La Haus Sells First House In Colombia For Bitcoin

Latin American real estate market leader La Haus has closed another home sale for bitcoin, the first in Colombia after recently selling a property in Mexico, Valora Analitik first reported.

La Haus’ VP of innovation and future, Jehudi Castro, told Bitcoin Magazine that the transaction represented a downpayment for an apartment at Natura City, an exclusive apartment complex owned by Titles and Real Estate Developments, which is being built in the Bellavista sector, Santa Marta, in the north of Colombia.

Castro added that the apartment cost approximately $98,000 in total, which at the time of writing translates to about 2.45 BTC. The buyer paid 0.03 bitcoin in the downpayment and will make incremental payments in bitcoin until the apartment’s construction is completed, which is expected to happen in 2025.

“We are working to bring this type of alternative to the rest of the country, so that the payment methods and the form of investment are not a barrier to access residential goods,” Castro said, per the report.

Bitcoin’s power shone by frictionlessly completing the transaction across borders, as the buyer was traveling internationally at the time of purchase. Payment processing company OpenNode facilitated the transaction to be made instantly through the Lightning Network.

La Haus, which has strived to bring U.S. tech-enabled real estate services to the Latin American real estate market, started accepting payments in bitcoin for its real estate properties in November after starting a collaboration with OpenNode. The payment processor allows La Haus to receive bitcoin payments with ease both on-chain and on the Lightning Network, Bitcoin’s layer-2 scaling solution.

The company sold its first home for bitcoin last month when a Peruvian woman exchanged 5.78 BTC for an exclusive apartment located in one of the most highly valued areas of the city of Tulum, Mexico’s Riviera Maya.