The former parish church of St Lawrence in Durham, England built in 1871 is up for sale for $1.5 million; with an option to pay using Bitcoin (BTC).
As listed on major UK real estate platform Rightmove.com, the 18th century church which has been converted to a seven-bedroom residential property is available for purchase and the vendor is willing to accept Bitcoin as payment.
According to the listing, the price to be paid in bitcoin will be agreed and confirmed by the vendor; this will be determined by the market rate of Bitcoin (BTC) at the time of sale.
At it’s current price of $1.5 million, the church is worth about 185.78 Bitcoins.
The recent church listing is one of many other ‘cypto for real estate’ purchases around the world.
Last year, Malta saw a rise of property listings with options to pay in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. A notable offer was the $3 million Palazzo mansion which went on sale with only Bitcoin payments accepted.
The European nation had also through its Prime Minister – Joseph Muscat, announced the launch of its blockchain property registry in June.
Elsewhere in the United States, a hedge fund manager had placed his $16 million mansion property for sale, offering buyers an option to make payments in his ‘preferred currency’ Bitcoin.
The benefits of cryptocurrency payments and blockchain in real estate are noteworthy. They include speedy payments, transparent and verifiable transactions, less paper work, distributed database among others.
While Bitcoin payments in real estate are in their early stages, crypto use cases in the industry are set to grow.
