How Using Blockchain Can Benefit the Commercial Real Estate Industry
Blockchain has become a buzzword (some may argue an overused one) and often at times people use it synonymously with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The technology as we know it is more than that of speculative digital coffee-cards which you purchase from a token sale or crypto exchange.
As the industry develops, the use case for blockchain in commercial real estate has become stronger and more apparent in the following areas in which it can benefit from:
- Data-driven and self-executing contracts
- Cashflow management and Loyalty programs
- Tokenising leasing contracts and fractionalising ownership
- Decentralised KYC network
How Blockchain can Benefit the Commercial Property Industry
1) Data-driven and self executing contracts
Digital contracts provide a strong source of information and data. With the use of digital contracts, we will be able to obtain specific terms and conditions which can be captured on to the blockchain and executed through smart contracts. For example, the return of rental security deposits can be immediately released to the tenant once the premises have been authenticated as good. Traditionally, this process can be administratively cumbersome and even becomes problematic when filing of the paperwork is not done well.
With digital contracts, the status of a deal becomes almost instantaneously updated. This provides almost real time business tracking metrics, mitigating the need for costly administrative reconciliations. Combined with historical data, commercial real estate players can use predictive analytics to gain deeper and smarter insights at almost real time, leading to more informed decision-making for the business.
The blockchain hence becomes the “centre of truth”, which will also promote fraud prevention through its immutable properties.
2) Cashflow Management and Loyalty Programs
For many years, banks have been dominating in the space of cash management and transactional banking for real estate players; managing the collections of lease or purchase payments on behalf of the companies for a fee between 0.5% to 5% of money flows. This includes credit card and other point of sale payment systems. With the use of blockchain, smart contracts and a competent middleware, rental / lease payments between tenants and landlords can be tokenised within the ecosystem of the property managers and real estate developers with the final “clearing” (as far as I know, this word doesn’t exist in the crypto-world) being done at one go — taking away the need for traditional payment systems and transactional banking services which attract the above fees.
Using blockchain and tokenising of loyalty programs will allow for a standardised / unified platform for rewards points. Allowing for rewards points to be used across real estate companies / malls / establishments. A Star-Alliance or Asia-Miles equivalent for real estate establishments will bring unprecedented value towards loyalty point holders, unlocking hundreds of millions of unspent rewards points across the industry.
3) Tokenising Leasing Contracts and Fractionalising Ownership
“A real estate investment trust, or REIT, is a company that owns, operates or finances income-producing real estate. For a company to qualify as a REIT, it must meet certain regulatory guidelines. REITs often trades on major exchanges like other securities and provide investors with a liquid stake in real estate.” (Investopedia)
Traditionally, REITs (i.e. real estate investment trusts) or collateralised structures are dominated by larger real estate companies who are able to allow individual fractional ownership of commercial buildings and complexes (through a unit / mutual trust-like structure) and receive income from the respective properties held.
Blockchain technology and tokenisation allows an affordable and much quicker way to make such investments available into the open-market. Of course, such structures will still be under the scrutiny of the respective governments and will still need to comply with the respective frameworks. What is attractive is that smaller real estate companies and corporate owners can now gain access to the additional liquidity which can be unlocked through a tokenised structure, with much lower “underwriting” fees as compared to the current charged by investment banks or traditional capital market underwriters.
4) Decentralised KYC network — A lesson learnt from financial institutions
Taking a page out of the banking industry, one of the key challenges for banks is to be able to have a unified due-dilligence / KYC system of their clients. Citing banking secrecy as one of the main reasons, banks continue to be hesitant to utilise blockchain as a means on providing regularly updated client data contributed by the participant banks. There are reports about banks working towards this common goal but with differing standards of compliance between banks, it will be interesting to see how a unified, undoubtedly permissioned blockchain amongst participating banks will emerge.
Such lessons can be learnt and avoided for the commercial real estate industry. Utilising a permission blockchain, real estate companies can share de-sensitised information about their clients / vendors. For example, company search, due diligence information and repayment information onto a shared permission blockchain. Contributors towards the chain can be anonymised, yet provide a multi-faceted view of client / vendor profile based on the respective interactions with the different property owners / managers / developers. With more actors onboard, the continuous update of the due diligence information by the actors will serve to strengthen the datasets and profile of every individual vendor / tenant, thereby providing even more reliable information and behavioural indicators of the prospective vendor / tenant.
Real Estate Doc is currently a live system in a commercial retail malls dedicated to solve these problems. We seek to create a decentralised system towards commercialising and promoting the benefits of blockchain for commercial real estate. The project is running our Token Generation Event to solve issues for commercial real estate. Now you have the reasons why blockchain is good for CRE. Need we say more? ;)
Conclusion
As more and more industries hop onto the BLOCKCHAIN train, tokenising transactions will soon become commonplace. As uses cases increases and the early majority adopts this concept of a shared exchange, traditional ways of doing business in the real estate industry might soon be phased out. It houses little risk in trying to adopt a technology and cost a lot more to integrate when that shift has happened.
About Real Estate Doc: Real Estate Doc will set the next standard for real estate technology for commercial real estate leasing. As a versatile permission blockchain protocol and real estate business application, real estate companies will effortlessly be able to manage their businesses without the tedium of administration, through self-executing functions provided by customised business logic. Our data-driven platform will enrich real estate businesses through business analytics, KYC risk management and online business development capabilities.
Real Estate Doc is currently raising ICO to transform commercial leasing, want to be part of their exciting transformation? Learn more here.
