Real Estate Tokenizing : Blockchain Technology in Real Estate

Abstract: Real estate assets are often considered as illiquid due to capital and transaction barriers. As a response, real estate tokenizing is a rising phenomenon. Real estate tokenizing combines the benefits from the private and the public real estate market, by creating a product with direct real estate commitment to low capital requirements and efficient transaction processes. The product is called real estate token, a digital share of an asset. Real estate tokens enable hypothetical fractionalization of properties with means of blockchain technology and smart contracts. This study investigate the pros and cons of real estate tokenizing as well as the financial performance of publicly traded US residential real estate tokens. The study states that fractionalization of properties increases access and customizability of real estate investments. Furthermore, the blockchain technology and the smart contracts enable automatization of transaction processes and asset management. Altogether, the benefits may result in a higher liquidity. However, the study also states several drawbacks with real estate tokenizing, such as lack of management and deeds, scalability problems and liquidity paradoxes. Furthermore, this study shows that US residential real estate tokens underperform both S&P 500 and housing index in terms of risk-adjusted return. Moreover, the real estate token market seems to correlate more with the S&P 500 than with the housing market. The study concludes that the cons with real estate tokenizing exceed the pros, although the phenomenon has great potential in a more mature market. However, real estate tokenizing will face implementation obstacles when converting the real estate industry to blockchain technology. As such, the success of real estate tokenizing is dependent on the global view of blockchain technology.