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Have Dogecoin? Now, buy property in Dubai

Dubai - Samana accepts Dogecoin cryptocurrency for residential project in Jumeirah Village Circle Dubai.

Samana Developers will pioneer realty transactions by accepting Dogecoin cryptocurrency as a payment option for its upcoming residential project in Jumeirah Village Circle Dubai.

This is a second such move after Kiklabb — the Dubai government-owned licencing solutions — started accepting cryptocurrencies in February as a payment option for trade licences and visa fees. Will this be a beginning of new payment mode in mainstream, giving boost to real estate and offering diversity to investors?

Dogecoin recently surged in the global crypto market and gained traction at the back of world’s top business tycoon — Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla and founder of SpaceX space transportation services company.

For payments through Dogecoin, Samana Developers will use Cayman-islands based Binance cryptocurrency exchange, the world’s leading crypto exchange. Binance trades two billion volume daily on an average and conducts 1.4 million transactions per second.

Samana move is in line with its strategy of ease-of-doing-business with the developer and opening up and driving new international investor stream to Dubai properties. New payment option is expected to bring massive investment inflow.

“I consider the crypto as an opportunity in general and a new mode of settlement in particular. Looking at the growing acceptance of cryptocurrency and its inclusion into the mainstream financial industry, I can now clearly see that the time has come to start using the cryptocurrency in businesses, especially, in the real estate sector in Dubai. We as a real estate developer must recognise it,” said Imran Farooq, CEO of Samana Developer.

He was of the opinion that the more the crypto system is transparent, the less it becomes complex. Since the cryptocurrency wallet works closely with the brick-and-mortar banks, fiat currency and is pegged with the US dollar, it becomes transparent and reliable mode of payment, he said.

“I believe the fundamental shift to cryptocurrency transactions should be: that all real estate sale proceeds through cryptocurrency for real estate projects in Dubai must go to the escrow account at the Dubai Land Department. Cryptocurrency must be regulated just like any other currency. Samana sister concern has a full fledge sysyem to manage crypto wallets and exchanges.”

DLD to charge in dirhams

Meanwhile, the Dubai Land Department (DLD) issued an official statement to Khaleej Times, which stated that as per the guidelines issued from the UAE Central Bank regarding the usage and exchange of cryptocurrency for the purchase or lease of properties, DLD aligns with the bank’s decision of preventing any transactions to take place through the use of cryptocurrency.

“As part of our mission to regulate the real estate market and protect the rights of both owners and developers, an escrow account must be opened for each respective property in the local currency (the UAE dirham). At the moment, we do not anticipate the central bank to change its guidelines, and our transfer fee of four per cent is to be settled explicitly using the local currency, as mandated by the government of Dubai,” said the statement.

Dogecoin for new project

To encourage its buyers, Samana Developers has also offered five per cent discount to investors who will use Dogecoin for Samana’s upcoming project which will be launched in June or July 2021.

“Digitalisation and Covid-19 accelerated work transformation has changed the world. Samana Developers remains vigilant of the changes and quickly adapt to it. Our innovative initiative in Dubai real estate market helps drive growth and create better value for investors. That approach was the reason we achieved top-ranked seller position in Arjan,” Farooq said.

International companies which are currently using Dogecoin include US-based NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Latvia’s AirBaltic, Canada’s EasyDNS, US’s luxury resort company Kessler Collection, among others.

— sandhya@khaleejtimes.com