La Haus to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Transactions on Its Platform

The Latin American PropTech startup La Haus has announced that it will accept payments in Bitcoin for a development in Mexico that it is marketing in Playa del Carmen.

Although initially only accepted for the one development, the company has big crypto plans and is looking to roll out the acceptance of Bitcoin for more properties on its platform which manages over one billion dollars' worth of transactions per year.

La Haus recently hired a former advisor to the Colombian government on cryptocurrency, and its founders are bullish on crypto's potential in the Latin American housing market:

“As we expand across Latin America, bitcoin can solve some of the problems that come with buying a home with local currencies. The bitcoin and real estate worlds have excellent synergy,” said Rodrigo Sánchez-Ríos, president of La Haus.

Last year, Latin American e-commerce giant and real estate portal operator MercadoLibre made headlines in Argentina for advertising properties for sale via Bitcoin. Since then the cryptocurrency's value and popularity in inflation-hit Latin America have risen significantly.

La Haus's move to not only advertise properties that can be paid for in Bitcoin but also facilitate the transaction on its platform is another step towards what Sánchez-Ríos hopes can be the "social wellbeing of access to quality housing for millions of Latin American families through technology, data and our world-class service".

La Haus is one of a new generation of Latin American end-to-end disruptors using technology to circumvent prohibitively expensive barriers and antiquated bureaucracy to digitalise and democratise the opaque world of Latin American property transactions. The company operates a marketplace for new build properties which also serves as a transaction platform for users to progress the sale and ultimately sign everything online.

The startup was founded in the Colombian city of Medellin in 2017 by former Stanford Business alumni Jeronimo and Tomás Uribe and Rodrigo Sánchez-Ríos. Apart from its native Colombian market, the company is also active in five regions of Mexico including Guadalajara which it entered in June and Querétaro where it launched operations last month.

The firm has some notable backers including the likes of Jeff Bezos, Kaszek Ventures, NFX, Trulia’s Co-Founder, IMO Ventures, ex Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff, Brian Requarth and Hometeam Ventures and secured $100 million funding round in July.