Virtual Land Is On The Come Up

Technology companies and real estate developers expect an increase in interest in buying virtual property on the metaverse platform, with some companies already planning virtual cities.

"This is something that will continue to attract interest. While anyone can create a platform and sell virtual land, the value will depend on how good the virtual world is," said Ashish Agarwal, co-founder, Lepasa, which is creating virtual cities.

"The land on the metaverse can also be used by brands to build experience centres and retail space to showcase products. People, instead of downloading different games, can play all the games on the metaverse," said Alok Joshi, co-founder, Lepasa. The metaverse is a relatively new concept in real estate technology, after concepts such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).

"Digital land trading and investing in virtual real estate is throbbing in numbers as millions of investors are open to the concept of the metaverse. Many real estate investors are seeing it as the next prominent step towards the adoption of digitisation in the real estate sector after virtual site tours, online bookings and chatbots," said Nayan Raheja, director, Raheja Developers.

The concept of virtual real estate on the metaverse is great. Similar to the real world, the value of the virtual land is much like the real estate of a metro city, where the value of a property increases if it is centrally located and near a big infrastructure project.

"There surely is a growing demand for escapism from reality and real estate in the metaverse perfectly fits in. Technology can always play a vital role in this, however, it can never replace the very fundamental idea of home," said Ankit Kansal, managing director, 360 Realtors. However, brands are investing into virtual land for a plethora of reasons - from intending to hold virtual events like concerts and entertainment, to running activations in the metaverse, or even engaging with a community. The concept of virtual land is on its rise currently with the topic of the metaverse.