Real estate has always been a viable mode of investing but experts are saying that it’s time to look beyond the horizon, particularly into the virtual.
Per CNBC, real estate in the metaverse is being sold for millions, with prices for plots jumping up 500% earlier this year following Meta‘s name change from Facebook.
“The metaverse is the next iteration of social media,” said Andrew Kiguel, CEO of Toronto-based Tokens.com, in an interview with CNBC.com. “You can go to a carnival, you can go to a music concert, you can go to a museum,” Kiguel said
Per a report released earlier this year, by crypto asset manager Grayscale the metaverse’s real estate industry has the potential to grow into a $1 trillion business in the near future. And celebs have taken notice. According to CNBC, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and DJ Marshmello, are currently performing in the metaverse presumably for big bucks.
The Sandbox, another popular metaverse world housing a virtual real estate firm, Republic Realm, dropped $4.3 million on a parcel of virtual land.
Although there’s signs of promise, other experts say there’s still reason to be cautious. Since the initial influx of investment in the metaverse following the official launch of Meta earlier this year, as of late the company’s stock price has fallen nearly 60 percent in the past year. Also, as the New York Times points out, in late September, the company announced that it would implement a widespread hiring freeze and deployed a wave of layoffs this month.
But, that hasn’t stopped some investors from keeping the faith.
Snoop Dogg reportedly is in the process of building a virtual mansion on a plot of land in Sandbox, and someone dropped $450,000 to live nearby.
“I think it absolutely matters who your neighbor is,” said Janine Yorio owner of Republic Realm. “That’s kind of true of almost anything, right? It’s like a club and you want to be around people that share similar interests.”
Buying virtual land is pretty simple — either directly from the platform or through a developer. Investors build on their land and make it interactive. “You can decorate it, you can change it, you can renovate,” Yorio says. “It’s code.”
