Real estate has always been an essential part of people's investment portfolios. However, today's real estate investor is already thinking about something a little more intangible: virtual land. Developing a virtual real estate portfolio might be the next big thing for investors willing to take a chance at new technologies.
In the Metaverse, a parcel of land is essentially a piece of virtual real estate represented by a Non-Fungible-Token (NFT). Because every piece of land in the Metaverse is on the blockchain, its validity can be easily checked. Virtual land is acquired for a price valued in cryptocurrency, similar to real-world land. These pieces of land, also known as NFT land, are either offered in a virtual real estate marketplace or may be purchased on third-party marketplaces such as OpenSea.
Why would I invest in virtual property? If this question is running through your mind, you're surely not alone. Even though the Metaverse as a concept has barely been around for a short period, the premium virtual estate is being bought up for millions of dollars. Something is unfolding in the sphere of virtual real estate that is worth paying attention to.
Why do people Buy or Use NFTs?
People acquire land in the metaverse for a variety of reasons. Users who acquire virtual land for the sake of entertainment frequently do so intending to later create virtual experiences on top of it. A user may construct various experiences and deploy a variety of digital assets on them depending on whatever project they have invested in. Friends may even be invited onto the acquired NFT land to interact and have fun with.
Virtual land can also be used by NFT owners to start a business. Instead of one-off events, they might open a virtual store, bar, or restaurant where users may pay for tangible experiences, or they could charge rent in a gallery for NFT artists to show their work, to mention a few ideas. They can even recruit genuine employees to manage the metaverse firm and earn a consistent income.
A substantial number of people are interested in purchasing virtual land in the Metaverse for investment purposes. One of the main reasons for this is that NFT land is becoming increasingly rare. Metaverse users are snatching up parcels in virtual projects at a breakneck pace, forcing their values to skyrocket. As a result, a user can acquire land in the Metaverse and subsequently sell it out or rent it out using rental protocols like Double NFT Rental Platform for some good profit.
A parcel of property in Decentraland sold for over USD 900,000 in June 2021. The potential financial return on virtual land for crypto-savvy investors appears promising given the increased interest in the metaverse.
Getting Involved In The Virtual Real Estate Sector
The world’s economy and the way we connect have changed dramatically in the last 150 years, in ways that would have been unimaginable to folks in the past 20-30 years. Just as we've progressed from newspapers to radio to television and then to the internet and social media. Now it's time to move on to virtual reality and the metaverse. But how do you get involved in the virtual real estate market?
Getting involved in the virtual real estate sector is as straightforward as buying or renting a physical real estate property. Buying virtual lands can either be purchased from the primary market (An initial NFT offering conducted by the NFT project) or from the secondary market like OpenSea or project marketplace like Decentraland.
Steps In Buying NFTs from Decentraland
- Set up a MetaMask Wallet
You'll need to set up a wallet that allows you to access your cryptocurrency assets. You may use either a mobile wallet or a browser-based wallet, depending on your interests.
Both MetaMask and Trust Wallet are good choices because they support different blockchains, but be sure the wallet you're using supports the NFT land blockchain. See how to set up a MetaMask web wallet.
- Choose a metaverse virtual land platform.
You should choose a metaverse platform before acquiring metaverse property. Your motivations for purchasing the land will influence your project selection, but for this example, we'll stick with Decentraland.
- Select your preferred land type.
From the available land list, choose the land you want. The advantage of buying Decentraland land directly from the marketplace is that you can see the surrounding areas and their proximity to well-known landmarks.
Select your virtual property after you've made your choice to learn more about it. Here you may find information on the price of land in MANA, its availability, and the owner's name.
Tap 'Buy' to complete your transaction.
- Confirm the purchase of the virtual land you've chosen.
Once the transaction is completed, you may confirm your LAND in your wallet. You may verify that the transactions were successful by looking at the MetaMask wallet's 'Collectibles' and 'NFTs' tabs if you utilize Trust Wallet.
Process In Renting a Metaverse Virtual Land
Renting out a metaverse visual lands on Rental Platforms like Double Protocols is one of the best ways to put an idle virtual property to good use while earning big on rental fees. A virtual land bought for investment purposes will rake in more profit for the owner if rented out while waiting for the value of the asset to appreciate. It is a win-win scenario — accumulate rental fees and watch your NFT appreciate value over time.
Below is a simple walkthrough on how to rent NFTs on Double Protocol.
- Visit Double Protocol Rental Platform
Head over to the Double NFT Rental platform, and select the category of the project whose NFT you want to rent from the platform. In this case, we will select the Decentraland Collection.
- Access NFT collections available for rent
Browse through the Decentraland collection to find out which virtual parcel of land you want to rent. Select your choice of land and click the rent button.
- Configure rent details
Set the rental parameters including the rental period, and the associated rental will be created automatically.
- Execute the on-chain transactions
Check the details of the lease. When there is chain confirmation, the rent computation begins, and the renter will incur rental fees depending on the period agreed.
NFT — The New Goldmine
In the last several months, the virtual real estate market has steadily risen in value and adoption. Virtual real estate might become a very lucrative asset class, notably for early investors, thanks to Facebook's foray into the metaverse and Web 3.0-focused investors' interest in all things metaverse.
As NFT owners anticipate further growth in the adoption of virtual lands, what are they planning on doing with that virtual real estate? Flip it for a quick profit, develop it as an experience, or consider a more profitable route like renting it out? Truly, virtual land has presented us with a more flexible and easy approach to getting involved in the real estate business.
