Antalya Homes, a leading real estate company based in Turkey, announced today that customers can use Bitcoin to purchase properties featured on its website.
As part of the announcement, the Turkish real estate agency revealed that it has recorded the country’s biggest real estate sale using cryptocurrency of all time. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global real estate industry has faced numerous financial and logistical challenges, including price depreciation due to weak demand and prohibitions on open houses.
Many real estate firms, including Antalya Homes, have introduced new measures to excite buyers and facilitate sales. In the case of Antalya Homes, this involves providing virtual home tours and welcoming Bitcoin alongside other top cryptocurrencies.
Antalya Homes Chairman Bayram Tekce said, “In the sale of a villa in Antalya, we recorded visuals of the house with a drone and did an online viewing tour with the customer. Then, we brought the buyer and the seller together on an online meeting and finalized the negotiations. Antalya Homes brokered the payments with Bitcoin. This sale, worth $1.25 million, was the highest valued property sale ever made by Bitcoin in Turkey.”
Users of the Antalya Homes website can find a special “Pay with Bitcoin” area on the firm’s website. The company proudly welcomes Bitcoin and other blockchain payment methods, including Ripple (XRP), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Steller (XLM), and Tether (USDT). Given the large fees charged by banks and other legacy financial institutions, cryptocurrencies are considered to be a good fit for real estate transactions.
Antalya Homes isn’t the first real estate agency to embrace cryptocurrencies. In 2019, a real estate firm in the United Kingdom made headlines after listing a mid-19th century church and announcing the purchase could be made using Bitcoin. Earlier last year, real estate tycoon Ben Shoaul sold a Manhattan condominium for the equivalent of $15.3 Million in Bitcoin.
