First bitcoin homes sell in the UK

Developers have sold the first two luxury homes in the UK using bitcoin currency.

It follows an increasing trend in the last few months for developers to place new homes on the market in the cryptocurrency.

Property developer Go Homes announced the successful sale of the homes yesterday, both have been bought by men in their 20s in the technology industry.

The first is a four-bedroom detached £350,000 family house in Colchester which is still under construction.

The unnamed buyer, a software developer, is understood to be a so-called "Bitcoin miner" who made an early killing on the cryptocurrency and is now converting it into bricks and mortar by buying a new home as an investment property.

He is intending on renting out in bitcoin.

London property developer The Collective became the first firm to allow its tenants to pay their deposits and in bitcoin in September.

It said the move was in response to demand from international customers.

The second property sold by Go Homes  is £595,000 four-bed townhouse in Hertfordshire.

Ed Casson, group sales director of Go Homes, said the buyer became a bitcoin owner through mining and trading in online games.

"This re-writes the rule book and shows there is another way to sell property," he said.

"This is the first time a domestic property has been sold for Bitcoin in the UK. It's a bit of history in the making. Selling homes for Bitcoin will become common in the next five years.

"Our industry has largely remained unchanged in terms of innovation in the last 50 years. We are taking an opportunity to embrace this technology."

The Land Registry has agreed for the first time to let the buyer have the sale price recorded in a cryptocurrency, although he may choose not to take up the option.

Mr Casson said the move will be popular as it will benefit buyers and sellers due to transactions being swifter.

"Because the Bitcoin is so volatile purchasers buy a property outright, with no deposit," he added.

"They exchange and complete at the same time."

Both properties have been sold subject to contract and construction of both is due to finish in March 2018.

Mr Casson said the firm is happy to accept bitcoin payments on any of their 250 homes due for completion next year in Hertfordshire, Essex and East Anglia.

Solicitor Adrian Toulson, director of risk at law firm Breeze and Wyles, was involved in the ground-breaking conveyancing.

"We had to do a lot of due diligence to verify where the bitcoin had come from, and we had the buyer and seller and their legal representatives together for a round-table meeting," he said.

"We have designed a contract to protect both the buyer and seller from fluctuations in the exchange rate. The Land Registry agreed in principle that the price could be recorded in Bitcoin, but the buyer may well choose to use pounds, simply because calculating any capital gains tax may prove very complicated."

In October a Notting Hill mansion was placed on the market for £17 million and became the first property for sale where the owners would only accept bitcoin.

A month earlier a £1.7 million Peckham townhouse was placed on the market and open to both bitcoin and sterling offers.