Cryptocurrency Creeps into Real Estate: 11,000-Squarefoot Mansion to Be Sold Via Nfts

With Miami still at the forefront of cryptocurrency business activity, ONE Sotheby’s International Realty is teaming up with Voxel Architects and Sierra Development to create an 11,000-squarefoot mansion that will have a virtual counterpart in the form of  NFTs.

 

Sitting in one of Miami’s most sought-after neighborhoods, both companies are collaborating with developer Gabe Sierra for Meta Residence. The dream home, which boasts seven bedrooms and nine bathrooms, will have a virtual counterpart with the winning bidder being awarded a non-fungible token (NFT) as proof of the home’s ownership.

 

The property’s sale will be executed on the Ethereum blockchain, though a minimum price for this ultraluxurious mansion has yet to be determined. The transaction is set to be completed in Miami in Q4 of 2022.

 

After the NFT auction, a digital token will exist inside the metaverse where it can be bought, sold, exchanged in various forms including images and audio. The real estate-backed token can be used as collateral for crypto borrowers and lenders.

 

“My vision of where this ends up is builders and creators building out digital extensions of real-world experiences. Whether it’s a house or hotel, you can build a mirror and extend on that for a digital extension of these real-world environments,” general contractor and NFT collector Gabe Sierra said.

 

Speaking of the benefits of having a home in the metaverse, Sierra added “A big thing about building NFTs of properties in the metaverse is that you can show off properties much more early on in their buildout to people around the world. Traditionally, people have to look at a picture or a rendering. Now we can show people homes in the metaverse.”

 

Will Real Estate NFTs Go Mainstream?

The development shows the skyrocketing value and utility of The Sandbox metaverse, a community-driven platform where users can monetize properties that exist in both the real world and the metaverse as identical copies.

 

While the sale is expected to garner some hype in the days leading up to it, a big question, though, is whether or when real estate NFTs will become mainstream. The logistics of the NFT itself are a bit complicated, so it has yet to figure out the interest in such deals form middle-class property residents. The is particularly important given the token is, in most cases, linked to the ownership of an LLC that owns the physical asset, not the housing deed itself.

 

Together, ONE Sotheby’s International Realty and Voxel Architects are acquiring an additional 40,000 acres of property inside of the metaverse. As a result, the join venture is expected to release future projects ranging from commercial properties and marketing to gaming endeavors.

 

“A real estate agent still serves a purpose. They would have to drive you to 20 houses, whereas now you could have a portfolio of houses they could show you in the metaverse. They would still show where they could buy land. This will make the buying process quicker. It’s just going to evolve how real estate works,” Sierra further explains.

 

A big question, however, is whether or when real estate NFTs will become mainstream in the Miami-area housing market for middle-class residents to afford. Currently, homes like the Meta Residence are for those who can play in the luxury real estate space.