Baroness Mone banks on bitcoin for sale of luxury Dubai homes
Anna Temkin
September 6 2017, 12:01am, The Times (UK)
Lady Mone and her partner, Douglas Barrowman, chairman of the Knox group of companies, which is funding the development
Her appointment as David Cameron’s entrepreneurship tsar in 2015 raised eyebrows and a similar reaction is likely to greet Baroness Mone’s latest business venture.
The former model and founder of the Ultimo lingerie brand is launching a £250 million luxury property development in Dubai that will sell apartments in bitcoin, the digital currency.
The development, which will be completed in 2019, will span more than 2.4 million sq ft and be split across two residential towers above a shopping centre. However, it is the offering of apartments in the controversial “cryptocurrency”, said to be a world first, that will attract attention.
Bitcoin has quadrupled in value this year and hit a record high of over $5,000 at the weekend. In a sign of its volatility, its value plummeted yesterday to $4,000, as the market responded to China’s ban on cryptocurrency crowdfunding schemes. Chinese regulators have said they want to tighten rules on virtual currencies.
Bitcoin was introduced eight years ago and allows users to make transactions without the involvement of any central authority or bank. It is accepted as payment by a growing number of companies. Lady Mone, 45, said: “We wanted this to be different, unique and exciting — not just in the world of property but also technology.”
The studio apartments, which can also be bought in US dollars, have an average price of $133,000, or approximately 30 bitcoins. Lady Mone and her partner, Douglas Barrowman, the Scottish businessman, said they believed that digital currencies were the future. Mr Barrowman, 52, chairman of the Knox group of companies, which is funding the development, said: “I have watched bitcoin grow and been actively involved in it over the last couple of years. The currency is here to stay.”
The Dubai development, which will be completed in 2019, will span more than 2.4 million sq ft across two residential towersThe Dubai development, which will be completed in 2019, will span more than 2.4 million sq ft across two residential towers
The development is the first joint venture between Lady Mone and Mr Barrowman. The pair met last year and live on the Isle of Man. Mr Barrowman appeared on the Channel 4 documentary Million Pound Mega Yachts two years ago, where his 183 ft yacht was featured.
It seems the couple are not alone in their enthusiasm for bitcoin: yesterday one UK housing operator and developer, The Collective, which runs several properties in London, announced that it is now accepting deposits in bitcoin. By the end of the year it will also allow tenants to pay rent in bitcoin.
Cryptocurrencies have attracted controversy in the past. Bitcoin’s underlying technology, called blockchain, is a digital ledger that records transactions and although the ledger is public it is difficult to trace the identity of a person behind a payment. Its reputation suffered after it became the method of choice for purchasing guns and drugs on the so-called dark web.
Cryptocurrency experts say that one key advantage of buying and selling overseas property in bitcoin is that it offers a fast settlement. Unlike with large bank transfers, there is no risk of compliance issues or freezing of the funds in the middle of a transaction. It can also be done at a lower cost because there is no third party involved.
Niklas Nikolajsen, chief executive and co-founder of Bitcoin Suisse, a company that specialises in digital currency, said: “Over the years there have been cases of bitcoin being used to pay for cars or a single house but the sale of these Dubai apartments would represent some of the highest-value transactions using bitcoin.”
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