GLOSSARY · BLOCKCHAIN & WEB3
Proptech (property technology): what it is and the segments it covers
What proptech is: technology for buying, renting, financing and managing property, its segments, what is regulated and why tokenization is proptech.
WHAT IS IT? · FOR DUMMIES
Proptech is any technology that changes how homes and buildings are bought, rented, managed or financed: from a listings portal to an app for paying rent. Real estate tokenization is part of proptech: it uses blockchain so that many investors can take part in the same project.
WHAT IS IT? · PRO
Proptech (property technology) is technology applied to real estate: to buying, selling, renting, financing, managing, building or investing in property. It is not a legal category. What is regulated is each activity: if a proptech company finances projects with money from the public or issues securities, each country's financial rules apply, whatever the company calls itself.
Segments.
- Search and transactions: property portals and marketplaces, automated valuation and tools for agents.
- Rental and management: rental management, rent collection, maintenance and building operations.
- Construction and design, sometimes called contech: planning, modeling and site progress tracking.
- Financing and investment: digital mortgages, real estate crowdfunding, crowdlending and real estate tokenization. This is the segment where the activity usually requires financial authorization.
What is regulated in financing.
- European Union and Spain: crowdfunding platforms need authorization (Regulation (EU) 2020/1503); in Spain it is granted by the CNMV (art. 47 of Law 5/2015).
- Mexico: only crowdfunding institutions authorized by the CNBV may connect members of the public so that they finance one another (art. 15 of the Fintech Law), including co-ownership of an asset (art. 16(III)).
- Colombia: crowdfunding is governed by Book 41 of Decree 2555 of 2010, and an autonomous trust estate can only receive it through debt securities (Decrees 2105 of 2023 and 34 of 2025).
- Argentina: the CNV allows the digital representation of certain publicly offered securities, including those of financial trusts, in a sandbox until December 31, 2027 (Title XXII of its Rules, art. 38).
Why real estate tokenization is proptech. It uses distributed ledger technology to issue, record and transfer investors' rights in a real estate project. Under the frameworks above, what gets tokenized are rights against the vehicle that owns the property: a special purpose vehicle (SPV), a fideicomiso (trust) or an autonomous trust estate. In Spain, if those rights are transferable securities, they can be represented on a distributed ledger system (art. 6.1 of Law 6/2023), with an entity responsible for their registration (art. 8). Tokenizing does not create liquidity on its own: transfers still follow the rules of the instrument and the country.
For those who want to run their own platform, we build white-label tokenization platforms; for developers, real estate tokenization and tokenized real estate crowdfunding software.
Official sources: Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 (EUR-Lex); Law 5/2015, Title V (BOE); Law 6/2023 (BOE); Mexico's Fintech Law (Chamber of Deputies); Colombia's Decree 2105 of 2023 (Función Pública); CNV Rules, Title XXII (InfoLEG).
Framework verified as of October 13, 2026. Unknown Gravity is a Spanish tokenization technology company: we build the platform, the smart contracts and the integrations for developers and platforms, working with their local legal counsel. We are not a crowdfunding platform or a crowdfunding institution. Talk to us.
01 / Key points
- Technology applied to real estate; not a legal category
- Segments: search and transactions, rental and management, construction, financing and investment
- Financing projects with money from the public requires authorization (ECSPR in the EU, Fintech Law in Mexico)
- Real estate tokenization is proptech: it records and transfers investment rights on blockchain
- Under the frameworks cited, what gets tokenized are rights against the vehicle that owns the property
02 / Advantages
- Digital processes for buying, renting and managing property
- Access for more investors to specific projects, within regulated frameworks
- Traceable records of investment rights when they are tokenized
03 / Disadvantages
- Regulation depends on the activity and the country, not on the proptech label
- Financing with money from the public requires authorization (CNMV, CNBV and other supervisors)
- Tokenizing does not create liquidity on its own