With the Maharashtra Government indicating to introduce Blockchain in property transactions, this new technology is in the spotlight. There are more questions in the public domain than answers as subject matter experts are few. In an exclusive interview with Ravi Sinha, Tushar Shrivastava, Co-founder & CTO, PropertyPistol.com decodes how Blockchain is the future of real estate transactions.
Ravi Sinha: What is your understanding of Blockchain and how could it change real estate?
Tushar Shrivastava: Blockchain technology is a great way of keeping records, simplifying transactions, and tracing products and services in a business. Blockchain is ideal for businesses that run on data. It is a shared unchallengeable ledger that provides immediate and absolute transparent information to permitted access members. All the vital procedures of sales, registrations, payments, accounts, and projects will be saved in one window with all the details of the transactions. With the shared data, the procedure is recorded only once, thus avoiding duplicity. This will ensure work efficiency and accuracy without the chance of error.
Ravi Sinha: How is it going to help the real estate stakeholders?
Tushar Shrivastava: Real estate is a business that needs a huge amount of data storing and sharing by members that many times regular data storing software are not able to fulfil appropriately. The developer, seller, investors, and property consultants who are handling complicated data can get compact and easily accessible information in the single software, thus avoiding any confusion. In a sector that needs access to massive information at a particular time, the details can be processed in a minute without any hassles. The access by lesser and permissioned members will keep repeated data out. The realty sector is undergoing a transformation and software like Blockchain is surely going to benefit.
Ravi Sinha: Is Blockchain the future of real estate and does it have the potential to make the transactions more transparent?
Tushar Shrivastava: Yes, Blockchain technology can be the future of real estate sector. The real estate sector has been functioning conventionally for years with several processes, sales, and government details managed by local government offices, traders, brokers and other parties involved in the deal. It was a tedious procedure that took time and kept many potential investors away. On the contrary, Blockchain technology has provided a solution for observing, recording, and conducting developments on a single online platform that connects various buyers and sellers. The tiresome task will function smoothly and effectively streamlining all the real estate processes for the future.
Ravi Sinha: Is Blockchain as safe as envisioned?
Tushar Shrivastava: Blockchain stores the data in the form of blocks while ensuring end-to-end encryption, clearness, and delegation. It is difficult to update, modify or tamper with the data once it is stored in the Blockchain. It shows the flawless and unaltered data to the permissible members, without any interference from the unrecognized entity within the deal. This takes transparency to another level for the sector who was once known for its traditional and complex working style. This way of asset management can encourage foreign and smaller investors who are used to a professional and faster style of working.
Ravi Sinha: What should be the ideal blueprint to make the transition from digital property registration to Blockchain?
Tushar Shrivastava: Blockchain technology has been gradually setting its roots in the Indian real estate market. It will take a sufficient amount of time before making the transition to Blockchain. In a densely populated country like India, digital property registration is still restricted to metros and Tier II cities. Many villages in India started using computers in the late 2000 and hence digital usage has been slowly initiated in these places. Starting on an experimental basis in a few registration offices, it can increasingly be inducted into the rest of the country after checking its success rates and popularity among the involved entities.
Ravi Sinha: In a complex market like India is the transition not very challenging?
Tushar Shrivastava: Digital property registration in India was itself an achievement avoiding loads of physical documents. Blockchain would be a pioneering technology in Indian real estate that will preserve huge amounts of data without the chance of getting corrupt or damaged for investors. This will benefit institutional, smaller investors, fractional owners, resitel owners, NRIs, foreign companies looking to invest in India, and Real Investment Trusts of India (REITs) stakeholders, who are looking to simplify the whole process and ready to welcome the compressed data that blockchain technology allows to store.
Track2Realty is an independent media group managed by a consortium of journalists. Starting as the first e-newspaper in the Indian real estate sector in 2011, the group has today evolved as a think-tank on the sector with specialized research reports and rating & ranking. We are editorially independent and free from commercial bias and/or influenced by investors or shareholders. Our editorial team has no clash of interest in practicing high quality journalism that is free, frank & fearless.
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