Decentralized Finance : Implications on Commercial Real Estate Market

Sammanfattning: The Commercial Real Estate (CRE) market has a substantial impact on financial stability, making it one of the global sectors with a strong relationship to economic growth. Because of its stability, CRE remains a viable investment even when market cycles shift for various reasons. Commercial real estate is an excellent method to diversify a portfolio because of its steady nature. Furthermore, direct CRE investment provides properties that can appreciate and provide cash flow. However, the industry is considered to be illiquid due to its difficulty in transacting, inefficiency, and access to capital. Moreover, there are an increased number of intermediaries involved in these processes, both from the seller side and the buyer side, which not only increases transaction cost but also increases the information asymmetries between both sides. This information loss in the communication pathways has complicated the market, leading to a painful documentation process, high intermediary cost, and a lengthy approval process. Based on an examination of the literature on (combinations of) important phrases such as 'Decentralized Finance'. It was found that there are no solid publications combining the ideas of decentralized finance and real estate in the current body of academic knowledge using the terms "decentralized finance", "blockchain", "commercial real estate", and "transaction costs". The aim of the thesis is to explore the expectations related to the implementation of decentralized finance technology in the commercial real estate industry. The study was done in the form of qualitative research with an interpretivist approach to answer the research questions and achieve the research goal. For the research goal, the data was gathered through a literature review and semi-structured interviews with various actors like Academia, Non-profit organizations, Industry Professionals, and New entrants to understand the concept from different perspectives. The results illustrate that Decentralized Finance which leverages blockchain technology can be applied in the commercial real estate transaction process through tokenization and smart contracts with the area of implication in Asset Financing, Asset Management, and Asset Exchange. However, because the technology is still in its early stages, it poses significant dangers in terms of acceptance. Some of the primary challenges include widespread education and the regularization of rules.