Virtual land sales in 2021 surpassed $730 million and are expected to eclipse the one billion dollar mark in 2022. These lands are a hot commodity at the moment, and there appears to be a scramble for prime virtual property. For instance, the Fashion Street Estate on Decentraland was sold for $2.4m in November 2021.
The metaverse is an immersive 3D virtual world built on the blockchain. Participants can interact with each other and digital assets to create real-world experiences. If you want to know more, we’ve put together a guide explaining what a metaverse is.
Virtual lands are some of the digital objects on the metaverse. They are virtual real estate that can be bought and sold. The land exists as a Non-fungible token (NFT) that can be used for building, advertising, working, and gaming.
The metaverse looks to be in a similar position Bitcoin was early on. Early adopters have already jumped in, hoping to reap big, especially with big news and projects in the works.
Buying virtual lands in the metaverse is simple compared to purchasing physical land. This article explores the reasons behind the popularity of digital land and touches on how to buy land in the metaverse.
Why the Sudden Increase in Metaverse Popularity?
The idea of virtual worlds is not new. In the beginning, there was a rudimentary metaverse project called the Second Life. The owners envisioned vast lands where virtual residents would interact and play games. The project was hosted on distributed servers and faced some fundamental challenges.
Currently, the metaverse is experiencing a boom due to advancements in some key technologies. These include cloud computing, 5G, artificial intelligence, virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. All these are possible through the consensus that blockchains bring where immutable ledgers can track NFT land ownership.
Is the Metaverse All Hype?
Many believe it will drive the next phase of social interaction, which is a big deal. Major tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have considerable investments in the metaverse. There’s an expected fervent push into virtual worlds going into the future from even more companies.
Experts and industry analysts insist that the metaverse is currently at the cusp of an explosion akin to the early .com era. With the idea threatening to take everything known to man into virtual worlds, it's not difficult to see why many are willing to invest.
The possibilities that power the metaverse include:
Providing an avenue for new marketing and advertising possibilities
The creation of futuristic workplaces
Virtual tourism, combining augmented and virtual realities to offer authentic experiences
Providing remote learning opportunities with realism.
Novel ways to gaming, social interactions, and investing
Metaverse’s Value Proposition
Virtual land is selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. An unidentified buyer recently purchased virtual land for $450,000 to be Snoop Dogg’s neighbor in Decentraland. With major companies like Nike jumping into the metaverse, this virtual land rush seems to be the next big thing.
Although the metaverse has not hit mass adoption yet, early adopters, tech specialists, and enthusiasts have found viable reasons to buy virtual land and participate in the metaverse.
After Facebook rebranding to Meta, land value in several metaverses rose by 1000%. Most buyers see this as a chance for long-term investment. Early adopters believe buying virtual property at the moment is akin to buying real estate in London 80 years ago.
Enthusiasts, however, find more value in developing their own real estate plots, or ‘parcels’ as they are called in the metaverse. Depending on the project features, you can build on your land, invite friends, and socialize with them.
Others, however, have found it profitable to lease their lands. Most metaverse projects have limited land sizes. Lands in attractive areas, therefore, attract lots of interest. Those near hubs and commercial places attract the best rates because of higher traffic.
What to Look Out for Before Purchasing Land in the Metaverse
Before purchasing land in the metaverse, there are several factors to consider. Like real-world real estate, some locations are better than others.
The size of the land also determines its value here as well. Parcels bundled together in estates are desirable and more expensive.
Look for virtual land close to a road. Like in real life, this also attracts lots of value because of traffic and accessibility.
Areas in and around commercial hubs experience a lot of traffic. For speculators, this is the prime property that is likely to fetch good money. For artists who’d like to create enterprises, this is an area where you are likely to attract lots of eyeballs.
Spaces close to celebrities or companies also attract attention. This is likely to hold considerable value if your neighbor stays put.
Always ensure that a project is legitimate before investing, especially on new metaverse projects. There have been incidents where project developers have set up investors for rug pulls. Do your research before committing your investment.
Metaverse Projects Where You Can Buy Virtual Land
There are many metaverse crypto projects in existence and in the pipeline. Presently, metaverse projects span various domains, primarily gaming, virtual real estate, and social interactions.
Decentraland:
This is one of the top metaverses powered by the MANA token. The virtual world emulates the real world where participants can attend online events, create scenes, develop artwork, and buy and sell land. The Genesis Plaza and plots adjacent to roads are considered hot property.
Sandbox:
This is a community-driven project where gamers enjoy different experiences and the ability to create and monetize assets on the blockchain. SAND is the utility token used for transactions and interactions across this ecosystem. Land on this project can be bought and used to host games, create multiplayer, create houses, and other social experiences.
Cryptovoxels:
This is another popular virtual world and metaverse. Players can buy land, and build stores and art galleries. Westcoastbill 21x: glass age and 31 bull Avenue are some of the virtual land parcels that receive lots of visits.
Somnium Space:
This is a community-driven virtual world running its own economy, currency, lands, games, and social experiences. You can buy land, build and customize anything you can imagine.
Axie Infinity:
This is a virtual gaming world where participants can build, hunt and battle fierce creatures. On Axie, land barons can establish kingdoms, farm rare resources, tokens, and attack dungeons.
Most of these metaverse crypto projects have their own digital currency, a utility token you can use to buy land. Another common characteristic is the availability of a marketplace to purchase land. However, land buyers can also use third-party marketplaces such as the OpenSea platform and LooksRare.
Sales Value of Virtual Lands in the Metaverse
In October 2021, Facebook rebranded to Meta, officially recalibrating the company’s direction towards the metaverse.
This effectively triggered positive price increases for several metaverse projects (Decentraland, Sandbox, Somnium Space, and Cryptovoxels). The value of these projects shot up by 1000%.
According to Statista, the Sandbox metaverse project towers over the other projects by the value of land sold. In November 2021, land worth $16m was sold on the ecosystem. This was six times the value of the other three projects combined.
The average virtual land sale for these four projects stood just above $92m for the last quarter of 2021. However, the average rises to over $131m when you consider Sandbox and Decentraland only. It will be interesting to see these projects' trajectory, considering the crypto winter experienced in the first quarter of 2022.
How Do I Buy Metaverse Land
There are prerequisites to consider before buying land in the metaverse. You'll need the following:
A cryptocurrency wallet:
A digital crypto wallet will store your cryptocurrency. It's impossible to buy virtual land with fiat currency such as USD.
You’ll need to exchange your fiat currency for the proprietary utility token of the metaverse you are buying land. For instance, if you want to purchase land from Sandbox, you’ll need to get SAND tokens. The Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) token can also be used on projects built on the Ethereum blockchain.
These tokens can be purchased through crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinbase. Get a wallet that integrates with your browser and supports the metaverse utility token. Good examples include Metamask and Trust wallet.
Settle on a metaverse project:
This is important because you’ll also require to find land on sale. You need to find valuable land considering the various factors we listed in this article. It's possible to explore these projects even before purchasing land.
We’ll explore how to purchase virtual lands from OpenSea, a secondary marketplace for buying and selling NFTs.
Here is a step-by-step guideline for purchasing land in the metaverse.
Visit the official OpenSea website and signup.
Enter the metaverse project you settled on in the search box, e.g., Sandbox or Decentraland. (To avoid falling for scams, ensure to select verified projects that come with a blue tick)
Set the preferences for the land you want to buy using the available filter options. For instance, you can specify the amount you wish to spend and whether you wish to bid for land in an auction or outrightly buy it.
Once the filters are set, you can check out the lands available. You can click on a virtual land to see its details.
Buying virtual land through an auction will need you to place a bid. You can view the auction details, including reserve price, current bids, when the auction ends, and whether the reserve price has been met.
If you decide to bid, you’ll need to specify your offer price and the currency you are using (WETH, SAND, DAI, MANA). You can view the equivalent in USD for what you have bid.
When ready, click place bid.
Your crypto wallet should pop up. Sign up and confirm the bid.
Wait and see whether your bid wins.
To see lands available for purchasing, enter the name of the metaverse project on the search box on the OpenSea page.
A list of land assets will appear.
Lands available for buying will have the “Buy Now” tag. You can click on the asset to view more details.
Click the blue “Buy Now” button to redirect you to an authentication request.
You will need to sign in to your crypto wallet.
You need to confirm the transaction or add funds if you don’t have any in your crypto wallet to complete the checkout.
Adding funds involves depositing funds from another wallet or purchasing tokens directly from the crypto wallet (Note the currency required for payment).
Confirm the transaction
