- Auckland mayoral candidate John Alcock listed his Remuera home for Bitcoin but sold it for over $5 million in dollars.
- Alcock believes Bitcoin is suitable for real estate transactions and predicts increased cryptocurrency use.
- Bayleys agent Gary Wallace said the digital currency offer failed to engage buyers, leading to a traditional sale.
Auckland mayoral candidate John Alcock had wanted to make New Zealand real estate history this year by selling his multi-million-dollar Remuera home for Bitcoin.
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Alcock made headlines last month when he listed his four-bedroom house on Arney Crescent with an invitation to buyers to make offers in the popular cryptocurrency.
He ended up accepting a substantial one in standard New Zealand dollars, telling OneRoof that while he was disappointed, he was not deterred.
He said there were lots of people in New Zealand with cryptocurrency, "probably not enough to buy a whole property right now, but that will change very quickly over the next couple of years".
The Arney Crescent property was in a "great location", the listing agent said, but "very tired" and "very old". Photo / Supplied
"I think with the introduction of CBDCs [central bank digital currencies], digital IDs and the way the banking apps are installing spyware on everybody's phones, a lot more people will be motivated to move into the cryptocurrency space.”
To Alcock, Bitcoin makes sense in real estate because it meets all the requirements for a property transaction in its entirety, particularly the finalisation of payments.
He said law firm Minter Ellison was working quite hard in that space with Blockchain New Zealand, "which is why we selected them as our law firm". His listing agency, Bayleys, was also part of Blockchain New Zealand, he said.
"They are looking for those opportunities, so there's a lot of support in that space."
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Bayleys agent Gary Wallace, who marketed the property, confessed to OneRoof that he had to do a bit of a crash course in Bitcoin when he got the listing. In the end, though, the digital currency offer failed to engage potential buyers.
“It was just a normal sale. A person came along and bought it in plain old New Zealand dollars, and it was as simple as that," he said.
“To be really honest with you, although we accommodated the vendor’s request, and we made it clear to a number of buyers that the vendor would accept Bitcoin, they looked at me in a very strange way.”
Wallace said he had put the Bayleys’ finance team on notice that Alcock had requested to sell the property in Bitcoin.
“We looked at it, and as it turned out, we had to talk about things like when we get a deposit in Bitcoin, how do we handle that because we've never done that before.
Bayleys agent Gary Wallace on Bitcoin real estate sales: “It's certainly above my pay grade.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
“As it turned out, the vendor’s solicitor had the capacity to do that. Look, we would have been able to handle a Bitcoin transaction, but it was a bit out of left field.”
The property sold for just north of $5 million, around what the agents had expected, to a local family who wanted to be in that part of Remuera. “Great location but a very tired, very old [home] and the new owners are going to do a major renovation,” Wallace said.
“When you sell a property like that, although it sold in the early fives, ultimately it's more of an $8m to $9m buyer who is prepared to spend that money, and that will be the end result.”
The original listing described the 1920s home as having a stately façade and commanding views across the city and harbour.
“Held within the same family for more than four decades, this is one of Remuera's most tightly-held addresses, offering a lifestyle of distinction steeped in tradition, scale and timeless sophistication,” it said.
Wallace said he had yet to come across anyone who wants to buy a property using Bitcoin, saying it’s a minuscule market, but he's not ruling out that changing. “You listen to Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon; they have a different opinion, and they are pretty onto it. I don't know, it's certainly above my pay grade.”
Alcock, who won just over 11,000 votes in the recent mayoral election, four spots behind winner Wayne Brown, and stood on a platform of reclaiming “New Zealand from ideological extremism”, according to the Spinoff, told OneRoof that Bitcoin was more transparent and complete than New Zealand's current financial system.
“I use Bitcoin as my day-to-day transaction currency, even with its negative aspects as well. It's just like Visa and MasterCard; they just treat it like any other currency, and you can spend it like cash," he said.
“I personally haven't noticed the cost-of-living increase at all because my Bitcoin has gone up faster than the cost of living."
Alcock said he was standing in the Panmure Otahuhu electorate in next year’s general election. He is the deputy leader of the New Zealand Loyal, which was founded by former broadcaster and anti-vaccination activist Liz Gunn.
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