Discover Metaverse Land as a Real Estate Investment

Have you ever thought that a day would come when you could own a property next to your favourite celebrity? Well, the metaverse has now made it a reality! While real-world property investment has always been treated as a solid asset, the advancing popularity of the virtual world and cryptos adds impetus to immersive metaverse land property deals. 

With a predicted CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2022 to 2028 being 31.2%, the metaverse is enlisted as one of the most drastically growing economies worldwide. The Metaverse involves elements that offer endless possibilities for creating better dimensional experiences. It has captured the attention of famous tech companies, which now envision the metaverse as the future. 

Until now, most people just knew that the metaverse provided a virtual reality to work, play, and live in. But people are now scooping up the opportunity to invest in it and make profits by buying virtual land. With easy access from the comfort of your home, you can now purchase land in the metaverse and become its digital owner. 

So, if you, as an investor, are considering metaverse land as a potential investment opportunity, then this article is for you! Starting from the meaning of metaverse real estate to the benefits of buying one, we have covered everything to help you learn about metaverse real estate in detail. 

Meaning of Metaverse Real Estate

Metaverse real estate is real estate that’s virtual and does not exist in reality. Metaverse lands are made of pixels and much more than just digital images. To put it simply, the real estate metaverse refers to buildings and land parcels in the virtual environment. These metaverse lands are programmable spaces where you can play games, socialise, attend meetings, sell NFTS, and engage in endless virtual activities. 

Owing to technological advancement, investors can now buy lands or plots from different metaverse platforms that offer unique virtual environments. Each of these virtual platforms feature a wide array of functions, implying that no one platform illustrates the metaverse in totality. 

As an investor, your metaverse land can be in a famous area with plenty of digital foot traffic, making it an ideal advertising space. Utilities like staking benefits are responsible for boosting the virtual land’s value. The specific metaverse platform you are on will also determine the value of your metaverse property. 

Amongst the top metaverse real estate platforms, some, like Netflix’s content on Decentraland and The Snoopverse on The Sandbox, allow users a considerable degree of personalisation so that they can plan and build the space in their own unique way. 

Now, let’s understand how the process of buying virtual land works!

Process To Buy Virtual Land in The World of Metaverse

Metaverse Land offers you a space to connect with people nestled in far-off locations across the globe. Virtual land developers have the power to monetise their metaverse real estate to host events, concerts, advertising services, or provide remarkable visitor experiences. Resembling the physical land, metaverse properties can also be leased or rented out.

Also, during  Decentraland’s first land auction in 2017, a land parcel was sold at an average of AED 73.46. Later in 2021, the same plot of land was sold for an average above AED 22038.60. Furthermore, 2022 observed a spectacular boom in the value of metaverse land, with costs rising to AED 55096.50. Hence, buying virtual land can prove to be profitable. 

Here’s how you can buy one:

Investing in metaverse real estate works quite the same way as purchasing an NFT. To buy land in the metaverse and start your real estate metaverse portfolio, you must first have a virtual crypto wallet to make all transactions. In the market out there, you can find multiple trusted browser-based wallets that will make digital transactions hassle-free and easy. Once you have a digital wallet, make sure it is filled with cryptocurrency, the currency of the virtual world. Some metaverse platforms accept only specific cryptocurrencies for transactions, so checking them out before signing up for a new digital wallet. 

Now, you have to register on a reliable metaverse platform. Please note that plenty of metaverse platforms are available; therefore, you must thoroughly research their features and compare them against one another before registering. 

After registering on a platform, link your virtual wallet to it, create a digital avatar of yourself and take a complete tutorial of the platform so that you get familiarised with its virtual environment. Following this, you can start selecting and buying virtual plots. Like in the real world, you can also take the help of brokers or property managers to purchase metaverse land. You can use the purchased plot to construct a new building or a digital double of your physical space. 

Investing in land in the metaverse involves a deed of ownership and a unique code on a blockchain. This code confirms the ownership rights for a parcel of metaverse land. 

Platforms Offering Virtual Land For Sale

Are you ready to make your first investment in this growing new market? If yes, you must know that there are numerous platforms where you can find virtual land for sale and acquire your first metaverse land. It’s important to know that most metaverse real estate is owned by the Big Four platforms, including Sandbox, Decentraland, etc. These companies boast 268,600+ parcels of land, including those that are highly priced on the market. 

Let’s have a look at each one of them in brief!

• The Sandbox 

The Sandbox is one of the pioneers in the field of the real estate metaverse, owning around 62% of the entire market. It is a community-driven platform where creators have an opportunity to monetise gaming experiences and voxel assets on the blockchain. From family homes to art galleries, hangout spots, and commercial spaces, The Sandbox involves lands in prime locations for individuals, institutions, and enterprises. 

This platform debuted as a mobile game in 2010 and presently provides 150,000+ plots. Designers and users can use these plots to create different varieties of extraordinary digital experiences. Each virtual land on The Sandbox is a unique Ethereum-based NFT, and the platform also comprises a crypto token ($SAND) that users can use for levelling up, purchasing land, or in-game trades. 

The thing that makes The Sandbox extra special is VoxEdit, which is an NFT creator and 3D model editor. VoxEdit allows users to outline their own NFTs in the virtual world. Moreover, the recent partnership of The Sandbox with gaming companies, financiers, and celebrities has given it more appeal both as an investment and a creative space. 

• Decentraland

Following The Sandbox, another major player in the metaverse real estate market is Decentraland. It is a decentralised browser-based 3D virtual platform that allows users to trade in and explore game assets. This virtual reality platform is powered by the Ethereum blockchain and will enable users to create and monetise their applications and content. The platform features two token types, namely, $LAND and $MANA. 

With five Decentraland districts involving Crypto Valley, Vegas City, Dragon City and more, you will indeed find land worth investing in here. Each district has its own unique content, and users can pass over these districts to interact and share content. To purchase land on this VR platform, you must have $MANA tokens, which can also be used to buy in-world services and products. 

The quality that makes Decentraland stand out is that the platform is outside the governance of a centralised organisation. Instead, DAO- Decentralised Autonomous Organisation regulates all its rules and policies. 

• Somnium Space 

Created in 2017, Somnium Space is an open-source VR platform offering a world-builder experience. This amazing virtual reality platform is free to join and makes for a nice destination to monetise your business in a world that’s not real. Somnium Space is built on the Ethereum blockchain and boasts its own cryptocurrency, Somnium Cubes. This VR metaverse is wholly constructed by the players themselves and offers users stunning VR experiences that can easily be accessed on mobile devices and desktops. 

This virtual space is subdivided into land parcels of three sizes, i.e. small, medium and extra-large. With roadside and waterfront properties, the platform allows you to choose from a wide range of metaverse property options. All the in-game assets and land parcels are tokenized in Somnium Space, and the ownership is recorded on the Solana and Ethereum blockchain. The most expensive lot sold on Somnium Space to date was for AED 158306.30 in February 2022. 

The best thing about Somnium is that it updates its platform frequently with new attributes like full-body avatars, mobile VR, web-based access and a permalink of all metaverse properties acquired by you. 

• Cryptovoxels

Drawing inspiration from a renowned video game, Cryptovoxels is pretty similar to Axie Infinity. This VR platform is similar to Minecraft, with a twist of better graphics and cryptocurrency. The game allows players to own, purchase and trade in-game assets and is fueled by the Ethereum blockchain. Cryptovoxels allow you to buy virtual land using monochrome blocks. You can even customise your metaverse property by adding custom images, designs, GIFs and more. 

Interestingly, Cryptovoxels involves an innovation that allows you to make custom wearables for your avatar and mint them on marketplaces as NFTs. 

The options for finding virtual land do not end here! Apart from these Big Four companies, the market currently has more than a dozen platforms dealing in metaverse lands. Some popular alternatives involve Star Atlas, Axie Infinity, Aavegotchi, Matrix World, Earth2 etc. 

Perks of Investing in Metaverse Real Estate

With things moving so rapidly with this new and growing technology, it’s time to glance through the benefits of this developing area. Listed below are some of the advantages of investing in metaverse real estate.

• More Adaptability 

The foremost advantage of investing in metaverse land is the benefit of adaptability. The metaverse property is significantly much more adaptable, thanks to its qualities. You, as a user, can purchase virtual land without any hassle. Not only this, you can even use it to build any sort of building like a gallery, school, store, concert space and more. Also, the chance to develop ROIs for real estate enterprises is humongous in this market. 

• Fewer Complications Involved

Unlike traditional real estate, the transactions on the metaverse real estate platform are far less complicated. The reason behind this is that users might identify suitable properties, handle the paperwork involved and communicate with agents or brokers from the comfort of their homes. Users can also purchase a metaverse land and rent it out afterwards. 

• Increased Security

Metaverse land offers users the advantage of increased security. Different from the real-world land, the digital land on the metaverse platform is stored on a secure and safe network. This network is not susceptible to any damage or physical theft, offering you a better and high level of security. 

• Complete Owner of the Property

Another crucial benefit of owning a metaverse property is that you are 100% the owner of the virtual land on the metaverse platform. Thanks to the power of NFTs that has brought the feature of digital ownership. As an owner, you are entirely free to do whatever you please with your virtual real estate. This implies that you can customise your metaverse property as per your liking and even host multiple virtual events and concerts. In this way, metaverse real estate has given way to a new form of ownership, entrepreneurship and promotion. 

• Increasing Value

As per past records, metaverse real estate holds the benefit of increasing value. 2021 has seen a drastic boom in the sales of metaverse land, eventually hitting around $500 million by the year’s end. This figure is expected to double in the coming years. So, the prediction shows that, as the metaverse grows, the digital land’s value will also go up. 

What Can You Use Virtual Land For?

Metaverse lands are a part of the NFT space that has aggressively appreciated in value. And naturally, the blooming market has grabbed the attention of investors worldwide. There are ample reasons why regular folks and even corporations are getting on board with this latest and trending new fad. The real estate metaverse has reformed the way people interact with each other or attend online events. Furthermore, it has granted people a lucrative opportunity to rent their digital assets to interested buyers and make handsome profits from the comfort of their homes. In short, people consider metaverse land as a scope to monetise virtual assets and experiences taking place there. 

We have listed some of the top uses of metaverse land below!

• Flipping Land

Where there’s a market, there will surely be resellers and traders. You can diversify your portfolio by buying virtual land in different places. Later, you can hype the same online so that you can sell the land at an impressive profit when prices go up. To be honest, there is obviously a significant amount of luck involved in flipping land for profit, but if it’s done right, it will surely prove lucrative and give you extraordinary returns. 

• Brokering

The prominence of land NFT or virtual land has seen dedicated real estate brokers coming to light. Like in the real world, these virtual world brokers link sellers to prospective buyers. Not only this, but these brokers also advise clients on how they can best manage their metaverse property. 

• Building Amazing Infrastructures

Letting a plot of virtual land sit idle is not a good use of it! Instead, think about using the land to build infrastructure. As an owner of a metaverse land, you can opt to construct upon it different varieties of breathtaking virtual properties. The same can either be used by yourself or for users to use. Some great ideas involve building digital clubs, casinos, NFT galleries, concert and event venues, stores, etc. 

• Events and Services

The metaverse world is incredibly designed to augment the experiences users already have online while helping them create new ones. By its very nature, the metaverse land can be used to host events and run needful services. For e.g. The Sandbox encourages users to create and publish educational activities and engaging mini-games from which other community members can benefit from. You can even rent your metaverse property to businesses where they can set up their virtual stores. 

• Advertising 

Lastly, advertising is the most profitable way of putting your metaverse land to use. All the districts and areas of metaverse property with heavy foot traffic are highly becoming extravagant spots for advertising purposes. As an owner of virtual land, you can rent it out and let other companies use your land to promote their goods and services. 

There are a vast amount of uses of possibilities other than the material appeal of metaverse property. And due to this reason, investors are racing to secure their position in this soaring market. 

Risks of Investing in Metaverse Real Estate

The metaverse property market is expected to grow with flying colours in the upcoming years. Still, this industry is new and far from steady. Although buying virtual land is promising, it can also produce high risks that cannot be neglected. 

A few of the top risks associated with investing in metaverse real estate involve the following:

• Risk of Platform Going Offline

The foremost problem of investing in metaverse land is the risk of the platform going offline. If the metaverse platform goes offline, all your virtual assets will immediately become non-existent. In other words, if the operator deletes the platform permanently or restricts the owner’s access to it, then virtual property owners in that specific platform would be left with no property rights. And all your investments will be lost in just a blink of an eye. 

• Issue of Valuation

Another significant risk with investing in virtual property is the valuation issue. When we talk about metaverse real estate, there’s no standard rule to assign the land’s value whose scarcity is artificial. Unlike the valuation of physical land, which gets affected based on market conditions, the valuation of virtual land can be controlled. With the virtual property’s value being dependent on the highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, virtual metaverse real estate is also open to volatile considerations, posing a risk to the investors. 

• Risk of Phishing and Frauds

Last but not least, as the metaverse is a new concept and most people know little about it, the risk of fraud becomes high. Scammers are taking advantage of this by generating fake links to well-known metaverse platforms, and once you click on the link, it becomes activated. The scammers can then access your virtual wallet and can even transfer its consent through a smart contract. Consequently, the transfers are impossible to modify, implying that the stolen cryptocurrency cannot be retrieved. 

The benefits stated above make metaverse real estate a booming market with endless opportunities. 

Development and Management of Metaverse Real Estate

• Developing Metaverse Real Estate

Developing real estate in the metaverse is not as tricky as it sounds! You, as a virtual land developer, can assign the role of metaverse property development to architects. Moreover, in the case of neighbourhood development, urban designers and urban planners can be roped in. Professional architects can help you design the virtual world by planning the land parcels in a way that maximises space utilisation. With the involvement of a metaverse real estate development company or architects, you can unlock a profit-making business model. Metaverse property developers can help you with:

• • Architecting your building
  • Designing your building
  • Developing your building 
  • Establishing development on the map

• Managing Metaverse Real Estate

Just like real estate management is crucial in the physical world, the virtual world also has its potential. The world of the real estate metaverse has the potential to grow fabulously through effective and successful property management. Also, regardless of the asset or business type, there is an enormous scope for metaverse real estate development. Managing virtual properties might involve:

• • Rental collection
  • Addressing client issues and queries
  • General land maintenance
  • Tech and visual property management

Is Metaverse Land a Logical Investment?

Just like every other surge in technology, there are rewards and risks associated with any investment that you make. The Metaverse real estate might seem a mind-blowing and profitable concept to many. The potential of the virtual world and its related technologies, like artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality, can barely be debated. 

Although the choice is completely yours, only time will tell whether the metaverse is really the rising future of the internet or just another hypothetical investment loaded with highly-priced digital properties. Also, there’s no course of action of knowing whether the metaverse real estate market will go up or down; therefore, you are advised never to make investments more than you can actually afford to lose. 

Conclusion

With the emergence of the metaverse, the real estate market is constantly making a significant shift. You can now easily buy your own metaverse land in the virtual world, and doing so holds a startling amount of potential and value. From renting a metaverse property to selling it as an advertising space, these are some of the most revenue-generating trends taking place out there. 

So, what are you waiting for? Get ready to step into this flourishing new market and experience the best of what the world of metaverse holds for you! But make sure you do your own research and compare the pros and cons before investing.

More Useful Articles for you :

Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)