Real Estate Market Gone Virtual
Believe it or not, the latest, hot real estate market can be found in the Metaverse. Seriously. A real estate company, Metaverse Property, just invested $2.43 million in virtual land. I’m sure you are wondering: “What the hell does this even mean?” I asked myself this same question
Who would pay real money for the rights to a piece of a virtual world that doesn’t entirely exist yet and will never exist in the real world? This just seems like we are in an episode of Black Mirror or real life Sims! It is a crazy concept to wrap your head around.
The metaverse is an online space of interconnected 3-D experiential worlds. This virtual world can be accessed by a VR headset. It is accelerating as the new frontier where people can socialize, work and shop. Companies, including Metaverse Property and Republic Realm, are building their own virtual worlds where they hope people will soon gather, taking on the role of digital avatars as they play games, buy goods, and interact with ads, in order to generate money. The emerging real estate market for these three-dimensional spaces in virtual reality — including everything from virtual concert venues and shopping malls to houses and monuments — anticipate a future in which digital property owners can work with brands that want a presence in the various iterations of the metaverse.
The specific purchase of $2.43 million by Metaverse Property in a metaverse called Decentraland was the largest amount to date, (The record was broken days after by a purchase of $4.3 million by Republic Realm). The company, which is a subsidiary of Tokens.com, plans to use this land to facilitate fashion shows and commerce in the digital fashion industry. Metaverse Property hopes to partner with luxury brands to digitize their products.
Other metaverses include Sandbox, Upland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium Space. Those who decide to get involved in this can rent or buy land in any of these metaverses. This company also specializes in property development, consulting, marketing, and management.
What makes the metaverse real estate boom all the more enticing is that once you own a piece of digital land, you may be able to make money by leasing it out or selling ads. By marketing various blockchain, cryptocurrency, or non-fungible token (NFT) projects, you could be able to increase exposure and reach new audiences. For example, in the metaverse, your avatar could be able to travel to a digital wine shop to speak with a wine expert and then order the wine of your choice. It will then be shipped to your physical address. How cool is that?!
Even after doing all of my research, I still don’t get it. Who is going to be living in this land that they will be marketing to? Venture capitalist “Matthew Ball”, describes the metaverse as a “successor state to the mobile internet” and a “platform for human leisure, labor, and existence at large.”
The metaverse could just be a mirrorworld designed to precisely reflect the physical world, or could resemble an entirely invented world that one might encounter in a video game. We could have digital avatars that hangout and interact in this digital world. Although this does not seem real right now, think back ten years ago to your club penguin account, and you will realize that the metaverse is much more familiar than we think.
This digital world is the future. Although it is scary and uncertain, I am excited to see what is to come.
