- A South Auckland property is being auctioned for Bitcoin, potentially making NZ history if successful.

- Owners Brendon Wang and his wife believe cryptocurrency is the stronger investment.

- Their property, valued at over $600,000, can be bought with cash or Bitcoin.

A South Auckland property that is being sold for Bitcoin could make history when it goes under the hammer next month.

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Two property investors are looking to offload their South Auckland rental for Bitcoin.

The three-bedroom brick and tile unit home at 1/27 Weymouth Road, in Manurewa, goes to auction next month, with bidders given the opportunity to make a purchase in cash or in cryptocurrency.

The property, which Brendon Wang and his wife bought in 2020 for $556,000, has an RV of $640,000 – the equivalent of 3.4 bitcoins at current market prices.

Wang told OneRoof he and his wife had been investing in Bitcoin for about six years and after crunching the numbers had decided the cryptocurrency was a better investment than property.

A renovated three-bedroom home on Weymouth Road, in South Auckland, can be bought for Bitcoin. Photo / Supplied

The owners spent about $60,000 remodelling and renovating the property. Photo / Supplied

A renovated three-bedroom home on Weymouth Road, in South Auckland, can be bought for Bitcoin. Photo / Supplied

The makeover included installing a new bathroom and kitchen. Photo / Supplied

“That’s why we want to switch to a faster horse, to swap from property investment to crypto investment,” he said.

“We think with Bitcoin reaching its all-time high recently, it would be good for someone to take the profit and swap their profit into property. There’s always two-way traffic in this kind of scenario.

“I think people who bought Bitcoin at a lower price and have now doubled or tripled their money might now want to sell Bitcoin for property.”

The Wangs’ property is not the first to have been listed in New Zealand as accepting Bitcoin at auction, but none have been purchased with the cryptocurrency.

The bids placed for 1/27 Weymouth Road will be in New Zealand dollars, but the successful buyer has the chance use Bitcoin when paying for it. Regardless of what currency it is bought in, the Wangs have said they will take whatever profit they make to buy more Bitcoin.

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To help with the Bitcoin transaction, the Wangs have engaged crypto law experts from law firm Stace Hammond and Easy Crypto, a New Zealand cryptocurrency retail platform. If the property is successfully purchased with Bitcoin, Easy Crypto will convert some of it back into cash to pay off the mortgage.

Wang said he was “nervous but excited” because he believed Bitcoin was a more solid investment and it was a good time to purchase more. Because there was a limited supply of the currency, he felt its value would only rise in the future, especially given the pro-Bitcoin noises from new US President Donald Trump.

Wang said he had also been in touch with South Auckland man Alta Peni, who attempted to sell his family home on Tennessee Avenue, in Mangere, by Bitcoin three years ago and spent about nine months researching how to do it. Peni eventually sold the home for dollars, but he still shared his experience with the Wangs.

The Wangs are using Ray White agent William Vaea, who was also the listing agent for Peni’s property.

A renovated three-bedroom home on Weymouth Road, in South Auckland, can be bought for Bitcoin. Photo / Supplied

Bitcoin has jumped in value in recent weeks. Photo / Getty Images

Vaea had sold the Weymouth Road property to the Wangs almost five years ago and also sold Peni’s Mangere home.

“I had this idea and I Googled it and I saw William’s name and William was the guy who sold this property to us in 2020. It was fate,” Wang said.

Vaea said that when he was marketing Peni’s home, he had received interest from Bitcoin holders, but they were mainly curious about how it would work and weren’t serious buyers. “They were like, ‘Oh we never thought we could buy with Bitcoin before’,” he said.

Vaea told OneRoof he was still ironing out some of the finer details and getting advice on what to do if the value of Bitcoin changed in the six weeks between the auction and settlement.

“If we get any enquiries [from Bitcoin holders], we are going to get those lawyers and Easy Crypto in as soon as possible.”

And while he thought it was likely that the Weymouth Road home would still sell for good old-fashion cash, anything was possible. “In this job there’s always something new every day. It could be.”

The Wangs have spent $60,000 upgrading the cross-lease property, installing a new kitchen and bathroom, and currently charge $685 a week in rent. It is being pitched at first-home buyers and property investors, as well as those with cryptocurrency.

Easy Crypto chief commercial officer Paul Quickenden said the use of Bitcoin in residential real estate in New Zealand was unusual, although Kiwis did buy other high-value assets such as jewellery and cars with cryptocurrency.

“Our belief is we are not done on this crypto cycle and more people are going to be thinking how they can swap between crypto and other assets. So we think this will be a more common occurrence but someone has got to go first for people to believe in it a bit more.”

There were about 500,000 Kiwis who owned or had owned Bitcoin and more were coming on board each month, he said.

While the older generation still favoured property investment, the younger generation was looking at other investments which had a lower entry point.

“Young people still want financial freedom and are looking at other asset classes to help them with that and because the entry class for crypto is $50 (NZD) that’s something that is attainable.”

However, there were risks with investing in Bitcoin including that it was extremely volatile and the value could rise and fall quite quickly. On January 1, 2024 the closing price for one Bitcoin was circa $43,000 and is now at an all-time high of circa $109,000.

- 1/27 Weymouth Road, in Mangere, South Auckland, goes to auction on February 13