Blockchain-based real estate platform to launch in PH this year

Photo (from left) shows C Estates Inc. Managing Director Gary Hablero, CEO Teru Sumida, media launch moderator Quintin Pastrana, Chief Operating Officer Eli Becislao, and Chief Technology Officer Marco Mejia. PHOTO from C Estates Inc.

MANILA, Philippines—Real estate technology companies are looking to introduce innovations in real estate systems to address the growing demand for efficiency and security.

In the Philippines, C Estates Inc., a company which connects people buying and selling real estate properties, is looking to improve traditional systems and to set the industry standard for real estate transactions via a new platform that utilizes tokenization.

According to C Estates Inc., tokenization, which has long been used by financial institutions, is the process of representing the ownership of real-world assets digitally on a blockchain, the same technology used by popular cryptocurrencies.

Blockchain is said to be a major advantage in the real-estate business as it has features that provide better transparency, limit fraud, and improve efficiency. Tokenizing real estate also makes it compliant to security regulations.

Faster, more transparent deals

C Estates further explained that a token can represent ownership in an asset, equity in the legal structure that owns the asset, or income based on cash flows from the asset. This is a far cry from the old and outdated way of real estate transactions that rely heavily on documents.

“Tokenized properties can either be transacted using traditional payment such as credit/debit card, bank transfer or wire transfer. In addition to these methods, property owners can also opt to receive payments through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether,” Teru Sumida, C Estates Chief Executive Officer, explained.

C Estates Chief Operating Officer Eli Becislao said C Estates is looking to launch the platform this year with a “sneak peek” scheduled later this month.

“We’re targeting to launch this year. We’re planning to do an event by the end of this month, showcasing the first phase of the project which is property listing,” Becislao said.

Initially, C Estates’ plan is to focus on the Philippine real estate market targeting properties that are under the Condominium Certificate of Titles (CCTs) or properties that can be owned by foreign investors.

In the short term, C Estates will have these properties listed and marketed to global real estate investors keen on buying property in the Philippines.

The next phase is to cater to Transfer Certificate of Titles (TCTs) or properties that can only be owned by Filipinos.

C Estates is likewise planning to provide mortgage and home loan financing services and eventually expand the business to nearby countries. /ee