Sales of Virtual Real Estate Reached $500 Million in 2021 and Are Expected to Double in 2022

Investors are rapidly purchasing land in a variety of metaverses and spent a combined total of $501 million in 2021 to obtain virtual plots of land. Sales in the first month of 2022 have already reached $85 million, and if this pace continues, sales could reach up to one billion dollars in 2022.

Virtual real estate has been received as an innovative and promising investment, similar to NFTs and cryptocurrency. Although metaverse investments can be risky, they can also prove to be very rewarding.

“[It’s] highly, highly risky. You should only invest capital that you’re prepared to lose. It’s highly speculative. It’s also blockchain-based. And as we all know, crypto is highly volatile. But it can also be massively rewarding,”

Janine Yorio, the CEO of virtual estate development company Republic Realm, told CNBC.

According to Yorio, Republic Realm sold 100 virtual private islands for $15,000. Now they’re sell for $300,000 each, the price of an average home in the U.S.

The steady increase in sales really soared when Facebook rebranded to Meta and announced its intention to focus operations on the metaverse. Covid-19 restrictions may also have played a part to spark global interest of virtual life. In the metaverse, there are many things users cane do: you can visit museums and themed attraction parks, go to a beach party, or nightclub, and even attend concerts of famous performers.

As reported by CNBC, BrandEssence Market Research found that the metaverse real estate market could seen an increase of 31% per year from 2022 to 2028.

Currently, the top metaverses are The Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium.

On the Flipside

Major tech companies, such as Meta and Microsoft, are putting millions into the metaverse, and the future of the internet seems to be leaning towards the metaverse’s development. Yet the investment is risky. “You’re buying something that isn’t tied to reality,” said Mark Stapp, professor of real estate theory and practice at Arizona State University.