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The real estate sector continues to face challenges such as inefficiencies, fraud risks, and high transaction costs stemming from opaque processes and heavy reliance on intermediaries. These challenges highlight the need for transparent and efficient solutions to support secure real estate transactions and management. While a growing body of literature has examined blockchain applications in real estate, existing studies are often fragmented and predominantly descriptive, with limited systematic synthesis of evidence and insufficient attention to governance and institutional contexts. This study aims to systematically examine and synthesise the benefits and challenges of blockchain technology in real estate, providing evidence-based insights for practitioners and policymakers. Using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach, peer-reviewed publications from 2016 to 2025 were analysed to identify blockchain applications, reported outcomes, and implementation barriers. The findings reveal that blockchain has been applied in land registration (e.g., Sweden, India, Serbia), valuation systems, decentralised housing finance, and tokenised investment platforms (e.g., Exporo, RealT). The reported benefits include reduced fraud, enhanced transaction efficiency, transparency, and expanded investment access through fractional ownership. However, regulatory uncertainty, scalability limitations, data privacy risks, and low stakeholder awareness remain key barriers. Ethical issues such as digital exclusion and data exposure also require further consideration. Compared with the more advanced adoption observed in Europe and North America, supported by established regulatory frameworks and digital land governance initiatives, this review identifies relatively slower uptake in parts of the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in Australia and Malaysia. It highlights a critical need for future research on legal recognition, privacy-enhancing technologies, and governance frameworks, particularly regarding blockchain applications in property development and urban planning processes. By integrating technological and governance perspectives, this study provides a more comprehensive and structured understanding of blockchain adoption in real estate systems.
Wu et al. (Sun,) studied this question.