According to Deloitte Netherlands, The city of Rotterdam, Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) Rotterdam and Deloitte Netherlands are developing the first real estate Blockchain application to record lease agreements.
The concept comprises the digital recording of the lease agreements of the CIC on Blockchain. This enables startups in the CIC-network to conclude contracts faster and easier. Recording legally binding contracts on Blockchain is a first step towards a more efficient and transparent management of real estate.
“The next step will be monitoring the rental payments. By implementing additional block chain applications in the real estate industry transaction times and costs can be reduced further. Furthermore it enables decision makers to use data analysis for making future investment decisions on selling, buying and constructing real estate, ”according to Jan Willem Santing, manager of Deloitte Real Estate.
This project enables the development and implementation of pilots as part of the Roadmap Next Economy, an initiative of 23 municipalities in the metropolitan region Rotterdam / The Hague. Experimenting with a potentially disruptive technology such as Blockchain in an early stage enables ‘the participants’ to better assess the impact of this technology. With this project, the city of Rotterdam is taking a major step forward by applying the Blockchain as well as by offering the Blockchain technology to third parties.
Blockchain comprises a distributed database where transactions are recorded. The administration of these transactions is public and decentralized, there is no need for a central authority that provides ‘trust’. In addition, the underlying technology is secured with strong cryptography, which makes fraud almost impossible. The impact on the economy is therefore expected to be (very) large.
In order to develop Blockchain applications quickly Deloitte starts its co-creation processes with its customers and partners. As a partner of the municipality of Rotterdam, Deloitte has been involved right from the start with the introduction of CIC in the Netherlands. Rotterdam plays a central role with CIC in the Dutch start-up and innovation hubs. Thanks to – for example – its non-profit sister organization Venture Café, knowledge institutions and their hubs (Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship, RDM Rotterdam and Yes!Delft), investors and businesses are able to find each other well. CIC is considered a new driver of economic growth, employment and investments.
