Crypto gold: Milliondollar Auckland home for sale in Bitcoin

AUCKLAND: Fans of cryptocurrencies can buy a milliondollar Auckland home using Bitcoin in what might be the first such purchase in New Zealand.

North Shore residents Dean and Rachel have put their fourbedroom Unsworth Heights home on the market for $1.225 million and are willing to accept full or half the payment in Bitcoin.

Having failed to sell their 16 year old, architecturally-designed home earlier this year, they hope Bitcoin will attract a wider pool of global buyers.

‘‘Bitcoin is a global currency and it’s frictionless; you can transact with it instantly,’’ Dean, who did not want to give his surname, said.

‘‘And we are just trying to get our property out to the widest marketplace from a global point of view and market it to everyone.’’

Should the sale go through in Bitcoin, it would likely be the first such purchase in New Zealand, according to Dean’s selling agent, Liam Collett from Century 21 Collett Realty.

A fellow Century 21 franchise in Wellington in 2017 agreed to accept Bitcoin payment for a $200,000 piece of land in Kaiuma Bay in the Marlborough Sounds, but it is understood the land ended up being settled using New Zealand dollars.

‘‘It’s all about breaking the boundaries and trying something a little bit new and a little bit different,’’ Mr Collett said.

Graphic designer Dean and Rachel’s unusual move also comes after the Government last October banned most foreigners from buying homes in New Zealand.

It led foreign buyer sales in the March quarter to fall 81% compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

Despite this, Mr Collett said people would be surprised how many inquiries his agency still fielded from buyers living overseas.

This could include Kiwi expats, Australians and Singaporeans, who are allowed to buy, and foreigners whose children are New Zealand residents.

‘‘Obviously with the latest statistics, overseas investment has been down but there is still quite a lot of people out there who are buying from overseas that are still legally entitled to,’’ Mr Collett said.

Some of these buyers may have also got into Bitcoin early before its rise in value and view property as a good way to divest from the cryptocurrency, he said.

‘‘There were quite a few people — especially in other countries where Century 21 is prominent — that will have a lot of Bitcoin that they’ve had in their pockets for quite some time,’’ he said.

‘‘And Bitcoin is now getting more prominent in the realestate market, so it’s a good time to do the sale this way.’’

Dean and Rachel hope to use the sale of their home, where they have lived with their seven children for the past 16 years, to buy a new home about ‘‘half an hour up the highway’’ where they have relatives and spend much of their time.

‘‘We love the house, and if we could take it with us we would,’’ Dean said.

Despite acknowledging he may run into added expenses in using any Bitcoin he earned from the sale of this house to purchase a future house in New Zealand dollars, Dean was adamant cryptocurrencies were the way of the future.

He said he purchased his first Bitcoin about two years ago and called it a ‘‘great asset’’.

‘‘Globally, Bitcoin is growing in its capacity and functionality and more of the big companies are moving into that space, including the banks.

‘‘It is a huge and growing space,’’ Dean said.

Real Estate Institute of NZ chief executive Bindi Norwell said she knew of properties for sale that had used Bitcoin in their advertising and this had turned into clever marketing that garnered a lot of interest.

However, she was not aware of any sales being settled in the cryptocurrency.

She said there were some concerns about whether cryptocurrencies would comply with antimoney laundering rules and over their volatility, given their values can ‘‘change dramatically overnight’’.

Mr Collett said the value of the Unsworth Heights home in Bitcoin would be done at the time the sale agreement became unconditional. — NZME