The city of Rotterdam, Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) and Deloitte Netherlands are working on real estate blockchain applications, which will mark the first time lease agreements being recorded on the blockchain.

Founded in 1999, CIC is one of the largest clusters of startups in the world. Last year, it announced its first international expansion to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. According to its website, startups housed at CIC have raised over $2 billion in VC investment and created over $2 billion of publicly disclosed exit value, CIC companies have added an estimated 40,000 jobs to the economy.

Deloitte Netherlands said that the project aims to digitally record the lease agreements of the CIC on the blockchain, enabling the startups in the CIC network to conclude contracts faster and easier. According to the official announcement, recording legally binding contracts on blockchain is the first step towards a more efficient and transparent management of real estate.

“The next step will be monitoring the rental payments. By implementing additional block chain applications in the real estate industry transaction times and costs can be reduced further. Furthermore it enables decision makers to use data analysis for making future investment decisions on selling, buying and constructing real estate, ” Jan Willem Santing, manager of Deloitte Real Estate, said.

With this project, the city of Rotterdam is taking a major step forward by applying the blockchain and offering the technology to third parties. This project enables the development and implementation of pilots as part of the Roadmap Next Economy – an initiative of 23 municipalities in the metropolitan region Rotterdam / The Hague.

In order to develop blockchain applications shortly, Deloitte will start a co-creation process with its customers and partners, the release said. As a partner of the municipality of Rotterdam, Deloitte has been involved right from the start with the introduction of CIC in the Netherlands. In fact, the consultancy giant is the first corporate partner in the Netherlands of CIC and its sister non-profit, the Venture Cafe Foundation.