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Portugal’s first property sale in cryptocurrency might have looked unremarkable, but it didn’t feel that way to those who had been working for nearly a year to make it happen.

On May 4, in an office in the northern city of Braga, two men pulled up chairs in front of Apple laptops. João Marques, the seller, passed a crypto wallet address to the buyer, who made a transfer and became the new owner of an apartment in the city worth €110,000 — just under three bitcoin at the time. The president of the Portuguese chamber of notaries, Jorge Silva, watched on — as did Carlos Santos, chief technology officer at the Portuguese real estate company Zome, which brokered the sale. The whole process took just a few minutes but it was the culmination of many months of discussions between Portuguese tax, financial and notary authorities to agree on how to allow property transactions to happen entirely in cryptocurrency.

Portugal, which does not have capital gains taxes for cryptocurrencies, has been a haven for crypto investors. In mid-April, Silva’s office issued guidance on how notaries should approach crypto transactions without the need to convert to euros before becoming legal. Silva says the move reflects a clear desire on the part of buyers: “Crypto is a reality,” he says, “and now you can do [crypto sales] in a legal way with transparency, complying with everything.” Portugal’s first property sale in cryptocurrency was for an apartment in Braga © Zome Real Estate Portugal is unusual in this respect.

In most countries, the absence of resources to assess associated tax implications and risks, as well as the danger of money laundering, means conversion to fiat currency is still necessary at some point in the process. That uncertainty has not deterred companies such as Zome that have taken the plunge and are attempting to work out what a more established crypto real estate market would look like.

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Zome began scoping out the possibility of cryptocurrency transactions last summer, says Santos, who sees potential to tap a new client base: “If we provide [crypto investors with] a convenient way, in their language, to allow them to do real estate business in Portugal, then we will attract these guys to us.” The pool of potential buyers is growing. 

 

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