Traditionally, real estate investment has been associated with something solid and conservative: office towers, apartment buildings, and shopping centers changing hands through multimillion-dollar deals that take months to close. But as the 2030s approach, this long-established industry is undergoing a digital transformation. A new phenomenon is emerging — real estate tokenization — where ownership rights to buildings or land parcels are represented as digital tokens on a blockchain. In simpler terms, it’s the division of ownership into “digital shares” that can be traded online almost as easily as stocks.
Born from the cryptocurrency world, this idea is rapidly extending far beyond it, promising to make the property market more liquid, accessible, and global. Today, in the mid-2020s, we are witnessing the first practical examples of how this technology is reshaping investment in real estate. According to forecasts, by 2035 the changes will be nothing short of dramatic — with tokenized assets potentially worth several trillion dollars. So, what are the current trends in this market, and what does the future hold?
Franc Smidt, Editor-in-Chief of Futurum Magazine
Global Forecasts: From Billions to Trillions
Just eight years ago, the first real estate tokenization deals seemed like experiments by blockchain enthusiasts. But today, the world’s top consulting firms are weighing in. According to a Deloitte report, by 2035 the total value of real estate represented through tokens could reach $4 trillion — a staggering leap from less than $300 billion in 2024. That means the market could grow 13-fold in just a decade, with an average annual growth rate of around 27%.
Other analysts share similar optimism. A study by consulting firm ScienceSoft predicts that the global tokenized real estate market could exceed $3 trillion by 2030, accounting for approximately 15% of all real estate assets managed by investment funds. In other words, within a few years, a significant share of the global property market could be traded in the form of digital tokens.
Moreover, an investor survey conducted as part of the same study revealed that 67% of respondents have already invested or plan to invest in “real-world asset tokens,” with more than half ranking real estate as the second most attractive asset class for tokenized investments.
Of course, estimates vary. Some forecasts predict tokenized assets across sectors will reach tens of trillions by 2030, while others, such as McKinsey, are more conservative — projecting less than $2 trillion for the overall tokenization market by 2030. But the direction is clear: by the middle of the next decade, we’re talking not billions, but trillions of dollars. One forecast even suggests that real estate could become the largest segment of all tokenized assets by 2030, potentially making up nearly a third of this emerging market.
Early Projects: Real Estate on the Blockchain in Action
Predictions aside, what does this look like in practice today? Despite the novelty of the concept, dozens of tokenization projects have already been implemented worldwide.
One of the most notable events took place in the U.S. in the fall of 2022, when the company Roofstock sold a home in Columbia, South Carolina, as an NFT for the stablecoin USDC. The single-family home, fully represented on the Ethereum blockchain, was sold for about $175,000 — and the transaction took just minutes, not months. The buyer received a digital token linked to the legal entity that owned the property, effectively becoming the full legal owner of the home with a single click.
The sale demonstrated how blockchain can simplify and speed up real estate transactions by eliminating mountains of paperwork. In 2023, Roofstock OnChain (the company’s blockchain subsidiary) sold another home in Alabama, again via token, for around $180,000 — continuing a series of experimental transactions with real residential properties.
The U.S. market has become a testbed for such pioneering pilots. Alongside Roofstock, firms like Propy have held real estate auctions with cryptocurrency settlements, and startups like RealT offer investors fractional ownership of Detroit homes via Ethereum-based tokens.
But tokenization is expanding far beyond American borders. In April 2025, blockchain platform Blocksquare announced a partnership with Florida investment firm Vera Capital to launch a marketplace where international investors can buy tokenized shares of a $1 billion commercial real estate portfolio — comprising office and retail properties in seven U.S. states. Vera Capital plans not only to tokenize existing properties but also to fund new development projects through tokenized crowd-investment. This shows another dimension of tokenization: it enables co-financing of construction projects, with investors receiving tokens representing future profit rights.
Interestingly, Blocksquare reports that its technology has already been used to tokenize 150 real estate assets across 28 countries, with a total value of $145 million. The geographical spread is impressive: from Europe to Asia, boutique hotels, residential complexes, and commercial spaces are being transformed into digital assets.
In Europe, early examples include projects in Switzerland and Germany, where favorable regulatory environments enabled the issuance of tokenized real estate-backed securities. For instance, in 2019 the German regulator approved tokenized bonds backed by a property portfolio, paving the way for further initiatives.
Asia and the Middle East are also exploring the field: in Dubai, luxury housing is being tokenized to attract foreign investors, and in Singapore, major banks are testing digital fractional ownership of real estate trusts.
As of 2025, tokenization technologies have been piloted on every continent — from single apartments to shares in resort hotels — proving the viability of the concept.
Key Players and Emerging Platforms
So who is driving this new market forward? On one hand, dozens of startups and fintech platforms are emerging, specifically tailored for real estate tokenization. We’ve already mentioned some of them: Blocksquare (based in Europe, using Ethereum), RealT (USA), Propy (USA), Lofty, and others. These companies provide the technological infrastructure — platforms where developers or property owners can issue tokens tied to a building and sell them to investors.
On the other hand, traditional real estate players are beginning to establish their own tokenization divisions or form partnerships with fintech firms. The example of Roofstock is particularly illustrative: the large housing marketplace launched its blockchain subsidiary Roofstock OnChain to become a first mover in this field. Similarly, some real estate investment funds are following suit. British firm Kin Capital announced plans in 2025 to launch a $100 million real estate fund on the blockchain aimed at attracting institutional investors globally via the Chintai platform. Essentially, this is a digital version of a closed-end property fund, where shareholder rights are recorded as tokens.
In addition to these dedicated startups, major financial corporations are also entering the space. Wall Street investment banks and funds, which just a few years ago were skeptical about crypto assets, are now viewing real asset tokenization as a promising financial instrument. For instance, the platform Securitize, founded by former financial industry executives, collaborates with giants like Santander Bank and Hamilton Lane, helping them issue tokens backed by traditional assets — from fund shares to debt instruments. Meanwhile, JPMorgan has established a dedicated blockchain division, Onyx, which is piloting tokenization across various financial products, including deposits and bonds.
Although major banks have been slower to publicly embrace real estate tokenization specifically, the mere existence of this blockchain infrastructure paves the way for property to enter the tokenized asset class. In 2024, the Tokenized Asset Coalition was formed in the U.S., comprising over 50 companies — from crypto startups to financial institutions — aiming to promote common tokenization standards and advocate for regulatory updates. The coalition signals a market maturity level where participants are ready to engage with regulators and institutional investors in a unified voice.
Geography of Demand and Policy Initiatives
Real estate tokenization is not just gaining traction in the U.S. and Europe — it’s also emerging in developing economies. Experts point out that this trend could particularly benefit emerging markets where access to major assets or affordable financing has traditionally been limited. Tokenization enables liquidity and access to global capital in regions where such resources were once scarce.
For example, a developer in Southeast Asia, previously reliant on local banks, can now theoretically raise funds from international investors by selling project-based tokens — bypassing many intermediaries. It’s no surprise that the UAE (Dubai, Abu Dhabi) is positioning itself as a global hub for blockchain innovation in real estate. Local authorities are fostering favorable regulation instead of imposing bans, actively encouraging capital inflows and tech adoption.
In Europe, Switzerland and Germany lead the race. Switzerland passed a law regulating blockchain-based assets back in 2021, while Germany has legalized electronic securities. In Asia, Singapore — with its regulatory sandboxes — and Hong Kong, which recently expressed support for tokenized green bonds (and potentially real estate), are becoming increasingly active. Globally, tokenization is seen by some countries as a chance to democratize access to capital, by others — as a tool for attracting foreign investment, and by financial hubs — as a competitive advantage in offering cutting-edge services.
Spotlight on Luxembourg: Europe’s Tokenization Powerhouse
Particular attention must be given to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Known for its robust banking system and investment industry, Luxembourg has for years positioned itself as an ideal environment for tokenization initiatives. The country boasts clear and transparent regulations for investment funds, a dedicated blockchain law that sets out explicit rules for digital assets, and a complete legal and technical infrastructure that allows for full-cycle asset tokenization “turnkey.”
This has made Luxembourg an attractive entry point for institutional investors seeking a legally sound framework for the digital transformation of real-world assets. One of the leading platforms operating from Luxembourg is DigiShares, which offers end-to-end tokenization solutions for real estate and other tangible assets. DigiShares ensures full compliance with both EU and Luxembourg regulations, allowing clients to issue legally recognized investment tokens. This reinforces Luxembourg’s strategic role as Europe’s emerging hub for tokenized finance.
Tokenization Models and Institutional Involvement
Looking deeper into the phenomenon, several tokenization models are gaining traction:
1. Fractional Ownership Tokens
This model involves dividing property ownership rights into tradable tokens. For example, a residential or commercial building is tokenized, and each token represents a share of ownership. These are often classified as security tokens and fall under financial regulation. Investors holding these tokens are entitled to a portion of rental income and capital gains. This is the route taken by platforms like RealT, offering shares in rental properties, and Swiss initiatives that tokenize luxury chalets in the Alps.
2. Tokenized Real Estate Funds
Rather than tokenizing individual properties, these platforms issue tokens representing shares in a fund or trust that owns a diversified portfolio. It’s essentially a blockchain-based version of REITs. According to Deloitte, this segment is one of the most promising, with tokenized private property funds expected to reach $1 trillion by 2035. The advantages are diversification, familiar structures for regulators, and growing investor confidence. Funds such as the $100M Kin Capital initiative are among the first examples.
3. Debt Tokenization and Asset-Backed Securities
Real estate can also be tokenized by issuing debt instruments secured by property. Developers can raise construction capital by offering tokens backed by land or development rights. These tokens are closer to bonds or mortgage-backed securities. A prime example is New Silver in the U.S., which issues real estate-backed loans and tokenizes them via the Centrifuge protocol. Liquidity for these loans is provided by MakerDAO, the issuer of the DAI stablecoin. In essence, traditional loan securitization has found a modern, decentralized expression — with tokens replacing mortgage bundles and smart contracts automating interest payments.
Deloitte projects this debt and securitization model could dominate the market by 2035, with an estimated value of $2.39 trillion — as institutional investors are already more familiar with such instruments than direct ownership tokens.
4. Early-Stage Development Tokenization
The most speculative — but increasingly discussed — model is the tokenization of early-stage projects, including undeveloped land and pre-construction properties. Traditionally, only developers or private equity funds would invest at this stage. Now, tokenization allows broader investor participation via tokens linked to projected future value. While risky, the potential is evident. For instance, part of the Vera Capital and Blocksquare deal involved using tokens to fund new construction in Florida. In Asia, startups are offering tokens tied to land rights in fast-growing regions, allowing investors to benefit from appreciation.
Deloitte estimates this segment will reach around $50 billion by 2035 — modest compared to others, but growing. Overall, tokenization is penetrating every phase of real estate’s lifecycle — from funding development to owning buildings and securitizing mortgages.
The Rise of Institutional and DeFi Participation
A final trend worth highlighting is the growing interest from both institutional investors and the DeFi sector. Once the domain of crypto enthusiasts, real estate tokenization is now attracting large-scale investment platforms and decentralized finance protocols. We’ve mentioned Kin Capital and other funds. Simultaneously, the DeFi trend of Real World Assets (RWA) — incorporating tokenized real assets into smart contract ecosystems — is gaining momentum.
Leading DeFi platform MakerDAO has, over the past two years, allocated hundreds of millions of dollars into tokenized bonds and real estate holdings as collateral for its DAI stablecoin. Through partners, MakerDAO helps finance U.S. treasury bond purchases and property funds, receiving steady returns in exchange. This process injects liquidity into the tokenization sector. If an investor holds a token linked to real estate, they can stake it in a DeFi protocol and receive a stablecoin loan — without having to sell the token.
In traditional finance, this would be analogous to a mortgage-backed loan. DeFi makes the process instant, global, and automated. By 2025, the total value of tokenized real assets used in decentralized applications had reached a record $16–19 billion — much of it tied to real estate and real estate-backed instruments.
Going forward, the convergence of traditional institutions and DeFi platforms may become a major growth driver for the real estate tokenization market — creating a hybrid model of finance fueled by both crypto liquidity and institutional capital.
Challenges and Risks: What’s Holding Back the Revolution?
Despite its impressive potential, the real estate tokenization industry still faces a number of significant hurdles.
Regulatory barriers are perhaps the most pressing. Real estate is simply too valuable — and socially sensitive — a sector for governments to allow unrestricted trading of ownership shares without oversight. In most jurisdictions, a token that represents a portion of real estate is legally treated as a security or fund share, making it subject to securities laws. This includes requirements for registration, compliance with KYC/AML protocols, investor eligibility (such as limiting participation to accredited investors), and more.
In the U.S., many tokenization projects operate through complex legal structures, such as exemptions under Regulation D for private placements, which significantly narrows the pool of potential investors. As of early 2025, legal uncertainty remains in America, with industry stakeholders calling for new laws or official clarifications to pave the way for wider adoption.
The EU offers a slightly clearer picture. With the adoption of the MiCA regulation in 2023, a baseline framework was created for crypto-assets, while the DLT pilot regime now allows exchanges to experiment with trading tokenized securities. Switzerland and Singapore have gone even further, developing specialized licenses for tokenization platforms. However, the lack of harmonized global standards remains a major obstacle. An investor in one country may struggle to invest in real estate tokens from another due to conflicting legal frameworks. This fragmentation is a serious impediment to building a truly global market.
Another challenge is liquidity, which has yet to fully materialize. In theory, tokens should make real estate more liquid: instead of selling an entire property for millions, owners can distribute smaller shares to many investors, and those shares should trade freely. In practice, secondary markets for real estate tokens remain small. Most transactions occur on private platforms or within limited investor circles, not on public exchanges.
Investors who purchase tokens in a property may find it difficult to resell them quickly — demand is still modest. Strategic investors often view such assets as long-term holdings, akin to direct property ownership, while speculative capital remains cautious due to low trading volumes. Still, liquidity is gradually improving. Specialized exchanges for security tokens are emerging, and major crypto exchanges are showing interest in the space. In the future, platforms like Nasdaq or new digital exchanges might list tokenized real estate alongside traditional REITs — a move that would greatly enhance market fluidity. But for now, liquidity remains high only for the most attractive or well-publicized properties.
Investor trust and rights protection form the third critical pillar. Anyone buying a token must be confident that it truly represents a tangible piece of real estate — and that their rights are legally safeguarded. This hinges both on the legal link between the token and the asset, and on the reliability of the technological infrastructure behind it.
So far, the sector has avoided major scandals or frauds, but risks remain. Poorly designed smart contracts or platform hacks could result in the loss of “digital keys” to valuable assets. Legal precedents are needed to clarify what happens if, for example, a token issuer goes bankrupt or the underlying property is damaged. The technical complexity of blockchain can also deter less-savvy users: even though blockchain is transparent, the idea of storing a property token in a crypto wallet may seem insecure to the average investor. A more intuitive user experience is required — ideally with token custody integrated into familiar financial tools, such as bank or brokerage accounts.
Data accuracy is another essential concern. Investors need to trust the information they receive about a property’s condition, yield, and valuation. Without independent audits and oracles feeding reliable data to the blockchain, the tokenization market risks inheriting one of traditional real estate’s worst flaws: opacity and information asymmetry, which erode trust.
Lastly, there are psychological and market risks to consider. Real estate has long been valued for its stability, and some investors fear that bringing it into the “crypto format” could introduce unnecessary volatility and speculation. In the worst case, a broader crypto market crash could affect tokenized properties — even though their intrinsic value is grounded in real-world buildings.
There’s also the risk that expectations outpace reality. If the public is not ready to change its habits, the promised revolution could unfold more slowly than forecast. The conservatism of the real estate sector is no joke: many developers and funds adhere to the principle of “second-mover advantage,” preferring to wait until others have tested new models.
Mass adoption may take longer than optimists predict — but the groundwork is being laid today.
Looking Ahead to 2035: Scenarios for the Future
What could the real estate market look like a decade from now if tokenization continues to advance? Most experts agree that these technologies will secure a lasting place in the industry’s infrastructure — the only question is the scale.
One possible scenario is optimistic: by 2035, tokenization could become as routine a financial instrument as real estate investment trusts (REITs) or mortgage-backed securities are today. In this case, the share of real estate traded in tokenized form could reach double-digit percentages. According to Deloitte’s estimates, around 8.5% of private real estate funds alone may be tokenized by 2035 — and the overall figure could be even higher when including other formats.
In this vision, any retail investor could buy a “slice” of a skyscraper in New York, a Mediterranean villa, or a shopping mall in Dubai with just a few taps on their phone, building a global property portfolio in minutes. Geographic boundaries would disappear as capital flows to the most efficient projects worldwide through unified digital platforms.
Property owners would benefit from new sources of funding, while investors gain unprecedented access to previously closed-off opportunities. The market would become more liquid and dynamic, spawning new financial products — from derivatives on tokenized real estate indices to mortgage-backed tokens that enable instant securitization. It’s even conceivable that government property registries could migrate to blockchain-based systems — Estonia and Sweden have already experimented with distributed ledger land registries.
A more moderate scenario suggests that, by 2035, tokenization will have carved out a firm niche without radically reshaping the industry. In this version, it becomes common mainly among institutional and accredited investors. Large funds would use tokens to streamline operations (for example, profit distribution or securitization), banks would create private blockchains for asset transfers, while retail investors would still prefer familiar tools like REITs or crowdfunding platforms — possibly enhanced with blockchain under the hood.
The market would still grow to the multi-trillion-dollar range but integrate quietly into the existing system. For example, people might not hold tokens directly, but instead buy into a fund that operates with tokenized assets — meaning the technology remains in the backend without changing the user experience significantly.
This scenario would ease many concerns: regulators would feel more comfortable with evolutionary (rather than revolutionary) changes, and investors wouldn’t need to acquire new technical skills. However, the full transformative potential of tokenization — unlocking and democratizing the market — might remain underutilized.
Finally, there’s a pessimistic scenario in which progress stalls for years. This could happen if a major collapse or abuse of the system undermines investor confidence — much like the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 tainted securitized products for an entire generation. Or, governments could impose excessively harsh regulations, effectively strangling innovation.
In that case, tokenization could remain a niche tool for a small circle of players, while the broader real estate market sticks to traditional processes for many more years. However, given the current level of interest from regulators and major businesses, this outcome seems unlikely.
More likely, the industry will seek a balance between innovation and oversight. Leading jurisdictions are already listening to market participants and revising frameworks to accommodate tokens, rather than banning them outright.
Real estate tokenization is evolving from an experimental concept into a legitimate force with the potential to reshape the industry. It is driven by clear economic logic — the search for liquidity, lower transaction costs, and expanded investor access — as well as the ongoing advancement of blockchain technology.
Certainly, many challenges remain — legal, technical, and psychological. But historical analogies provide cautious optimism. Credit cards, internet banking, crowdfunding — all faced skepticism in their early days, yet today they’re ubiquitous. Perhaps within the next decade, the phrase “buy real estate on the blockchain” will no longer sound futuristic.
We are standing on the threshold of an era in which nearly anyone, regardless of geography, could own a share in a skyscraper or residential complex, and in which real estate as an asset class becomes more dynamic and accessible than ever before. The trillion-dollar forecasts issued by leading analysts only reinforce this trend.
If those projections come true, by 2035 we’ll be living in a world where digital tokens and physical buildings are tightly intertwined — and where the investment landscape for real estate looks nothing like it did in the early 2020s.
One thing is certain: this emerging sector deserves close attention. Before our very eyes, a new market is forming — one that blends the time-tested value of property with the cutting-edge power of technology. And this synergy, it seems, may indeed rewrite the rules of the game — for investors, developers, and the economy as a whole.
Based on research and materials from Deloitte, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, ScienceSoft, DigiShares and others.
www2.deloitte.com | businesswire.com | cointelegraph.com | globenewswire.com | DigiShares
