Today Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) announced the adoption of blockchain for executing residential tenancy agreements. REIQ said the platform will be up and running by the end of 2019 in the Australian state of Queensland.
REIQ aims to use blockchain smart contracts between parties and envisions a real-time database of the property rental market. The blockchain platform will also act as a directory of rental prices and trends.
“All parties will have visibility over the contract at any time from the palm of their hand. By executing as a smart contract, we’re also able to build out the functionality to handle payments of bond (deposit) and rent, plus facilitate other activities related to the property such as routine inspections and maintenance,” said REIQ General Manager Josh Callaghan.
REIQ has developed the tenancy agreement product with support from Australian firm Igloo, which has a blockchain smart-contract platform.
“This solution has been designed to reduce the manual handling of contracts from the property manager-side, while streamlining the process for tenants and giving both parties much better visibility over the agreement,” said Callaghan.
Along with smart contracts, the platform will also provide property seekers with an overview of the market. As smart contracts are executed, the blockchain will store real-time data of the market trends providing a transparent view of properties in Queensland.
“The instant a tenancy agreement is signed, we will know how much a property was rented for, how long the agreement is for, how long it was vacant and so on, which will give the REIQ unprecedented insights into rental market trends as it happens,” Callaghan said.
In July, Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation announced a partnership with blockchain firm bitFlyer to develop a home rental contract platform.
Blockchain has been used in the real estate sector previously for land registration, sale and mortgages. Two weeks ago, Korea’s SK Securities announced a partnership with blockchain startup Kasa Korea to develop a platform for tokenizing real estate.
A few months ago, Dubai Land Department said it partnered with Emirati lender Mashreq Bank to launch a blockchain-based mortgage platform. And U.S.-based Figure Technologies has a blockchain platform that logs more than $80 million a month in new mortgages.
