Stunning state-of-the-art four-bed family home could be yours for £25,000 under the asking price – but there’s a catch
A desirable new-build home at a village development in Colchester, Essex, could be yours if you're savvy enough with your money
THIS four-bed family home could be yours for £25,000 below the asking price.
Developers are willing to sell the new-build house — valued at £400,000 — for £375,000 with a simple techy trick.
Househunters are being encouraged to pay in Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that could save you thousands in admin fees.
That's because Bitcoin only exists online and is not minted or printed, allowing users to make payments without banks, middlemen, government control or transaction fees — and with total anonymity.
The house is valued at 82.55 Bitcoin in today's exchange rate of £4071 to 1 Bitcoin.
Bitcoins are growing in popularity and are now accepted by restaurants, airlines, shops and online retailers.
But property developers Go Homes, based in Hertford, aim to make the leap to bricks and mortar.
“Selling homes for Bitcoin will become common in the next five years,” said group sales director Ed Casson.
“Our industry has largely remained unchanged in terms of innovation in the last 50 years. We are taking an opportunity to embrace this technology.
“We’re offering someone the opportunity to pay for a new home with Bitcoin. Maybe it’ll be somebody who took a chance when Bitcoin were launched and now want to cash them in.
“We’re offering one of our new homes on a development site just outside of Colchester, giving someone the opportunity to trade Bitcoin for bricks and mortar – another popular asset.”
The detached home is one of 32 being built at Elmstead Green, Colchester around a newly-developed village green.
There are no known sales of UK properties for Bitcoin so far, although the race is on, with entrepreneur Daniel Roy saying last month that he’d accept the virtual currency for his £1.65m three-bed townhouse in Peckham, south-east London.
Lingerie tycoon Baroness are also supporting the digital currency and are selling some of the apartments at their £250m development in Dubai for Bitcoin.
Bu there is a risk with Bitcoin transactions because the exchange rate is notoriously volatile.
In January it was trading as low as £667, it surged to £3,771 on 1 September, dipped to £2,472 on 14 September.
Ed Casson said: “We are essentially taking a risk, with wild fluctuations in the exchange rate, but we see that the property market is changing and we want to be the first to embrace that change.
He has opened a “virtual wallet” in the hope of making his first Bitcoin sale. And he says the firm would be keen to make future sale for Bitcoins.
“We would potentially make other properties available. We build about 150 homes a year.
“We believe that the UK property market is about to totally change in terms of how homes are bought and sold due to new technologies now available and growing investment in property technology companies are making this all possible including trading homes in cryptocurrency.
“This whole exercise, while fun in many ways, is all part of our company’s ethos to supply affordable, innovative homes, to all. It’s a bold statement, but we are driven to do our bit to help fix the UK wide housing crisis.
"This is only possible by innovation on the industry. It currently takes far too long for land to be acquired, for planning decisions, construction through to sales.
"All these areas need to change to speed up the process, and we are determined to do our bit to improve things.”
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