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The Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) has entered into a partnership with local blockchain startup Igloo to fully digitalize residential tenancy agreement.
As per a press release, the initiative will see residential tenancy agreements being executed as digital smart contracts.
Josh Callaghan, REIQ’s general manager, noted the new initiative will enhance transparency and provide new beneficial functions.
Callaghan further said that the new smart contracts would use blockchain technology to conduct a simple and secure transaction for each tenancy agreement to “leverage the benefits of the technology as an irrefutable source of truth.”
“All parties will have visibility over the contract at any time from the palm of their hand. By executing as a smart contract, we’re also able to build out the functionality to handle payments of bond and rent, plus facilitate other activities related to the property such as routine inspections and maintenance,” he said.
He noted that the revolutionary product aims to lower the manual handling of contracts, streamline the process, and give both parties better visibility over the agreement. The innovation also ultimately aims to make a real-time view of the State’s rental market.
“The instant a tenancy agreement is signed, we will know how much a property was rented for, how long the agreement is for, how long it was vacant and so on, which will give the REIQ unprecedented insights into rental market trends as it happens,” Callaghan said.
The technology, which has “far-reaching applications” for the real estate sector, is slated to be implemented by the end of this year.
Earlier this month, Korea’s SK Securities and Kasa Korea teamed up to develop a platform for tokenizing real estate. Under the deal, the digital property shares of Kasa Network will enable investors to trade pieces of real estate.
