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Frequently Asked QuestionsFAQ
Luso Homes is a real estate portal intended to connect sellers and purchasers who want to pay or receive the price – or part of it – in cryptocurrency. This service only applies to the sale and purchase of properties.
Luso Homes’ services are provided by Luso Digital Assets, LDA.
Luso Digital Assets is a Portuguese Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP). The company was founded in 2020 and is duly licensed by the Portuguese Central Bank – in Portuguese, Banco de Portugal or BdP.
Although Luso operates in the SEPA zone, it accepts clients from all over the world, providing services in the virtual assets’ world with a young but experienced team – for more information please read question 3, below.
Luso Homes is subject to Anti Money Laundry legislation and for that reason reveres itself the right to accept or reject clients based on the risk analysis of each client and the information we can collect to mitigate said risk.
Nevertheless, we can say that if the institution/bank from which the client is sending or receiving the payment is located within the SEPA zone, we can most likely accept them as a customer.
Also, please note that Luso Homes will deny the onboarding to any customer who is under 18 years old or that is from one of these countries:
* Crimea;
* Cuba;
* Iran;
* North Korea;
* Southern Sudan;
* Republic of Sudan;
* Syria; and,
* United States of America (only if resident in the USA).
For us to accept a client, you will need them to complete the onboarding journey with us.
If you are a seller, please note that the onboarding process will have to be completed before we feature your property on our website. If you are a purchaser the onboarding process shall be completed after you place an offer, the seller accepts and you reserve the property for yourself – so, before you formalize your intention to purchase the property, through a promissory agreement for example, we need to accept you as our client as well.
The onboarding process consists in the providing of the clients’ identification data.
The data we require to be presented by our clients is mandatory as per the laws regarding Anti Money Laundering to which Luso Homes is subject to – namely Law no. 83/2017 and others.
If the client is an individual we will need: (1) photo of the client’s ID card or passport; (2) VAT number; (3) full home and fiscal address (including zip code and country); and (4) Biometric photo (selfie); (5) phone number; (6) e-mail; and (7) current professional occupation.
If the client is a corporation we will need: (1) company’s corporate name; (2) corporate object; (3) full address of the company’s headquarters; (4) VAT number or equivalent issued by the competent authorities; (5) ID of the holders of 5% (or more) of the company’s shares; (6) ID of the holders of company’s administration positions or equivalent, as well as the ID of other relevant members of superior positions on the company; (7) country of incorporation; (8) the economic classification code (CAE in Portuguese) or equivalent.
After the onboarding process is completed, Luso Home’s compliance team will review all of the documents and information provided and accept the client, require more information, or reject the client.
Clients are only rejected if (1) they do not provide us with the documents or information required by Law no. 83/2017, (2) if they are from one of the sanctioned countries or (3) they are sanctioned persons as per the lists provided by the competent authorities.
Cryptocurrencies are virtual assets designed to facilitate peer-to-peer financial transactions and smart contracts on the internet in a decentralized manner. These currencies record transactions on public ledgers known as “blockchains” and are the first form of digital money where an intermediary is not required to send funds from one person to another person.
Cryptocurrencies do not have a physical location; wallets do not hold cryptocurrencies. Wallets only hold the cryptographic keys needed to access one’s cryptocurrencies on the relevant blockchain. Also, cryptocurrencies do not actually “move” anywhere when you send or receive them. They just change ownership on the respective blockchain, which is stored on nodes all over the world and secured using cryptography. Anyone with the right resources can set up and run a node.
Yes, you can. Even if your counterparty does not want or need cryptocurrency. That’s what we are here to help you with.
Luso Homes provides services regarding the exchange of the following cryptocurrencies:
* Bitcoin (BTC)
* Bitcoincash (BCH)
* Bitcoin SV
* Ethereum (ETH)
* Litecoin (LTC)
* Binance Coin (BNB)
* Cardano (ADA)
* Ripple (XRP)
* Stellar
* Horizen (ZEN)
* Tether (USDT)
* USD Coin (USDC)
* Binance USD (BUSD)
* Monero (XMR)
* Lumen (XLM)
* Chainlink (LINK)
* Solana (SOL)
* Flow
* Shiba Inu (SHIB)
* Dogecoin (DOGE)
* Polkadot (DOT)
* Polygon (Matic)
Luso Homes can provide not only a real estate portal where you can publish your property for sale or look for properties to purchase – both in cryptocurrency, or not –, but also a service of exchange to accommodate the need of both the seller and purchaser who may not wish to pay or be paid in cryptocurrencies.
Also, we facilitate the contact of our clients with several of our partners who are used to carry out this kind of transactions and have the knowledge to help you in the full process
Yes and no. Luso Homes is a service only associated with the purchase and sale of properties. Although we can help you if you contact us through our other service: www.lusodigitalssets.com where you can find the correct platform for the exchange of several cryptocurrencies.
Both parties need to have a valid ID document – ID card or passport – and a Portuguese taxpayer number – in Portuguese, NIF or número de identificação fiscal. If you don’t have a taxpayer number you will be required to obtain one.
In what concerns the property you must have all the necessary documents for the deed of purchase and sale, which may vary in accordance to the type of property you are selling or purchasing. In case of doubt, we advise you to contact a lawyer – please check question 3 below for more information on this subject.
We leave here a list of the documents that you may need for this operation regarding the property:
* Land registry certificate (“certidão do registo predial”);
* Tax authority’s registry (“caderneta predial”);
* Energy certificate (“certificado energético”);
* Use permit (“licença de utilização”);
* Housing technical file (“ficha técnica de habitação”)
* Infrastructures certificate (“certidão de infraestruturas”)
Yes, you can. As long as you give someone a power of attorney, duly authenticated by a lawyer, solicitor or notary, this person can represent you, as your proxy, in any legal acts taking place in Portugal.
Keep in mind that the power of attorney must describe exhaustively and in an express manner the acts that you authorize your proxy to partake in on your behalf. Also, this person must not be a lawyer or other law professional, it can be anyone over the age of 18 and with the mental capacities to partake in any legal acts.
Of course. We can put you through one of our partners in business, namely, the Martínez-Echavarría Law Firm.
They will be more than happy to assist you in any legal query that may arise and also help you throughout the whole purchasing or selling process – or other legal matters you wish to see resolved.
Many expenses may arise during the purchasing process, depending on the services you may need to be provided.
Nevertheless, we leave here a merely informative list of the costs that will surely arise for the purchaser:
* Taxes: for purchasing a house in Portugal you must pay the Municipal Tax on Real Estate Transfer (in Portuguese Imposto Municipal Sobre as Transmissões Onerosas de Imóveis or IMT) and Stamp Duty (in Portuguese Imposto do Selo or IS).
* Deed of purchase and sale: for the transfer of property rights related to one specific real estate property, the purchaser and the seller must sign a contract before a duly competent authority – these may be a notary, a lawyer or a paralegal. For them to practice this act you must pay its fees.
* Property registries before the Land Registry: after the deed is done, the competent authority who performed the act shall present the contract to be registered before the competent authorities – in this case, the Land Registry. This cost is normally paid directly to the notary, lawyer or paralegal who recognized the contact since they are the ones obligated to present this registry.
If you do not have an opened account in Portugal – and do not wish to have one – but still have to make these payments, please check question 5 below.
Luso Homes can also help with this.
If you do not have a Portuguese bank account – and do not wish to open one – we can pay these expenses for you, in euros, as long as you pay us the corresponding amount in crypto.
After the taxes, registry and notary fees are duly established and before the deed takes place, all you need to do is transfer us the corresponding amount in the cryptocurrency of your choosing and we will pay these expenses, through bank transfer or other, as you instruct us to do so. All of the data to proceed with the payments – including entities, references, IBANs, etc. – are of the purchaser’s full responsibility.
Please note that, for the providing of this service, additional charges may be applied.
It is totally free to publish your property on our website. Only premium and custom services that are not related to the simple publication of a property may have other costs associated with them.
You can publish all kinds of real estate properties on our website – from an apartment to a plot of land.
No worries. Luso Homes works as a financial intermediary who converts the seller’s cryptocurrency in fiat currency.
If you are a seller and wish to receive the full amount of the price in fiat it’s easy: the seller transfers all of the cryptocurrency to one of Luso’s accounts and we transfer you the corresponding amount in fiat currency to an account in your name. If you wish to receive only part of the price in fiat currency, also no problem, the same logic applies.
