New York-based real estate agency- Helmsley Spear has collaborated with Hercules SEZC, a blockchain based software company, to manage the rent rolls of the former’s commercial leases. The company plans to take the technology to two of its properties located in Lower Manhattan.
Helmsley Spear identified the blockchain technology’s potential in their market and believed that it could use the technology in a much more practical and less speculative way unlike the cryptocurrency market, where it is under constant scrutiny.
Helmsley Spear’s owner and President Kent M. Swig quoted:
“Typically, people misunderstand in thinking blockchain is just a public way of identifying information.” However, his firm is using it for proprietary and confidential information. He notes, “The security on blockchain is very strong and very good.”
Blockchain, till now, has been considered just as a portal for the people around the world to share information via the internet. But Swig claimed using blockchain in a private network will make the access to confidential information more secure.
Swig quoted:
“What we are using it for is authenticating, documenting and storing vital documents in a form that cannot be changed and cannot be manipulated”
The documents Helmsley Spear plans to incorporate into their blockchain are leases, lease abstracts, mortgages, financial information related to loans, governmental agencies’ permits, and any documents that are vital to the real estate transaction.
By using blockchain, the company will be able to record property transactions, improve the filter process for property search, maintain leasing and would be able to speed up the pre-lease due diligence.
Oliver swig, a Helmsley Spear executive quoted:
“Blockchain technology can be the critical connection between technology systems of real estate companies and other participants in leasing or property management transactions through the provision of a more open and shared database for all involved parties,”
Hercules SEZC, the company which will manage the technology claims that such incorporation will enhance the data quality and will provide real-time analysis.
Helmsley Spear’s owner says:
“In today’s world, you want to make sure everything is secure and authenticated. People can manipulate and change a lot of things. But once something is stored through a blockchain method, you can’t change it as you are doing things,”
He also claimed that this merger would not involve any sharing of confidential information between the two parties.
Helmsley Spear is the oldest real estate company of USA. Implementation of the blockchain technology will make them even more scalable.