On September 12th, DigiShares, PropTech Denmark, Green Building Council Denmark, and Byggesocietetet held an event in Copenhagen aimed at informing the audience about why blockchain is more than just a current fad and has the possibility of revolutionising the real estate market.
Presentations from the conference can be obtained on Digishares.io.
Videos from the conference can be viewed on Digishares.io
(Some of the presentations and videos are unfortunately in Danish)
Topics ranged from the basics of blockchain presented by Bo Hembæk Svensson, Blockchain Specialist at BlocNordic, who got the less-informed audience members up-to-date with the concept, to more in-depth topics such as the value proposition in a blockchain-based market and the associated opportunities and potential challenges.
One of the advantages leveraged by blockchain in the real estate industry is fractional investment and ownership, as, through the technology, shares in properties can be digitised. Investors, thus, benefit from accessible and liquid assets and diversified portfolios. Moreover, transactions are faster, cheaper, and more transparent, as trades are executed electronically and become disintermediated.
During the event, DigiShares’ CEO, Claus Skaaning, presented their solution, a platform that enables the issuance of such digitised (tokenized) assets, for instance shares, bonds, or real estate.
Mette F. Kibsgaard, CMO and co-founder of DigiShares, highlighted the technology’s contribution to UN’s sustainability goals. Blockchain enables the tracking of sustainable building materials and key features, such as air and water quality, sanitation reports, or renewable energy production and consumption.
Among the speakers was also Juliane Sloane, a former analyst from the US company Leaseum Partners, who introduced a case study on a $250M tokenized real estate fund. During the discussions she pointed out, that the technology can’t increase the value of the traded property, its underlying quality being the true determinant of it.
Other speakers included MakerDAO’s Head of Integration, Lasse Birk Olesen, who explained how tokenized real estate can be used as a collateral for their stable coin, and Niels Falk, CEO at HD Lab, who talked about several exciting blockchain projects in the building industry.
However, the innovative technology doesn’t come without challenges. Claes Holm-Nielsen, commercial real estate legal advisor at Accura, and his colleague, Peter Brask Tind, a lawyer in IT and personal data, mentioned that there are legal issues that have to be taken into consideration. One of the main challenges is deciding on the laws that will underly the blockchain deals, so the promised transparency that comes with the adoption of the technology can be conferred. This is particularly relevant for international trades involving different types of investors. Hence, the two lawyers suggest that the deals should be supervised by an independent authority, that would ensure that transactions are conducted as planned.
