a real estate GUIDE to the metaverse
Issue 62 - December 10th, 2021
Facebook made headlines in the last few weeks with their name change announcement to Meta to reflect its growing focus on the metaverse. “From now on, we're going to be the metaverse first, not Facebook first,” Zuckerberg said at the company's annual Connect conference.
The “metaverse” is a relatively new term and idea for most people, but some forms of this concept have been around for quite some time with things like Second Life and other virtual worlds. The future of the metaverse and web3 will transform our everyday lives and will present some interesting digital real estate opportunities too.
What is the METAVERSE?
The metaverse is a persistent, live digital universe that affords individuals a sense of agency, social presence, and shared spatial awareness, along with the ability to participate in an extensive virtual economy with profound societal impact.
How do you invest in metaverse real estate?
You can buy pieces of land and other properties in the various digital worlds such as Decentraland and Sandbox among others. The metaverse real estate functions similarly to real-life parcels where areas with higher foot traffic or developments nearby trade for higher prices. Owners of these parcels can lease them out or develop themselves. The currency in most of these worlds is crypto or a specialized NFT token depending on the platform.
Why would anyone want to do this?
Units of land parcels in these digital worlds are scarce just like in the real world, and many people and real estate funds are betting these digital assets will lead to real-life returns and function just like a normal real estate market in the future. Many large corporations are adopting metaverse storefronts and finding unique ways to engage with consumers in these worlds. There will be a lot of real-life crossovers between the digital and real world for consumers.
Popular Metaverse Real Estate Platforms:
Decentraland - Decentraland is a decentralised 3D virtual reality platform that consists of 90,601 parcels of land. Virtual estate in Decentraland are NFTs which can be bought by the cryptocurrency MANA, which is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
The Sandbox - The Sandbox is a virtual metaverse where players can build, own, and monetize their gaming experiences on the Ethereum blockchain using the platform's utility token SAND. Once a player owns a piece of LAND, they will be able to populate it with games and ASSETS. Multiple LANDS can be combined to form an ESTATE.
Developments and Interesting Facts:
SNOOP Dogg’s Metaverse Neighborhood is HOT! “Someone paid $450k to be Snoop Dogg’s Metaverse Neighbor” (Decrypt.co)
Douglas Elliman’s Top Brokers Are Selling Luxury Real Estate in the Metaverse (Curbed)
A company called Republic Realm has paid $4.3 million for land in a virtual world called Sandbox. (Protocol)
According to crypto data site Dapp, digital real estate worth more than $100 million has sold in the past week across the four largest metaverse sites, The Sandbox, Decentraland, CryptoVoxels, and Somnium Space. For Hackl, it’s unsurprising that the market is booming, spawning an entire ecosystem around virtual real estate, from rents to land developers.
Brands No Longer See Metaverse-Like Worlds as Abstract Gimmicks (WSJ)
Resources on Metaverse To Learn More:
Republic Realm - one of the leading metaverse investment and development firms in the industry today
MetaverseGroup.io - a vertically integrated real estate company for the Metaverse economy
Decentraland - Create, explore and trade in the first-ever virtual world owned by its users.
“What is the Metaverse Exactly?” (Wired Magazine)
Why The Metaverse Is Fuelling The Booming Digital Real Estate Market (Augustman.com)
MatthewBall.vc: Matthew Ball is a Venture Partner at Makers Fund, the world’s largest gaming venture fund by AUM, Industry Advisor at KKR, and a co-founder of Ball Metaverse Research Partners, which creates and maintains the index behind the Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF, which can be found on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: $META).
Newsworthy Links To Share
MasterClass Founder Buys 1930s Storybook Gem in Beverly Hills (PHOTOS)(Dirt.com)
Hometap closes on $60 million to let people tap their home equity without taking out a loan (TechCrunch)
Compass launches new Ranch and Land Division in Texas. Compass tapped veteran Realtor Cathy Cole to lead the new division. Prior to Compass, Cole spent more than 30 years selling some of the nation’s most expensive farms and ranches, with her earning multiple awards and designations from the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), South Central Board of Realtors (SCBOR) and Texas Association of Realtors (TAR). (Inman)
CHART: Amazon has become a shipping and logistics behemoth. (Tweet)