Is it possible to buy a house with BTC in your country?

[Becassine]

In some countries, you can buy or rent a house in bitcoins. But what are the tax and administrative implications?

In France, you can, in theory, buy with BTC, but you have to pay taxes and notary fees in euros.

Since you also have to pay capital gains tax and (unless I'm mistaken) prove the origin of the bitcoins. Justifying the origin of funds when you won cryptos with games or airdrops and then sold them to buy btc 15 years ago is almost certainly impossible.
In the end, it doesn't seem so attractive to buy in btc in France because of the administrative and tax complications, in addition to the 30% capital gains tax (unless I'm mistaken).

How is it in your country ?

[Maslate]

Since Bitcoin is not a legal tender in our country the process of buying a house with it is probably different from using fiat. However, I believe it’s still legal as long as there is a contract that both the buyer and seller agree upon.

If the seller isn’t into Bitcoin, it’s still possible to use it by going through a local exchange by converting Bitcoin to fiat right after the transaction. That way, both parties get what they prefer, making the deal smoother. So as long as Bitcoin is not a legal tender, the process might be a bit complicated. However, proper documentation is still essential to ensure that you, as the buyer, are protected in case any unexpected disputes arise in the future.

[Lucius]

Anywhere in the world where cryptocurrencies are not banned, it is possible to buy anything for BTC if there is someone selling something, and someone who wants to buy something in that way. Of course, every country has its own rules for such transactions, but I don't think it makes much difference whether you buy a house with fiat or BTC. If it's a large amount of money, you'll always need to prove its origin and pay all fees that are required by law.

However, the question arises whether it makes sense for someone to buy a house/apartment and pay with BTC (if that brings additional complications) or simply sell BTC and pay the money into a bank account and thus buy real estate. In addition, if you live in a relatively small country, it would certainly not be wise to attract attention in such a way - keeping a low profile in case you have a large value in cryptocurrencies is a matter of personal safety.

[notocactus]

In some countries, you can buy or rent a house in bitcoins. But what are the tax and administrative implications?

In France, you can, in theory, buy with BTC, but you have to pay taxes and notary fees in euros.

Since you also have to pay capital gains tax and (unless I'm mistaken) prove the origin of the bitcoins.
How is it in your country ?

You can buy a house with bitcoin directly or indirectly and it depends on legality status of Bitcoin in your country. Usually, cashing out bitcoin first and use fiat currency to buy a house is a safer method. Purchasing a house directly with Bitcoin contains some risk, firstly legality status, secondly tax reports, but another risk that is so important, is irreversible Bitcoin transaction.

If by any reason, you were scammed but already made your Bitcoin transaction to a trade partner, you lost your bitcoin almost forever, except if you can file scam report to police for help. You can do it or can not do it, and it depends on legality status of Bitcoin and trades via bitcoin in your country.

Depends on value of your trade, assuming buying a house is a big trade, you must have enough confirmations.

• How many Bitcoin confirmations is enough?

What's the rule of thumb for an acceptable number of confirmations?

• 1 confirmation: sufficient for small payments less than $1,000.
• 3 confirmations: for payments $1,000 - $10,000. Most exchanges require 3 confirmations for deposits.
• 6 confirmations: good for large payments between $10,000 - $1,000,000. Six is standard for most transactions to be considered secure.
• 10 confirmations: suggested for large payments greater than $1,000,000.

[Cryptomultiplier]

In some countries, you can buy or rent a house in bitcoins. But what are the tax and administrative implications?

In France, you can, in theory, buy with BTC, but you have to pay taxes and notary fees in euros.

Since you also have to pay capital gains tax and (unless I'm mistaken) prove the origin of the bitcoins. Justifying the origin of funds when you won cryptos with games or airdrops and then sold them to buy btc 15 years ago is almost certainly impossible.
In the end, it doesn't seem so attractive to buy in btc in France because of the administrative and tax complications, in addition to the 30% capital gains tax (unless I'm mistaken).

How is it in your country ?

In my country, we almost always hide our BTC investments or portfolio from friends and neighbors because there's no saying the way the law enforcement agencies or even criminals may pounce on you just to get some BTC from you or get credited upon converting your BTC to Naira .

It may be next to impossible to even find a realtor willing to accept BTC as payments upon purchase of a house and because the C of O is along other payment documents, a requirement to present to authorities incase of questioning or change of ownership. Unless the seller understands your concerns and knows crypto currency so much so that they can convert and trade between pairs, thus accepting BTC from a buyer will be easy and documentation may not even be an issue at all.

[Majestic-milf]

Anywhere in the world where cryptocurrencies are not banned, it is possible to buy anything for BTC if there is someone selling something, and someone who wants to buy something in that way. Of course, every country has its own rules for such transactions, but I don't think it makes much difference whether you buy a house with fiat or BTC. If it's a large amount of money, you'll always need to prove its origin and pay all fees that are required by law.

However, the question arises whether it makes sense for someone to buy a house/apartment and pay with BTC (if that brings additional complications) or simply sell BTC and pay the money into a bank account and thus buy real estate. In addition, if you live in a relatively small country, it would certainly not be wise to attract attention in such a way - keeping a low profile in case you have a large value in cryptocurrencies is a matter of personal safety.

I agree with this. Buying a house with BTC will only pose a problem if it's not really accepted in the country or the person with which you're doing business with isn't into trading with Bitcoin. Most people will prefer to buy with fiat because no need to start paying for taxes and all that with cash while you must have paid for the house. It's like paying for everything at a go with fiat.
 

[_act_]

If by any reason, you were scammed but already made your Bitcoin transaction to a trade partner, you lost your bitcoin almost forever, except if you can file scam report to police for help. You can do it or can not do it, and it depends on legality status of Bitcoin and trades via bitcoin in your country.

Just like if you are buying the house with fiat or local currency. But people will follow legal procedures to acquire a house, making sure it is not scam. I see this just like fiat scam if possible it happens.

Depends on value of your trade, assuming buying a house is a big trade, you must have enough confirmations.

• How many Bitcoin confirmations is enough?

What's the rule of thumb for an acceptable number of confirmations?

• 1 confirmation: sufficient for small payments less than $1,000.
• 3 confirmations: for payments $1,000 - $10,000. Most exchanges require 3 confirmations for deposits.
• 6 confirmations: good for large payments between $10,000 - $1,000,000. Six is standard for most transactions to be considered secure.
• 10 confirmations: suggested for large payments greater than $1,000,000.

If you do not want any reorganization attack to occur (but which is not possible as bitcoin network is right now), you need to wait for 56 confirmations. The reorganization risk is 0% starting from 56 confirmations.

But the way bitcoin network is right now, there is no problem with having just 2 confirmations.

[348Judah]

In some countries, you can buy or rent a house in bitcoins. But what are the tax and administrative implications?

This have to do with the source to the house you're buying, maybe its form an individual bitcoiner who wish to sell his house and then you pay him or you're considering buying form government in which we already know that anything that has to do with task cannot be evaded on that, regarding the tax, anything that follows the use of government regulation must come under the payment of tax and you can't escape such, except when yours is a kind of p2p transaction without having to go through any regulatory bodies while making the payment.

[Becassine]

On the website of Bitpay, we have the list of agencies accepting Bitcoin via Bitpay, in that case, it seems that there is a conversion into FIAT.

https://www.bitpay.com/directory/real-estate

- Here we can find links to agencies which accept btc : https://www.bitcoin.com/fr/bitcoin-real-estate/

As taxation and laws are constantly changing, I suppose real estate agencies adapt, disappear or finally refuse to accept payments in btc. But Switzerland seems to have regulated the purchase of real estate in btc.

[Zanab247]

It can only be possible for those countries that made BTC legal tender, because they are free to buy assets with BTC without braking the law of the land.

In my country you can't buy a house with BTC, because BTC is not legal tender and if you are caught with BTC transaction to your bank, your account will be block immediately and you will no longer have access to your money which is the law on ground in the country.This is the system we are using in our country to buy house with BTC, you will sell your BTC in the exchange market and convert the dollars to our fiat money before you will be able to buy the house with our currency.

[Text]

Here in the Philippines it's possible to buy property with BTC but like in France there are tax and administrative challenges. Crypto is considered an asset here so selling BTC to buy a house would likely trigger capital gains tax. Plus most transactions still require conversion to PHP at some point as taxes, notary fees & other legal costs must be paid in fiat.

[Moreno233]

It is very much possible to buy a house with Bitcoin in my country because Bitcoin is popular here and highly treasured by mostly the younger generation. However, it depends mainly on the seller's willingness to accept Bitcoin because not all sellers will accept Bitcoin base on their personal reasons and the fact that our government still frown at Bitcoin and still have some unwritten rules prohibiting the use of Bitcoin from the conventional banking end. So, to avoid the problem, most sellers will decline unless those who are holding that will not be in a hurry to sell the Bitcoin.

For me, any business I'm involved in, I will appreciate transaction in Bitcoin because I'm a firm believer in Bitcoin and the comfort it offers as an alternative to fiat currency.

[Rruchi man]

How is it in your country ?

Buying a property in my country may be a personal business between the buyer and the seller, and whatever means that they accept as a medium of payment may actually stand. I think what is actually frowned upon in my country is listing your property in another currency, which is not the naira. For instance, people listing their property in dollars is heavily frowned upon and against the rules of my country, although some people still do it and are able to get away with it.

[Potato Chips]

Not that I'm aware of in my country.

But I've read this interesting thread some time ago. Apparently it's possible in Portugal. Plus, it's paid directly with bitcoin. Yes, no conversion to fiat needed -- I typically just see real estate agencies facilitating conversions like those in Turkey.

I assume you'd still be subjected to the typical taxes in such sales. But perhaps OOP @joker_josue could shed more light.

The thread in question: > Buying a house with 100% Bitcoin is possible in Portugal

[notocactus]

What's the rule of thumb for an acceptable number of confirmations?

• 1 confirmation: sufficient for small payments less than $1,000.
• 3 confirmations: for payments $1,000 - $10,000. Most exchanges require 3 confirmations for deposits.
• 6 confirmations: good for large payments between $10,000 - $1,000,000. Six is standard for most transactions to be considered secure.
• 10 confirmations: suggested for large payments greater than $1,000,000.

If you do not want any reorganization attack to occur (but which is not possible as bitcoin network is right now), you need to wait for 56 confirmations. The reorganization risk is 0% starting from 56 confirmations.

But the way bitcoin network is right now, there is no problem with having just 2 confirmations.

There is nothing like zero risk in life. I believe in Bitcoin blockchain security, and many people believe similarly so that Bitcoin has very high value in the market.

It's pure belief that is not helpful for your fund safety so if you are carefully and don't want nothing wrong with your trade, you will take that confirmation number recommendations into account. The higher value of your trade with your trade partner, your concern on number of confirmation must be bigger and you naturally will wait a little bit longer like 30 more minutes, 60 more minutes to have better security and safety.

I believe that if you are trading your fortune, you will not take very high risk by 1 or 2 confirmations.

With very big trade, it makes sense to do it in several transactions.

[Zaguru12]

Buying a property in my country may be a personal business between the buyer and the seller, and whatever means that they accept as a medium of payment may actually stand. I think what is actually frowned upon in my country is listing your property in another currency, which is not the naira. For instance, people listing their property in dollars is heavily frowned upon and against the rules of my country, although some people still do it and are able to get away with it.

I think it is same thing in almost all countries that you don’t list commodities or properties in currency not the country’s main currency, this is mostly associated with countries which there currency isn’t of high value as listing with other currencies will mostly make people pay in another currency than theres. As for bitcoin I don’t think there is no rule about how its tax will be payed since it is not approved yet as a tender. So I think any payment in bitcoin will most definitely be between the two parties involved but the quotation of the price will be in the local currency (Naira) and tax will be paid in same currency too I think.

[shield132]

In some countries, you can buy or rent a house in bitcoins. But what are the tax and administrative implications?

In France, you can, in theory, buy with BTC, but you have to pay taxes and notary fees in euros.

Since you also have to pay capital gains tax and (unless I'm mistaken) prove the origin of the bitcoins. Justifying the origin of funds when you won cryptos with games or airdrops and then sold them to buy btc 15 years ago is almost certainly impossible.
In the end, it doesn't seem so attractive to buy in btc in France because of the administrative and tax complications, in addition to the 30% capital gains tax (unless I'm mistaken).

How is it in your country ?

It might be hard to believe, but this business isn't as heavily regulated in my country as in other countries. Lots of people buy houses from developers, run repairs and then resell it. In my country, if you buy an apartment and resell it after 2 years, you don't pay taxes, as far as I know,w but if you sell it before 2 years, you have to pay up to 20% capital gain tax.

I think that if you agree with the seller, you'll be able to buy a house with Bitcoins. The seller can lie and say that he paid with cash.
Btw rent is heavily unregulated here. People rent houses and don't pay any money to the government, they don't even fill any documents, so if your landlord agrees, paying rent with Bitcoins shouldn't be a problem.

[Donneski]

In my country, though there are regulatory bodies that are charged with the responsibility of overseeing the activities of realtors, most realtors still sell properties without involving these agencies and that's why it's very possible for one to buy or rent houses with Bitcoin. Provided that the person that's selling or renting the house have a Bitcoin wallet address and have accepted that you make your transactions via BTC, it's absolutely possible to buy or rent houses in my country with Bitcoin.

[hugeblack]

I thought the thread was about whether 1 Bitcoin could buy a house in your country.

Legal discussions in a multinational forum yield limited results, especially since many still consider Bitcoin a higher-yielding investment than land or real estate.

So even if it were possible to buy a house with Bitcoin, I don't think you would do so if you had other options/investments.

[_act_]

I believe that if you are trading your fortune, you will not take very high risk by 1 or 2 confirmations.

With very big trade, it makes sense to do it in several transactions.

I do not think having several transactions is necessary but it is good to check and recheck the address that you are sending to very well and make sure it is the correct address.

If you wait for more confirmations, the safer the transaction is on the blockchain. So I will agree with this. I only meant that if it is me, I can accept 2 confirmations. Another reason for my point is that if you are buying or selling a house from someone, you will know the person physically and also have the legal means to follow. It is not about chain reorg or 51% attack that should be what should bother the seller because the house can not move from one place to another or disappear. You can always contact the buyer. Also you can call for your lawyer if necessary.