In today’s digital age, everybody knows about blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and metaverse concepts. However, the knowledge of using them to build wealth and digital assets is still limited to a few. ,
It can be a rock-solid fact that many people would be unaware of the existence of real estate in the metaverse.
So, in this blog, we will uncover all about the metaverse in the real estate industry, from what it is and how it is useful to applications and development.
What is Metaverse Real Estate?
Similar to the physical world, real estate in the metaverse is determined by people owning one or more pieces of virtual land and sell, rent, create them to generate revenue. Metaverse real estate is based on the blockchain network, and hence, the transactions are secure, transparent, and convenient.
In the virtual world, people are represented by their virtual avatars and can have various experiences that might not be possible in a real-world scenario.
For example, one can experience the thrill of outer space and visit different planets and constellations just by sitting at home.
These days, the metaverse is being used for social interactions, education, training, mental healthcare, entertainment, and virtual shopping.
Along with these services, the real estate domain exists but has not been explored much.
Key Features of Metaverse Real Estate
The following are the features of metaverse real estate:
Virtual Tours
With the help of virtual reality devices, clients can experience the 360-degree virtual view of the property they are looking to purchase. This helps both the buyers and the sellers, as buyers can closely look into the premises, and sellers can enhance the experience of their potential clients.
Virtual Design & Staging
Virtual design can help the buyers design the models of the interior spaces, which can help them visualize and explore different design options. Virtual staging allows the buyers to see how furniture can be arranged into the property and decorated according to their wants and needs.
Virtual Meetings And Walkthroughs
Many virtual events, meet-ups, and walkthroughs are hosted in the metaverse. These socialization activities allow people to build a great network and collaborate with them to excel in their businesses. These meet-ups offer new real estate investment opportunities and encourage more people to enter this industry.
Virtual Property Sales
Virtual property sales allow people to buy, sell, and rent their properties to generate revenue. In the metaverse, all the payment transactions are made via cryptocurrencies. Also, unlike real-world real estate, metaverse real estate is not bounded by geographical constraints, and hence, people from afar can buy virtual land wherever they want.
Virtual Commercial Real Estate
Real estate agents can open their commercial spaces or offices in the metaverse and start their new virtual ventures. By adopting the metaverse real estate as soon as possible, they can leverage the benefits of early brand building and reach a wider audience to drive revenue.
Virtual Property Management
Like in the real world, people also need to manage their virtual properties. Maintenance scheduling, tenant communication, rent collection, property inspections, and data analysis are some of the tasks that would need to be done by property owners.
What are the Benefits of Metaverse Real Estate?
Metaverse Real Estate has truly revolutionized the traditional real estate industry. The below given key points signify the changes and benefits it has brought.
Eliminates The Hassle of Physical Property Search
Unlike the real world, buying property in the metaverse does not involve the hassle of visiting different places, going through traffic, confusing housing plans, and more. In the metaverse, people can simply scroll and explore the best-suited lands via virtual tours while sitting comfortably at home.
Saves Realtors Time and Effort
Usually, realtors need to fix up meetings with clients; staging, showing the property, and closings are time-consuming and require a lot of effort. Also, out of many clients that visit the premises, only a few would be genuinely interested in buying. These problems can be solved in metaverse real estate, as clients can directly go through the virtual property on their mobiles and laptops. The ones that would be interested can contact the owner for additional information. Hence, this saves the time and effort of the realtors.
Enhances Communication Between Real Estate Agents and Clients
Augmented reality (AR) backed mobile applications facilitate real-time communication between property owners and clients. Moreover, AR enables clients to look at the AR model of the property virtually and compare it with other properties. Real estate agents can easily enhance the virtual presentation of every property detail.
Increases Sales Opportunities
Virtual staging is cost-effective, fast, and flexible and offers many more customizable options than real-world staging. Also, with the 3D 360-degree virtual tours, users can be fascinated by the staging and enjoy a lavish property’s realistic experience virtually. All of this leads to an increase in sales and profits.
Offers Unlimited Design Possibilities
Real-world offers limited customizable options. For example, lifting large pieces of wood and furniture to top floors via a narrow staircase can be quite hefty and require a lot of physical energy. Moreover, there might be geographical constraints for bringing a specific piece of art or furniture from one place to another. On the other side, there are no such boundaries in metaverse real estate, and clients or real estate agents can decorate their homes however they want.
Boosts Brand Exposure and Reputation
Real estate agencies that incorporate virtual reality devices into their businesses can generate a lot more leads than others simply because of their ability to let the clients experience the metaverse closely. This enhances the client’s engagement and increases their confidence in their purchase.
Real Estate Companies in Metaverse
According to Precedence Research, The market size of metaverse real estate was estimated at USD 2.17 billion in 2023 but is expected to rise to USD 54.95 billion in the next 10 years.
The above statistics are enough to throw light on the growing real estate industry in the metaverse. Following is the list of companies that are already excelling in this fascinating field:
- Axie Infinity
- Cryptovoxels
- Decentraland Foundation
- Linden Lab
- ShibaLand LLC
- Somnium Space LTD.
- SuperWorld Inc.
- TandB Media Global Thailand Co. LTD.
How did these metaverse real estate companies ensure success?
All of these top companies have some factors in common, which are explained below:
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Early Adoption
Early adoption is one of the biggest approaches any new venture can follow to gain heights. Metaverse real estate is a potentially growing and relatively new field, and all the above companies recognized its importance and acted on it.
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User-Friendly Platforms
Creating user-friendly platforms can help in attracting lots of people to participate in your metaverse real estate. This secret is another factor that helped.
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Virtual Economics
Having a smooth and easy crypto wallet integrated into your metaverse real estate would help users make seamless transactions, which will further contribute to the success of the business.
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Creative Freedom
These companies encourage and support user-generated content, allowing users to create and share virtual assets, games, and experiences.
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Strong Market Recognition
Building a great user database and doing strategic partnerships and collaborations can help the company create a strong reputation in the market. All of this would gain investors’ and users’ trust, which would help the business grow further.
How Do You Build Real Estate In The Metaverse?
Following are the steps to build real estate in the metaverse:
Choose a Platform
To choose an appropriate platform, it is crucial to consider blockchain technology, smart contracts, decentralized finance, and NFTs. Start creating the metaverse from scratch, as you can add all the attributes and features you want in a larger space. Moreover, one should evaluate the platform based on user base, development tools, community support, and compatibility with your goals.
Create a Metaverse Smart Contract
Creating the metaverse smart contract is the next crucial step. Smart contracts have all the terms and conditions that will facilitate the trade between buyers and sellers after they agree on the terms.
Install IPFS
IPFS, the InterPlanetary File System, is the decentralized storage system that will be used to store and share huge amounts of data regarding all transactions in virtual real estate, such as 3D models, images, and cryptocurrency hashes.
Set Up The Database
The next step would be establishing a database to manage user information, property details, and transaction records. This step is important to keep a track record of important and confidential data of the virtual world.
Integrate AR/VR Functionalities
To let users experience the metaverse quite closely and enhance their experience, it is important to integrate augmented reality and virtual reality functionalities. For example, users and real estate owners can wear their VR headsets and take a walkthrough of their virtual properties. They can enjoy their designs and decorations in a more fascinating way.
Design Your Virtual Space
A virtual space can be anything from a full-fledged house to a movie theater. All the metaverse real estate enthusiasts can design and decorate their virtual spaces with unlimited options without any hassle. However, by using AR and VR, their designing process can become more fascinating.
Ensure Metaverse Interoperability
Metaverse is not a single virtual world but a network of different virtual worlds. To make your metaverse smooth, it is important to ensure its connectivity and transition with the other existing virtual worlds. Collaborate with other platform developers to establish cross-platform functionality.
What Is The Cost Of The Metaverse?
The cost of creating a metaverse can vary widely depending on several factors, including the scope of the project, the technology used, and the level of detail and complexity desired. Here’s a breakdown of potential costs:
1. Platform Development
- Basic Platform Setup: $10,000 – $50,000
- Advanced Customization and Features: $50,000 – $200,000
2. Smart Contract Development
- Simple Contracts: $2,000 – $10,000
- Complex Contracts: $10,000 – $30,000
3. IPFS Setup and Storage
- Initial Setup: $1,000 – $5,000
- Ongoing Storage Costs: Varies, generally $0.02 – $0.10 per GB per month
4. Database Setup
- Basic Database: $2,000 – $5,000
- Advanced Database with Security and Backup: $5,000 – $15,000
5. AR/VR Integration
- Basic Integration: $5,000 – $20,000
- Advanced Immersive Experience: $20,000 – $100,000
6. Design and Development of Virtual Space
- Basic Design: $5,000 – $15,000
- Detailed and Customized Designs: $15,000 – $50,000
7. Interoperability Features
- Basic Interoperability: $5,000 – $15,000
- Advanced Cross-Platform Integration: $15,000 – $50,000
8. Additional Costs
- Licensing and Legal Fees: $2,000 – $10,000
- Marketing and Launch: $5,000 – $50,000
- Maintenance and Updates: $5,000 – $20,000 annually
Thus, by considering all the above, we can say that the total estimated cost for a metaverse real estate project can be $30,000 – $100,000 for small to medium-sized projects and $100,000 – $500,000 or more for large and complex metaverse projects.
How Can You Buy Property In Metaverse Real Estate?
To buy a property in the metaverse:
Choose A Metaverse Platform.
One should choose an appropriate metaverse option, certainly from the popular and trusted ones like Decentraland, The Sandbox, Somnium Space, and Cryptovoxels.
Set Up A Digital Wallet.
The next step is to set up a crypto wallet that is secure, reliable, and compatible with the platform you choose. MetaMask is a common choice for Ethereum-based metaverses.
Acquire Cryptocurrency
Most metaverse platforms use their own tokens or popular cryptocurrencies like Ethereum for transactions. You can purchase these cryptocurrencies from exchanges like Coinbase or Binance.
Explore The Metaverse
Learn about the platform, discover new things, and get familiar with it. This is important to identify top areas where you can invest in the real estate and generate revenue.
Find Available Parcels
Use the platform’s marketplace or third-party sites to browse available land parcels. You can walk through the available options and even utilize VR devices to visualize the metaspace in a better way.
Make The Purchase
Once you are sure about the virtual land, proceed to make the purchase by following the platform’s process. Complete the transaction using your digital wallet.
Manage Your Property
After purchase, you can develop, rent, or sell your virtual land as you see fit. You can even stage it or change the design; do whatever suits your needs the best.
In the end, it would be safe to say that real estate in the metaverse is growing at a rapid pace, and real estate businessmen, along with investors and buyers, can leverage a lot more opportunities to generate revenue.
If you are a business looking to develop your own metaverse real estate, then Blocktech Brew is all you need. From guiding you about the metaverse to building a cutting-edge virtual real estate platform, we will provide you with innovative solutions and great support throughout!
Reach out to us via email: business@blocktechbrew.com to know more.
I am the CEO and founder of Blocktech Brew, a team of blockchain and Web 3.0 experts who are helping businesses adopt, implement and integrate blockchain solutions to achieve business excellence. Having successfully delivered 1000+ projects to clients across 150+ countries, our team is dedicated to designing and developing smart solutions to scale your business growth. We are focused on harnessing the power of Web 3.0 technologies to offer world-class blockchain, NFT, Metaverse, Defi, and Crypto development services to businesses to help them achieve their goals.