBD.
The off-the-plan apartments comprise one, two and three-bedroom residences as well as two penthouses with all having access to a range of premium on-site facilities aiming to take advantage of the coastal location and spectacular sights.
Tech-savvy sellers have been increasingly offering digital currencies as a form of payment in recent years as the value of Bitcoin swelled to as much as AUD$93,000 in November 2021.
Since that point in time, it’s been a rocky road for digital asset investors as the value of Bitcoin has fallen nearly 70 per cent to AUD$29,350 (at the time of publication).
According to realestate.com.au, a small minority of sellers are willing to accept digital currencies for their homes, however, it’s not without its risks.
Founding director of Creo, David Chung, a legal firm for business start-ups that has a focus on cryptocurrencies, said property transactions involving digital currencies worked best when both buyers and sellers held cryptocurrency accounts.
“It would not be a smart move to sell real estate for, say, bitcoin and then sell your bitcoins for Australian dollars,” Mr Chung told realestate.com.au.
“The market is way too volatile.”
Mr Chung said despite transactions in digital currency becoming more commonplace unless the space becomes more regulated by government, there would always be risks.
“I’ve read somewhere that something like 70 per cent of the central banks, including the Reserve Bank, are researching a central banking digital currency,” he said.
“It is likely that in five to 10 years a lot of the major economies will issue their own digital currencies but will bring in regulation to support those currencies, which then should also apply to everything else, including property transactions.”
