On February 15th, Nomura Real Estate Solutions announced that it will participate in a joint research project conducted by Escrow Agent Japan (EAJ) and Cyberlinks for the complete online settlement of sales and purchase real estate transactions using My Number cards.

The research aims to develop a service that can be used consistently by sellers, buyers, real estate agents, judicial scriveners, and other parties by incorporating the functions of digital certificates based on Cyberlinks' public personal authentication infrastructure into EAJ's transaction system.

The first phase of the project, a desktop simulation, was conducted from August to December of 2021 to identify issues related to the computerization of documents handled in the real estate brokerage and registration practises, and to verify a hypothetical model of a fully online workflow. 

As a result, it was found that, in addition to sales contracts and explanation of important matters documentation, other financial and administrative documents such as loan contracts and fixed asset tax assessment certificates also needed to be digitised.

Based on this realisation, the three companies have defined a six-step roadmap for the complete online property sales transaction.

From April of 2022, online transactions will be conducted for purchases of real estate where Nomura as a company itself is the buyer, with further rollout thereafter to the general consumer once the three companies further iron out any unforeseen workflow and transaction issues. 

Further Reading

Nomura / EAJ / Cyberlinks Joint Press Release (Japanese only; February 2022)