This platform is transforming high-end property into NFTs

Buying real estate is a convoluted process that involves a lot of legal work — but now, nonfungible tokens are bringing these transactions into the 21st century.

A partnership between Mattereum and the property consultant West London City Lets now means that a prime beachfront property on England's south coast is available as an NFT issued by West London City Lets subsidiary Tokenized Properties.

The plot of land can be found in Milford-on-Sea, and the minimum bids for the NFT on OpenSea start at 1.25 million USDC.

So how does it work? Well, this NFT has been linked to a Mattereum Asset Passport, which proves the value of physical objects. It consists of a series of signed legal statements — as well as Land Registry documents and a detailed description of the land.

Mattereum and West London City Lets believe this approach could revolutionize real estate deals in the U.K. and 170 countries around the world — enhancing efficiency and transparency in the property market, all while streamlining transactions. Through nonfungible tokens, homes can be sold on to others without both parties needing to go through arduous legal checks all over again. The property NFTs can also be integrated into the DeFi ecosystem for collateralized lending.

Tokenizing real-world assets

While Mattereum is championing property as a potential use case for its protocol, the platform is also targeting other high-value assets in the so-called "Million Dollar Quartet." Through its B2B platform, everything from gold and antiques to musical instruments and investment-grade wines can be tokenized — and this technology is being offered to other startups in the crypto space.

Executives have stressed that any asset class can benefit from its approach, meaning it's possible to bring all real-world items on to the blockchain with the help of its protocol. 

Mattereum's founder Vinay Gupta told Cointelegraph: "Real estate on-chain is the holy grail of real-world assets. This is not only because it is the world's largest asset class. It is also because buying and selling real estate using existing systems can take four months and cost 4%. Mattereum has brought that purchase process down to a quick KYC check and an NFT purchase. There are over a trillion dollars of real estate transactions a year waiting to be streamlined."

Cutting bureaucracy

The Milford-on-Sea land that's on offer through OpenSea has commercial development potential. 

Idris Anjary, of West London City Lets, said: "We're excited to be working with Mattereum on this first of its kind real estate project. It's going to be a game changer in the built environment industry and open up countless business avenues for people wanting to buy and sell property."

Overall, Mattereum's Vinay Gupta is confident that this cutting-edge approach could "liberate a lot of dormant potential in the sector" — and through this first-of-its-kind transaction, both businesses are hoping to show the world what's possible.