One of the UK’s leading software and digital marketing companies for estate agents is producing its first cryptocurrency portal.

Property Webmasters, based in Hartlepool, has been commissioned to produce a website for a leading real estate brand which will accept crypto as a payment method, a sign of the growing number of companies that have embraced digital tokens.

James Sheldon, the company’s operations manager, said: “The leading real estate brand we are working with is widening its markets and this move is an innovative path that many are now looking to take.

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“Why are we going down the electric car route when we have cars already? The crypto portal is the same sort of concept. We have currencies already, but it’s about creating more options for people.

“The world is becoming a smaller place, everyone is being connected these days wherever you are, so crypto helps to break down international boundaries.”

The property industry is aware of the importance and significance of blockchain technology – a system which records information in a way that makes it impossible to edit or hack – and that links well with crypto and various other ways of investing and transacting.

It is an approach that is growing in the UK and around the world, particularly in the US, and the firm to ensure it is well placed to help estate agents take that step if they want to.

Jamie Arthur, the chief executive and founder of Property Webmasters, said: “Crypto has been around for years and in the last five years we have seen crypto go on an upward trajectory – we want to be part of that worldwide progression. From an innovation point of view it is vital we are looking at crypto.”

Property Webmasters is creating a transactional real estate listing website which will only display properties whose owners are willing to accept crypto as a currency. The more who accept the bigger that site will become.

The plan is for Property Webmasters to then implement a crypto feature into its own AgentPlus website solution for estate agents at home and abroad within the next 6-12 months.