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A few years ago, I visited Bali for the first time as part of Tech in Asia’s offsite. It was pretty cool to see things first hand, as I’d previously only heard about the vacation spot from other people.
Even though I’m generally not a “beach and resorts” type of person, it was fun while it lasted. The food was fantastic (Indonesian food is on a different level) and the activities were great. However, it was a bit too crowded for my liking.
This might be considered a downside for me, but if you’re someone who stands to gain from all that foot traffic – say, an investor in Bali villas – then it’s probably a good thing. The only question is whether you’ve got the capital to put your money into these opportunities.
Today’s story takes a look at startups that help smaller investors get a piece of this real estate pie through tokenization – does the technology make sense for the sector?
Today we look at:
- Startups that are making real estate investments accessible through tokenization
- How Singapore’s Telcoin could be the first regulated digital asset bank in the US
- Other newsy highlights such as Hitachi Ventures’ fourth fund and Ant Group’s new CFO
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Spill the T
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Tokenizing properties for retail investors seems like a cool idea in principle, but there are a couple of caveats that come with using blockchain technology in real estate. Let’s see how it’s panning out for some of the Indonesian startups pushing the model.
- Corporate wants you to find the difference: One startup that employs this tokenization model is Goro. At its core, it works similarly to traditional real estate investment trusts, just on a smaller scale.
- The big boys: Another startup that uses this model is D3 Labs, although it targets institutional investors. It’s collaborating with the likes of Fraxtor and DBS to push Indonesian real estate investment to offshore buyers.
- Not the real thing: The model falls under a rather gray legal area, as Indonesian law doesn’t recognize tokenized ownership. Token holders only own a right to receive a fraction of the operating profits and any sales proceeds, but not the properties themselves.
Read more: These startups let you buy slices of a Bali villa for $1
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