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Sky News AU
4 hours ago
- Sky News AU
How a 'snowballing' $76 blockchain token trend could become the first rung on the property ladder for Australian renters
Trying to save a 20 per cent deposit now feels like running on a treadmill that keeps speeding up. A recent analysis shows the average renter would need more than eight years to scrape one together, and that's if rents stop jumping tomorrow. Many young Australians have quietly decided the old dream is broken. But a different path is opening on their phones: buy a sliver of a house for the price of a night out, collect rent the next morning, repeat. What a $50 token buys On the US platform Lofty you can tap 'buy' on a $50 USD ($76 AUD) blockchain token tied to a Detroit duplex or an Atlanta townhouse. The token records your slice on the blockchain, sends your cut of the rent every day, and lets you sell whenever another investor clicks 'buy'. The idea is snowballing. Six in ten people using fractional platforms this year are under 40, the very group priced out of full ownership. The tech that makes it possible The heavy lifting sits in code. Blockchain keeps an unchangeable ledger of who owns what. Smart contracts split the rent and push it to digital wallets while we sleep. Artificial-intelligence programs crunch vacancy data and tweak rents in real time. Paperwork, conveyancing fees and month-long settlements vanish. Proof it isn't hype There have been successful models worldwide. The 'Lofty' platform in the US has already tokenised more than 140 US properties. Investors pocket rent daily and vote online if a tenant trashes a kitchen or an offer comes in. In Britain, London House Exchange (once Property Partner) runs a regulated exchange where anyone can trade slices of single flats just like shares. Singapore's RealVantage is pulling in investors from across Asia to co-own apartments in many countries, including Australian cities. None of these ventures relies on wishful thinking; they charge modest management fees and still turn a profit. Big money is noticing. Global transaction volumes from institutional investors jumped 43 per cent in the first quarter of 2025, a vote of confidence from pension funds and private equity giants. Market researchers tip real-estate tokenisation to swell from about US $3.5 billion today to nearly US $19.4 billion by 2033. Why Australia should care right now Our wage growth lags price growth. Land is scarce. Construction firms keep collapsing. Fractional ownership can't solve everything, but it can start turning renters into owners sooner. A uni graduate could drip-feed a few hundred dollars a month into tokens spread across several cities instead of hoarding every spare dollar for a single monster deposit. Over a decade, those micro stakes have grown, paid rent along the way, and built a credit-file story banks understand. It could also unlock a new supply. When thousands of small investors pool cash through a platform, developers get cheaper equity to build mid-rise rentals or retrofit empty offices. The model is already nudging US build-to-rent projects off the drawing board. There's no reason it can't bankroll medium-density infill around Parramatta or Geelong. A simple road map for Canberra Start small. Let the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) extend its existing crowd-funding sandbox to cover blockchain property tokens. Cap how much anyone can tip in while the rules bed down. Invite super funds chasing steady, green income to co-seed the first portfolios; they provide ballast and credibility. Next, pick a patch of surplus state-owned land, think car parks near train stations, package the air-rights into tokens and sell half to retail investors on a local platform. Use the cash to build energy-efficient flats and promise a slice of the rent back to token holders. The public sees a tangible project, not another scheme stuck in consultation. Finally, borrow a lesson from London. There, fractional platforms must hold each property in a stand-alone trust. If the company dies tomorrow, the trust still owns the building, and investors still own their slices. We can replicate that safeguard, and most fears about 'crypto scams' fade fast. Honest warnings Tokens are easier to sell than whole houses, but they're less liquid than shares. Some days, nobody will want your slice. Rules will keep shifting as regulators catch up. And governance matters: if a roof leaks, someone has to vote to fix it. Smart platforms make those votes painless, but buyers still need to read the fine print. The upside for a generation locked out For Gen Z, the appeal is obvious. It's low-cost. It's quick. It lives on the same screen as banking apps and streaming queues. You can track rent in real time and brag about owning a bit of a house in Texas or Toowoomba. More importantly, it flips the story from 'wait ten years, then maybe buy' to 'start building equity today'. Australia missed the first big wave of ride-sharing and watched foreign platforms set the rules. We don't need to repeat that mistake with property tokens. The technology is mature, the consumer appetite is raging and the regulatory pieces already exist. With a light touch from Canberra and a push from super funds, a $50 blockchain token could become the first rung on the property ladder for millions of young Australians. It won't cure the housing crisis overnight, but it might give the next generation something better than hopeless spreadsheets and landlord letters: a real stake in the roof over their heads, even if they only own a few shingles to start. Dr Ehsan Noroozinejad is a senior researcher at Western Sydney University who writes about innovative housing policy, modular construction, and urban resilience. He advises governments and industry on affordable-housing strategy and has appeared on ABC News, Sky News, The Guardian, The Policymaker, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Conversation.
Sydney Morning Herald
4 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Workers are following the flexible jobs
'I don't like getting in the car and driving into an office five days a week, so I looked for roles that were more flexible,' she says. Before accepting her current role, she had conversations with a competing firm, but quickly decided the role wasn't for her. 'It was clear from the conversations I was having with that workplace that there was not going to be a lot of flexibility to work from home,' she says. She accepted her current role two years ago because she felt her needs would be met and hasn't looked back. She works in the office three days a week and from home two days but can switch the days around. She can even work an extra day from home if that suits her without having to ask permission. Loading 'We just communicate within our own team at the end of each week what works best for us the following week based on our own schedules,' she says. Back to work Liz and Ruben are part of a growing number of workers opting out of workplaces with rigid rules on where they need to work in favour of roles that openly promote work from home days. Ruben says she designed a life that works for her. 'Work is a big part of your life and there's no point being miserable.' Loading However, large Australian companies are continuing to mandate hard and fast work from the office arrangements, creating tensions in the workplace. Nearly 39,000 staff members at National Australia Bank were asked to increase the number of days they spend in the office each week. The bank is one of a growing number of businesses moving away from the work from home model. Other companies pushing for staff to get back to the office five days a week include Amazon, Dell, CommBank and the NSW government. Meanwhile, Sydney father Paul Collins took his employer to the Fair Work Commission seeking a continuation of the flexible working arrangements he had been enjoying since the COVID-19 pandemic. Collins, who works for global software company Intersystems Australia, wanted to continue working from home on Wednesdays and Thursdays to care for his children and because he needed 'work-life balance'. His workplace refused his request under a new ruling requiring all staff to return to the office full-time. But his request was overruled by Fair Work, which said the application he had lodged because of his preference to continue working from home did not relate to his parental responsibilities. Workers are required to show they have a good enough reason to request to work from home, while Fair Work Deputy President Lyndall Dean found a 'preference' to continue working from home wasn't enough. In Victoria, the state government is seeking to legislate a right to work from home. But Ruben says it's always worth asking the boss for more flexibility.
The Age
4 hours ago
- The Age
Workers are following the flexible jobs
'I don't like getting in the car and driving into an office five days a week, so I looked for roles that were more flexible,' she says. Before accepting her current role, she had conversations with a competing firm, but quickly decided the role wasn't for her. 'It was clear from the conversations I was having with that workplace that there was not going to be a lot of flexibility to work from home,' she says. She accepted her current role two years ago because she felt her needs would be met and hasn't looked back. She works in the office three days a week and from home two days but can switch the days around. She can even work an extra day from home if that suits her without having to ask permission. Loading 'We just communicate within our own team at the end of each week what works best for us the following week based on our own schedules,' she says. Back to work Liz and Ruben are part of a growing number of workers opting out of workplaces with rigid rules on where they need to work in favour of roles that openly promote work from home days. Ruben says she designed a life that works for her. 'Work is a big part of your life and there's no point being miserable.' Loading However, large Australian companies are continuing to mandate hard and fast work from the office arrangements, creating tensions in the workplace. Nearly 39,000 staff members at National Australia Bank were asked to increase the number of days they spend in the office each week. The bank is one of a growing number of businesses moving away from the work from home model. Other companies pushing for staff to get back to the office five days a week include Amazon, Dell, CommBank and the NSW government. Meanwhile, Sydney father Paul Collins took his employer to the Fair Work Commission seeking a continuation of the flexible working arrangements he had been enjoying since the COVID-19 pandemic. Collins, who works for global software company Intersystems Australia, wanted to continue working from home on Wednesdays and Thursdays to care for his children and because he needed 'work-life balance'. His workplace refused his request under a new ruling requiring all staff to return to the office full-time. But his request was overruled by Fair Work, which said the application he had lodged because of his preference to continue working from home did not relate to his parental responsibilities. Workers are required to show they have a good enough reason to request to work from home, while Fair Work Deputy President Lyndall Dean found a 'preference' to continue working from home wasn't enough. In Victoria, the state government is seeking to legislate a right to work from home. But Ruben says it's always worth asking the boss for more flexibility.
