The Future of Real Estate Investment: Tokenized RWA for Global Accessibility

November 1, 2024

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The real world assets (RWA) market has reached an all time high of $12 billion tokenized, according to Binance Research. This surge reflects the future of investment, which no longer requires buying or directly owning a physical asset. Today’s technologies allow you to invest in assets worldwide. Imagine living in New York City but wanting to invest in a luxury villa in Bali. Now, with just one click, you can do so without ever leaving your home. Or perhaps you'd prefer to own small portions of real world assets, similar to buying shares in a company, this is now possible through tokenization.

Tokenization simplifies investment by breaking down expensive assets, such as real estate, into smaller, more affordable units. This approach enables people to invest without needing a large sum of money upfront, which is often required in traditional investments. Instead of purchasing an entire property, they can acquire small fractions of it through digital tokens, making investment opportunities more accessible to a wider range of investors with varying budgets.

Understanding Tokenization of Real World Assets

Tokenization is a game changer in the real world asset (RWA) industry, transforming how high value assets like real estate and art are owned and traded. It involves converting these assets into digital tokens on a blockchain, where each token represents a fractional share of the asset. This enables multiple investors to own parts of an asset that was once only accessible to large investors or institutions.

The blockchain serves as the foundation for tokenization, providing a decentralized, transparent, and secure platform for storing and transferring these digital tokens. Tokenized assets can be traded on digital marketplaces, significantly improving liquidity compared to traditional markets, where asset transactions are often slow and costly.

A key feature of tokenization is the use of smart contracts self executing contracts with the terms of the agreement written directly into code. These smart contracts automatically facilitate the transfer of tokens when predefined conditions are met, streamlining the process and eliminating the need for intermediaries. This allows investors to trade their shares of an asset at any time, without requiring permission or coordination with other owners.

Global Accessibility and Liquidity in Real Estate Investments

Traditional asset investments, especially in real estate, often require substantial capital outlay and can cost hundreds of thousands to millions, creating a high barrier to entry. These are often referred to as illiquid assets due to the difficulty in quickly converting them into cash. Tokenization, however, opens up global investment opportunities, allowing investors from anywhere in the world to participate in real estate markets that were previously inaccessible and illiquid. Here’s how it works:

  1. Fractional Ownership: Investors can purchase small portions of an asset by buying tokens, which significantly lowers the barrier to entry.
  2. Digital Marketplace: These tokens can be traded on online platforms, making it easy to sell your asset shares anytime, unlike traditional real estate, which requires trading during business hours and can take months or even years to sell.
  3. More Buyers and Sellers: Tokenization attracts a global pool of investors, making it easier to find buyers or sellers for tokens. This greatly increases liquidity compared to traditional assets.

Real World Applications: SkyTrade: Tokenizing Air Rights

SkyTrade is revolutionizing how property owners unlock the value of their air rights. By utilizing Solana blockchain, SkyTrade transforms these rights into tradable assets. With ownership verified through secure database checks, property owners can tokenize their airspace and sell it on SkyTrade’s auction house, unlocking liquidity for a previously untapped asset. In addition, the SkyTrade Radar app enhances this system by using a decentralized network to track drone activity, ensuring compliance with air rights. Furthermore, smart contracts automate transactions, including the seamless distribution of rental fees for airspace use, making the entire process transparent, efficient, and cost-effective.

Conclusion

Tokenization is transforming real world asset investments by allowing fractional ownership, making high value assets like real estate more accessible and liquid. This shift enables investors worldwide to participate in markets that were once limited to large scale buyers. Through blockchain technology, tokenization increases global investment opportunities, improves liquidity, and reduces barriers to entry, as seen in projects like SkyTrade and RealT.

In line with this innovation, SkyTrade is set to launch its auction house, allowing property owners to tokenize their air rights using compressed NFTs on the Solana blockchain. This auction house facilitates the buying and selling of these tokenized air rights, providing a new way for individuals to earn passive income. By offering early registration and verification, SkyTrade ensures that users can access these opportunities as soon as the platform goes live.

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