Real estate agent offering NFT perk with the sale of house

PHOTO: NFTs. BBC

The use of novel incentives to help sell real estate is nothing new.

Over the years we’ve seen homes sold with luxury cars already parked in garages, boats moored on backyard jetties, cellars pre-stocked with rare wines, and expensive art attached to walls.

But an entrepreneurial real estate agency on the New South Wales Central Coast is taking the idea into the crypto age by including a non-fungible token (NFT) in the contract for a $9 million waterfront mansion.

A luxury home on the New South Wales Central Coast is being sold with an NFT bonus. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy

The home, at 10-12 Ocean View Drive in Wamberal is at the top of the Central Coast market and boasts direct access to Terrigal Lagoon along with a gym, tennis court, spa, and home theatre, all set on a large 1689sqm double block.

But it’s the NFT – a first for Australia, according to Property Central founding director Jamie Granger – that sets it apart from other luxury homes in the area.

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“We’ve been looking at ways in which we can use blockchain technology in the property market and we thought if we can create an NFT that has some value around it, we could offer it as an inclusion on the front page of the contract,” Mr Granger said.

The NFT that comes with the Wamberal property. Picture: Property Central

NFTs are collectible, one-of-a-kind digital artworks that owners hope will increase in value over time because of their uniqueness.

They have taken the investment world by storm in recent years.

Combined with the rise of crypto currencies and, more recently, the metaverse, NFTs are part of a revolutionary new international digital asset class.

The NFT for the Wamberal property was designed by an artist in Greece and features a gold Property Central-branded key on the front and a picture of the property on the back, along with a QR code that links to the listing.

The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home sits on a mammoth 1689sqm waterfront block. Picture: realestate.com.au/buy

But it also has a real-world tangible value, with its owner guaranteed a 50% reduction in agent’s commission whenever the home is re-sold with Property Central in the future, plus $5000 in marketing costs.

That’s a total saving of almost $100,000 based on the home’s current value and the agency’s rolling annual commission rate.

“As well as the intrinsic value of the NFT, it could be worth even more to an antique dealer in 20 years’ time because it’s the first of its kind in Australia,” Mr Granger said.

NFT investment opportunities may be the hot trend for those in-the-know but there is still some way to go before they hit the mainstream.

A survey conducted last November by comparison site Finder found that only 4.6% of Australians currently own an NFT, with another 7.1% ‘planning to buy’. We finished 16th out of 20 on a list of international NFT engagement.