The Number and Size of Transactions is Rising
Paya Magazine estimates that Roatan’s yearly GDP is somewhere around $840 million. The island’s roughly 100,000 residents spend around $400 million in yearly personal purchases here. The island has around $65 million in cruise ship sales that stays here, and then there is the $240 million brought in by long-term tourist visitors. There is the bit smaller, but growing, $80 million in real estate transactions. To top it off, there is the yearly $60 million in construction investment.
If these numbers are close to being correct, the island’s economy approaches around $1 billion. Paya Magazine estimates that around 80% of these yearly monetary transactions are made in Lempiras, around 20% in dollars, and less than 1% in Bitcoin. These proportions and numbers have grown in the last 10 years and will continue to change.
The percentage of Bitcoin transactions is likely to increase. Bitcoin adoption on Roatan has been rising steadily since 2021. In 2021, five businesses in the Bay Islands accepted Bitcoin, with three of them on Roatan. According to Dusan Matuska, owner of AmityAge, a company that promotes Bitcoin education and adoption on Roatan, there are now over 50 businesses accepting Bitcoin as a payment. “We are helping to bring more Bitcoin users to the island who will use their holdings to purchase various good and services and also real estate,” Matuska said. “Real estate agents should get ready for it.”
The island’s economy approaches around $1 billion.
According to Matuska, over 10 real estate transactions have occurred on the island with Bitcoin so far. This is related to the price of Bitcoin surpassing $110,000, which has some Bitcoin owners cashing out. Some have converted their Bitcoin holdings to land and properties to diversify in case Bitcoin’s price declines.
There were two properties were purchased with Bitcoin just east of Palmetto Bay. Seventy-five acres and 1,100 feet of beachfront are now owned by a Bitcoin investor. “They purchased it as a land bank,” said Steve Hasz, a real estate broker whose company, Roatan Life, was involved in the sale. “They are not going to develop it.” Hasz says that 270 properties were sold on Roatan last year. That translated to $78 million, and 2024 was not even the island’s best year.
When real estate is purchased in Bitcoin, currency conversion service is typically provided by AmityAge. Transactions in Bitcoin has simplified and sped up sales as well. “You don’t really need an escrow, because you can watch the blockchain and see it convert,” Hasz said.
One exception in Bitcoin-to-Bitcoin real estate transactions is the 10% earnest money paid by the buyer as funds still should be held by an escrow company until the closing. “It may make sense to convert the earnest money as there are quite a bit taxes to pay out of the sales typically,” Hasz said. “You have capital gains, you have taxes at closings, […] attorneys’ fees.”
All the peripheral players still get paid no matter if the transaction, or part of the transaction, is done in Bitcoin. ZOLITUR gets paid, the central government gets paid, no matter what. “If you have a buyer and seller in Bitcoin it is super easy,” said Tomas Figueroa, a KW real estate agent. “If the seller wants dollars we have an operation in place.”
Two other properties were bought in Bitcoin in Lawson Rock in the last 12 months, and the agent involved in those sales was Figueroa. “Próspera and Dusan are the ones that are attracting this type of a [Bitcoin] buyer,” Figueroa said. “It’s all about marketing.”
Bitcoin has simplified and sped up sales.
Buyers and sellers using crypto currencies are not only hedging. “A lot of people who are invested in Bitcoin, it’s not a money issue [in property purchases], it is how they promote Bitcoin and adoption of Bitcoin,” Figueroa said, who expects he should complete his third Bitcoin property sale on the island soon. “Próspera ecosystem is attracting this type of buyer,” the KW agent said. “They have their own property institute, which has been recognized by law.”
While all the properties in Honduras are part of the 2005-implemented National Property Administration System [SINAP] and register a national geospatial infrastructure, Próspera has its own property registry. “The title for a Duna [tower] condo is in the Próspera registry they set out from the very beginning,” said Mike Carter, of Roatan Life Vacations Rental. Not only sales of properties in Próspera can be done in Bitcoin, Próspera also accepts Bitcoin for utility payments.
Other Roatan properties are also available for Bitcoin buyers. Fort Morgan Cay, a private resort island listed for about $10 million, is for sale in Bitcoin. “They would really like to take Bitcoin; they would prefer it, actually,” says Hasz, who represents the owners. The 27.5-acre Roatan east end property is not only historic, with the remains of a 300-year-old fort, but it also might make history if it becomes the biggest Bitcoin sale in the island’s real estate history to date.
