The auction is set for July 19
A three-bedroom, one-bathroom family home in Mangere, Auckland will be put up for sale, with all proceeds to be paid in Bitcoin.
Altar Peni, an Auckland father of six, said the payment for his Auckland home could be in cash, cash and Bitcoin, or fully in Bitcoin; but ultimately, all proceeds will be transacted to him and his wife in Bitcoin.
“There’s a real piece of real estate you can actually get with your Bitcoin,” Peni told Stuff.
Peni started researching Bitcoin, a decentralised digital currency, or cryptocurrency, that can be transferred instantly from peer to peer without needing a bank, after the family’s candy floss business suffered from event cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I looked at it deeply and did a course online,” he told Stuff.
Peni believed that similar to the internet, cryptocurrency would be something only a few people used at first, and then down the track would be indispensable to people.
“I guess it’s the future of money,” he said.
Peni and his wife bought the property in 2014 for $378,000. It now has a capital value of $810,000.
Peni said their family had been living in the 110-square-metre home but recently moved in with their in-laws to help them out. The property was then rented out, but with the mortgage still needing topping up, they decided to sell.
Investing in Bitcoin was “a long-term savings mechanism,” Peni told Stuff. “It’s basically just to provide for our family long term.”
The Auckland vendor believed Bitcoin would increase in value for those prepared to “stomach the volatility” and hold long term.
A recent crypto sell-off has seen the value of Bitcoin plunge 57% in the past six months to $32,336.
Peni had spent months working with real estate agents and lawyers on the details of the sale to plan how the sale and transaction would play out.
Ray White’s Tom Rawson said that during the house auction, a ticker would be in place to show what the bidding was worth in Bitcoin. Software had been developed to facilitate the Bitcoin auction, he said.
“We're going to run an auction where we'll have a live Bitcoin-to-New Zealand dollar figure running,” Rawson told Stuff. “At the fall of the hammer, we'll agree on the Bitcoin amount, providing it’s a Bitcoin buyer.”
Even if the successful bidder did not have Bitcoin, the proceeds of the sale would be put through an exchange and paid to the family in Bitcoin, the agent said.
“Regardless of if a normal person buys it or a Bitcoin person buys it, the family want to end up with cryptocurrency,” Rawson told Stuff, adding that he expected the house to sell for around CV.
While fewer people may want to sell their Bitcoin due to the recent drop in the value of cryptocurrencies, Peni would be able to get more Bitcoin for his home than he would have when it was sitting at record highs last year, he said
Rather than sell his home for cash last year “when house prices were cranking,” Peni opted for a peer-to-peer transaction to enable a different class of buyer to be able to buy the property, Rawson said.
The agents were happy to be paid commission in either cash or Bitcoin, he said.
The auction is scheduled on July 19 but could be brought forward if a pre-auction offer was made, Stuff reported.
