On December 17, 2021, the MetaSpace Real Estate Investment Trust (MREIT) was released on a cryptocurrency trading platform called PancakeSwap. Its main business goal? To Collect high-end real estate within Metaverse, build valuable virtual structures, and make a profit on them by renting them out. Just like a real estate trust in real life, MetaSpace, the first ever virtual real estate trust, wants to create a way for a group of individuals to hold shares in real estate projects that are profitable, but in the metaverse.
There are numerous benefits to being a landlord in the metaverse right now, whether it be solo or as a shareholder in a bigger company. Here are a few of them.
1. You could earn income while your virtual land appreciates
Although platforms like The Sandbox have not been around long enough to understand what appreciation might look like, Decentraland definitely has. Data pulled from NonFungible.com on Decentraland sales goes all the way back to 2017, when the native Decentraland money, a token called MANA, was worth just pennies on today’s dollar.
A lot was sold for the $111.52 equivalent in MANA on December 17, 2017. That exact lot on Dec. 16, 2021, sold for $13,703.49. Imagine if you would have bought that lot years earlier and rented it out! That is a huge gain on your return.
But those value leaps are also making it harder to purchase for those who are just “meta curious,” or simply cannot see the logic behind investing $15,000 in a virtual lot in a virtual world, thereby making a secondary market for landlords.
2. Commercial tenants are easier to find than you might imagine
Landowners in Second Life continuously put their completed properties and lots up for rent, building an income stream from virtual real estate that they bought potentially in the distant past (Second Life was opened in 2003) and continued to hold. They generally rent to people, but the beauty of the new vision of the metaverse is that there are a lot of commercial players getting into the mix as well.
Rather than just renting out virtual apartments and houses, you can construct virtual offices, virtual malls, or virtual event space and rent it out. Suddenly, you are a commercial landlord to actual commercial ventures that you could reach out and touch in the real world. Some brands are jumping into the metaverse and want the real estate to spread their messages to everyone that is nearby.
3. Input costs are low in comparison to real life
Even if you have hired a designer to construct your metaverse property, the cost doesn’t come close to that of real estate in the real world. You wouldn’t have to deal with any property inspections; there aren’t any rules about what you could and couldn’t build (and, in fact, gravity is not even an issue, so that is pretty cool); and there aren’t any laws about who could occupy what and for how long.
The lot might cost you a little bit, but you don’t have any physical building supplies to deal with, no waste, and no worrying about supply chain shortages. It’s all constructed of the same stuff: electrons and pixels. And those could be manipulated as needed, even if there happens to be a resin shortage and the color blue isn’t in stock.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
Comments are closed.