Bitcoins being used in the Shanghai property market
November 14, 2013 Leave a comment
Bitcoins being used in the Shanghai property market
Staff Reporter
2013-11-14
Three buildings on a 700,000 square-meter plot of land in the Pudong district of Shanghai, China look just like any of the other buildings in the city. What makes them different, however, is that space in these buildings can be purchased using bitcoins, a digital currency that is circulated on the internet and functions without the intermediation of a central authority.At the entrance to one of the three buildings, which is used as the property management center, a bulletin reads “Today’s bitcoin value: 1: 2100.”, meaning that 1 bitcoin has an exchange value of 2,100 yuan (US$344).
The owner of the buildings, Shanda Tiandi Ltd., posts the rate every day based upon fluctuations of bitcoin against the yuan. If a buyer wants to purchase a unit in bitcoins, he will have to convert the price in yuan into bitcoins, based on the day’s exchange rate.
This modern way of payment has attracted many employees from the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Pudong. Shanda Tiandi’s salespersons told the China Business News Daily that there were several people who had asked about the bitcoin purchases, though none of them placed an order.
The Shanda Tiandi buildings target young buyers, with each unit priced between 800,000 yuan (US$131,300) and 1.5 million yuan (US$246,000). The company said that, its strategy of accepting bitcoins, is aimed at conveying its recognition of the internet’s innovative and pioneering spirit, and that it hopes it can win the approval of China’s internet users, the newspaper said.
Shanda Tiandi’s operational president, He Daxiong, told the daily that “we want to act differently from the traditional ways the real estate sector is run.” Apart from that, the company also wants to see if bitcoins can replace traditional currency in the real world, he said.
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