Since Marc Zuckerberg's announcement last October to rename Facebook to Meta and to embark on the development of new “metaverse”, the value of these digital universes has skyrocketed. And recently, it is in particular the metaverse real estate market which has aroused many reactions following acquisitions of virtual land for record sums.

Who are the Metaverse real estate investors? How could this virtual real estate market evolve?

The rise of real estate transactions in the metaverse

The last week of November was a historic week for the Metaverse real estate market. And for good reason, according to data published by rudn enclave islamabad , more than 100 million dollars were spent, in a single week, for the acquisition of virtual land on the 4 main sites of the Metaverse. These are the universes named The Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels and Somnium Space.

Among these real estate acquisitions, we note in particular:

• Republic Realm, a New York-based company, which acquired land on The Sandbox for $ 4.3 million. This is currently the record for virtual real estate.
• com, a company specializing in cryptocurrencies, has acquired, via its subsidiary Metaverse Group, 116 plots (approximately 5m² each) on Decentraland. This virtual land, with a total area of 565m², will have cost the company 618,000 MANA (a cryptocurrency used on Decentraland), or approximately $ 2.4 million.

Virtual real estate agencies: what to expect?

Metaverse Group, in which Tokens.com owns 70% of the capital, is the leading real estate agency in the Metaverse. Metaverse Group has, in fact, several lands and properties in the most famous metaverse. The company acquires, develops, manages, and promotes this virtual real estate. Just like a real estate agency as we know them in the physical world ultimately.

And just like acquiring physical real estate, Metaverse real estate investors compete for the best locations. The location of the property, therefore, remains, in a physical and virtual world, the essential criterion for property acquisition.

This is also why the plots purchased by Metaverse Group are located in the fashion district of Decentraland. They will, according to Tokens.com, "be developed to meet the growing demand from fashion brands to showcase digital merchandise in the metaverse."

If we're not yet into virtual fashion store shopping (although a Gucci handbag has sold for more in the metaverse than its physical version), virtual real estate is working right now. already as a financial asset. It is quite possible to build on digital land, rent it out, or even sell it.

Métavers: How to acquire virtual real estate?

While the definition of the metaverse is still constantly evolving, it is generally defined as a network of interconnected virtual spaces. It is then a virtual world where users can interact together in 3D, without being in the same physical space. The metaverse uses two recent technologies in particular: augmented reality and virtual reality.

Decentraland users, for example, can then buy so-called NFTs (non-fungible tokens) in the form of plots. These NFTs act as a virtual document allowing the acquirer to become the owner of virtual goods.

Real estate prices of the metaverse

How much will these virtual real estates be resold or rented to users? Will the real estate investors of the Metaverse be able to make profitable their acquisitions? It is currently impossible to answer these questions since it will depend on the number of visitors to these virtual platforms. Some fear then the first digital real estate bubble, if users are not there, while others speak of an opportunity similar to physical real estate. This is the case of Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Tokens.com, having worked for 20 years as an investment banker in the real estate sector.

Nonetheless, real estate prices in the Metaverse have unquestionably been skyrocketing for several months now. You just have to see the latest acquisitions that we have mentioned in this article. But already in March 2021, The average price of a plot of Decentraland had tripled in one year, and that that of land on Cryptovoxels had gone from $ 821 to $ 3,895 on the first three. months of the year only.

Another sure fact is that we have too little perspective on the metaverse for the moment to say how the prices of this virtual real estate will evolve over the next few years.