区块链对亚洲商业地产的影响评估(英文版).pdf

Colliers InsightsOccupier Services|APAC15 March 2018TAME OR TRANSFORMATIONAL?ASSESSING BLOCKCHAINS COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE IMPACTS IN ASIA EXECUTIVE SUMMARYBlockchain technology allows all information relating to a series of transactions to be distributed across a network of computers known as nodes.Blockchain creates digital track records that are shared,transparent,rapidly updatable and very difficult to hack.Furthermore,blockchain eliminates the need for a central authority to approve transactions and verify identities.Real estate is ripe for blockchain-based disruption due to the complexity of the typical transaction.Moving land registries,for example,on to blockchain promises to create tamper-proof records,enhancing the clarity and security of property ownership.This advantage ought to make blockchain attractive to governments;and the fact that developed markets like Sweden and Japan are taking the property applications of blockchain seriously is a positive sign.That said,we anticipate resistance to adoption of blockchain by more traditional governments and regulators,and perhaps also by vested interests like the legal profession.We suspect that adoption will be faster in emerging markets where there is a greater motivation to enhance transparency and tackle corruption.In combination with the spread of artificial intelligence and other technological trends,we expect that blockchain will lead to lower staff requirements in back and middle offices and to reductions in office sizes(or at least to greater efficiency in office use).Blockchain should thus help accelerate a decentralisation process in the financial sector in particular,and to increase demand for flexible workspace.ANDREW HASKINSExecutive Director Research&Advisory|Asia Tel:[phone] Email:Andrew.HMICHAEL BOWENSExecutive Director Regional Tenant Representation|Asia Tel:[phone] Email:Michael B03A RAPID RISE04FROM IDEA TO IMPACT06MEETING THE NEED FOR SPEED 08ENHANCING TRANSPARENCY10DRIVING DECENTRALISATION12PRACTICALITIES AND CHALLENGES15BECOMING BLOCKCHAIN-READY16BRACING FOR CHANGE:BLOCKCHAINS KEY POTENTIAL CRE APPLICATIONSTABLE OF CONTENTS|3 1 How Adoption of Blockchain Technology Will Disrupt Agriculture,Inc42,January 20182 Matchpool brings the blockchain to online dating,SiliconANGLE,January 20173 Mega blockchain hub sets up in Singapore,Marketing Interactive,March 20184 Leveraging blockchain technology to democratize the real estate industry,Enterprise Innovation,January 20185 Blockchain platform targets property financing opportunities in China,Fintech Innovation,July 20166 Indian states look to digitize land deals with blockchain,Reuters,August 20177 Top trends in the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies 2017,Gartner,August 20178 Proptech is all the buzz,just not yet in Asia,The Business Times,January 2018 A RAPID RISE Real estate is no exception.The authentication and security possibilities opened by blockchain are thought to be of particular relevance for the property industry,and across Asia examples are already emerging of the technology being applied in the field.These include startups using blockchain to digitally break down and sell real estate assets,as well as full-blown blockchain hubs in office towers,in Singapore;3,4 new platforms to connect homeowners with financing in China;5 and tamper-proof land registries in India.6 That said as in other sectors,the adoption of blockchain in real estate remains nascent and its practical implications are not always clear.Blockchain has already reached the“trough of disillusionment”on the Hype Cycle established by research firm Gartner the period in which initial experiments repeatedly fail to deliver.7 One recent survey showed only a small minority of property firms in Asia are convinced of its disruptive potential.8 This report will examine blockchain in the specific context of the commercial real estate(CRE)sector in Asia,exploring how it is likely to be used;where its impacts may be felt first;and the potential benefits and challenges associated with blockchain implementations.Drawing on research and the views of Colliers and external experts,it will attempt to answer whether the technology is poised to deliver what it promises for owners and occupiers,and how the industry can best position itself to seize on blockchains momentum.Barely a decade old,blockchain has become part of the basic vocabulary of many industries.The technology is typically associated with finance,as the platform behind cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.However,blockchain has been promised to transform everything from farming1 to online dating.2 ASIAN PESSIMISMDriverless vehiclesBlockchainAugmented/virtual realityBig data and predictive analyticsArtificial or machine intelligenceSmart buildings9%15%18%23%28%35%10%8%13%20%25%28%GlobalAsiaSource:Altus Group;Singapore Business Times%of respondents who think these technologies will disrupt the commercial real estate industry4|Before looking at how blockchain applies to real estate,it is first important to understand what it is and how it works independent of the cryptocurrency networks that tend to dominate the headlines.Each block in blockchain represents a transaction anything from a purchase to the updating of an online record that rather than being stored centrally is distributed across a network of computers known as nodes.This means that no single party has control over the data,and that any changes are visible across the entire network immediately.Furthermore,it means that all documents become shared,and therefore visible to all parties to a transaction at the same time.Security comes from every computer on the network being able to verify the identity of the party behind the transaction,and whether the transaction is valid.If approved the transaction is added to a chain,creating a digital track record that is permanent and supposedly virtually impossible to alter,due to the complex cryptography that underpins exchanges on the network.In essence,blockchain eliminates the need for a central authority to approve transactions and verify identities,or for intermediaries to manage aspects of the transaction process;the parties involved can simply deal with each other in confidence.This has potentially profound implications for the speed,simplicity and transparency of transactions across multiple sectors and CRE in particular.Before looking at how blockchain applies to real estate,its first important to understand what it is and how it works independent of the cryptocurrency networks that tend to dominate the headlines.FROM IDEA TO IMPACTHOW BLOCKCHAIN WORKSThe nodes validate the transaction and the users statusOnce approved,new transactions are combined to create a block for the ledgerDATAHASH OF PREVIOUS BLOCK(connector)HASH(unique id)The transaction is represented as an online block,which is broadcasted to an encrypted P2P network of computers known as nodesThe block is added to the existing blockchain,its unique,permanent,and unalterableA transaction is requested(cryptocurrency,contracts,records,etc.)The transaction is complete Blockchain eliminates the need for a central authority to approve transactions and verify identities,or for intermediaries to manage aspects of the transaction process;the parties involved can simply deal with each other in confidence.6|MEETING THE NEED FOR SPEED CRE is especially ripe for blockchain-based disruption because of the complexity of the typical property transactionThe list of parties involved in many deals extends well beyond owner and occupier(or buyer),to brokers,banks,law firms,governments(via stamp duties or land registries),utility operators the list goes on.Blockchain could provide a secure platform for all these parties to verify each others identities as well as the history of and data on the real estate asset being bought or leased.And when a deal is finally struck,blockchain could be used to build smart contracts in which terms and related transactions are automatically,and near-instantly,recorded and immutable.Smart contracts open the possibility for transactions to be triggered by an enshrined set of preconditions without the need for human involvement;a deposit,for example,could be transferred automatically from an occupier to an owner when both parties have digitally signed an agreement.Any such transactions would also be logged and added immediately to the blocks of information on the given property asset.This could substantially speed up some of the processes in a typical real estate deal.Standard payments processed by a bank can take a day or more to clear,for example,whereas the regular transaction time on the bitcoin blockchain is 10 minutes.9 As the University of Oxford notes,this is probably too long for the average stock market trade,but would be considered quick in the property context.Perhaps even more importantly,some processes could be eliminated altogether.Instant,distributed verification of a propertys ownership would ease the need for drawn-out title searches,for example.In many transactions deposits or payments are placed in escrow until processes like due diligence are completed.These payments could instead be included in a smart contract and prompted automatically by the deal reaching a defined stage,replacing the escrow function(and escrow agent).Buyers and sellers are already experimenting with blockchain-based smart contracts in North America and Europe,albeit mainly in the residential context.In late 2017,for example,an apartment in Kiev,Ukraine was purchased remotely via the blockchain network set up for the cryptocurrency Ethereum.10 The industry in Asia seems more cautious in this regard although Propy,the decentralised property registry that facilitated the Ukraine transaction,expects Asian buyers to be active in blockchain real estate given that it represents a possible route around capital controls in markets like China.9 PropTech 3.0:The future of real estate,University of Oxford,May 201710 Propy announces worlds first real estate purchase on Ethereum blockchain,PR Newswire,October 2017 Blockchain could be used to build smart contracts where terms and related transactions are automatically,and near-instantly,recorded and immutable.A SAMPLE RENTAL SMART CONTRACT IN ACTIONSource:Deloitte;Colliers132BenefitsDeposit is returned automatically to tenant after the lease is concluded Payments are sent automatically from tenant to landlord when certain contract conditionssuch as a rent due date)are met Both parties digitally sign agreement with personal details and lease terms TENANTLANDLORDTENANTSecurity depositLANDLORDSecurity depositTENANTLease paymentLANDLORDLease paymentCONTRACTORSMaintenence costsInstant settlement and management of cash flowsLegally enforceable contractsSimplified property management Faster reconciliation of payments ENHANCING TRANSPARENCYOne of the applications generating the most excitement is in land registries,which in their current form are often out of date,incomplete and/or prone to manipulation.Moving land registries on to the blockchain promises to create automatically updated,tamper-proof records,ultimately enhancing the clarity and security of land and property ownership.Swedens government has emerged as one of the first to test blockchain to record property deals at the national level.11 The concept has also taken hold in Asia.Japan is reportedly set to unify the countrys disparate real estate databases on the blockchain to enhance visibility of ownership and transactions and encourage sales and redevelopment,after a survey found 6.6%of landowner records in big cities,and over a quarter in small and mid-sized cities and remote areas,had not been updated for 50 years or more.12 The University of Oxford has noted developing markets may have the opportunity to“leapfrog”their developed Blockchain could also play a role in boosting the security and transparency of real estate markets particularly those where data quality or availability is at times lacking,as is the case throughout much of emerging Asia.counterparts in establishing blockchain registries to reduce title registration costs and corruption.In India,where bribes paid to land registrars are estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars,the governments of states such as Andhra Pradesh are building blockchain-based registries to tackle fraud.13 As Japans government is betting,using blockchain to ensure that all property-related information is accurate,current and accessible in one place could unlock more assets and encourage activity as the confidence around transactions grows.14 “As soon as you can manage ownership of assets like land or property and have these titles on the blockchain,it becomes a lot more efficient,and a lot faster and cheaper,to transfer ownership,”says Dr.Heiko Aydt,senior researcher and coordinator for the Responsive Cities research cluster at the Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore.“This could lead to entirely new ownership models that are maybe now possible legally speaking,|9 A BLOCKCHAIN LAND REGISTRY but not possible in reality because theyre too inefficient,complicated or take too long.”In creating a permanent,consistently updated audit trail of the transactions associated with an individual asset,blockchain registries and smart contracts will also generate more reliable,real-time and granular market data,with interesting implications for both owners and occupiers.Along with greater visibility into market trends,this information will open new possibilities for data capture and analysis.As the consultancy Deloitte noted in a recent study,by acting as the“connective tissue”between the parties involved in real estate transactions,blockchains shared databases could be mined with data analytics to identify patterns or anomalies in areas like turnover rates,compliance and defaults.15 The records associated with particular assets will become engines of insight that support owners planning and decision-making.11 Why Sweden is taking a chance on blockchain land registry,Coindesk,April 201712 Japan to tidy up scattered property records,Nikkei Asian Review,June 201713 An Indian state wants to use blockchain to fight land ownership fraud,CNBC,October 201714 Can blockchain technology be an answer to Indias land governance woes?Livemint,October 201715 Blockchain in commercial real estate,Deloitte Center for Financial Services,2017Citizen initiates his request via service hall or mobile applicationThe frontend part may stay the same as in existing software no confusing changes for the citizenThe backend side calls blockchain API and gets a verification responseBlockchain executes contracts specific to requested actionPublic blockchain stores system snapshot hashes to prevent possible collusionOperation result along with its history is always available and cryptographically provedSource:Exonum;ColliersDRIVING DECENTRALISATIONBeyond its direct technological applications,blockc