Investors expect to see the first property lease contracts based on blockchain to emerge by 2022.

The finding comes from BrickVest, the commercial real estate investment platform, which recently asked investors for their views on the disruptive technology. On average, respondents said that it would come into use within four years’ time, but 25 percent of investors also predict that blockchain will be behind some leases as early as 2020.

In addition, six in 10 real estate investors expect the industry to adopt blockchain technology for transactions, a 9 percent increase on 2016. In contrast, just 18 percent of investors do not expect to see the future use of blockchain in property transactions.

Respondents told BrickVest that blockchain’s main benefit will be to speed up the process of buying and selling a property through smart contracts. Investors also expect it to make transactions cheaper to execute and reduce fraud. Greater transparency and a larger seco