Lingerie Tycoon Sells 50 Luxury Dubai Apartments for Bitcoin

Aston Plaza & Residences has successfully sold 50 apartments to Bitcoin users in February. Located in Science Park Dubai, the apartments will offer residents the chance to live close to Dubai’s famous landmarks such as the tallest building in the world Burj Khalifa as well the Dubai International Airport.

The 2.4 million square feet project with almost 1,300 apartments was initially launched in September of last year. It is currently being constructed by Aston Developments, which works under the parent company Aston Property Ventures owned by Knox group of companies. Founder and Chairman of Knoxx, Douglas Barrowman, partnered with Baroness Michelle Mone of Michelle Mone Interiors and lingerie company Ultimo, for this crypto-friendly $325 million project.

Barrowman told Business Insider that, “We allocated 50 out of 1,300 developments. We’ve sold all out. Some bought ones and twos, and one individual bought ten.”

While Bitcoin users worldwide and specifically UAE were given a golden opportunity to invest their cryptocurrency, Mone told BI that most of those buyers “fit the stereotype of early bitcoin devotees”.

Mone further described how the Aston team slowly built a relationship with those young investors, “They would talk on the phone — they’re not just like in their hoodies in the dark in the rooms.”
Aston Plaza & Residences: What’s Next?

According to the website, a total of 400 apartments have been sold to early investors. However, the purchasing process is still in ‘Phase 1’, which is now offering 150 apartments, the lowest price starting at 9 Bitcoins. At the time of writing, only 132 apartments are left. Once they are sold and the project moves closer to its completion (estimated around summer of next year), the prices for the next developments will increase.

Barrowman explained that they haven’t announced more apartments yet, “We’re still getting lots of inquiries. We’ve not released another batch. Particularly when bitcoin was riding high in the charts. I think a lot of people were cashing out over the Christmas period.”

The plaza will offer various attractions and basic facilities to future residents including food, beverage and retail shops, supermarket, swimming pool, play area, a potential medical center, gym, and tracks for walking and running.

The prices of the studio apartments range from 15 to 16 BTC, around 132, 976$. One bedroom apartments can be found at 25 to 27 BTC (approx. $223,057) while two bedroom apartments are priced at 38 to 41 BTC (approx. $343,165). The payment can be made via global BTC payment service BitPay.

This is not the only cryptocurrency project led by Barrowman and Mone. Both of them are planning to launch a $75 million ICO which will offer ‘Equi’ tokens for the ‘Equi’ platform. Barrowman explained that the website will provide investment opportunities to people. He said, “I like to see this crypto space being used to buy real-world assets. That’s the spirit of Equi as well. It’s transcending the crypto space into the physical and real world.”