Buying land on the metaverse, which carries the physical world to the virtual environment, has become one of the popular agenda topics of recent days. So, can owning real estate on the metaverse be a reliable investment tool? Baki Budakoğlu, Chairman of the Board of Denge Değerleme, one of the veterans of the valuation sector, said “For the creation of value, four factors are needed including “Utility”, “Scarcity”, Desire” and “Effective Purchasing Power”. So, first of all, in order for the value of a land or any real property to be created, it must be beneficial by being used or rented.”
Real estate is always in demand as the safest investment tool in our country as it is in the world. The fact that the lands that are offered for sale in the metaverse universe recently found buyers for thousands of dollars and are even being offered for sale on sahibinden.com, one of the most important e-commerce sites in our country, points out that the real estate sector is also on the agenda of investors in the virtual environment.
The fact that the metaverse land can be an investment depends on its benefit
Baki Budakoğlu, Chairman of Denge Değerleme, one of the veterans of the valuation sector, said that an investor he met on social media recently mentioned that the value of the parcel right next to the metaverse parcel he bought for 13.000 USD reached 1.0 million USD and continued that he started his lesson saying that “a new door has opened for us”. Stating that value must first be formed in order to talk about valuation, Budakoglu said that the value of any tangible or intangible item is not formed only by the existence of those things; for the creation of value, four factors are needed including “Utility”, “Scarcity”, “Desire” and “Effective Purchasing Power”; “so, first of all, in order for the value of a land or any real property to be created, it must be beneficial by being used or rented, in addition to being limited to a certain amount, the presence of a willing buyer with sufficient purchasing power is also a necessity for the creation of value “ he said.
There is no shortage or limit in the supply of metaverse land
Saying that if the subject land is not in the metaverse universe, but in the physical real world, parameters such as ‘Development Area’, ‘Equivalent Floor Number’, ‘Building Conditions’, ‘Location’, ‘Transportation Facilities’ will be taken into account and that these issues will come to mind first, Budakoglu added “While evaluating the land, we were going to determine the value based on the actual or requested sales prices of the lands with the same zoning construction conditions and similar location, while developing a project on the one hand. However, there is infinity when talking about the Metaverse since it is a virtual platform as the name implies. Currently, we can mention the prominent universes as The sandbox, Axie Infinity, Decentraland, Our, etc. These universes were designed independently from each other, for example, one of them consists of approximately 90,000 pieces of land, while the other is designed to reflect the whole world and consists of 1.6 million pieces of land. You know, in some speeches, it is said that there is no land left in the Bosphorus, or it is only valid for one of the virtual universes, yet the map of Istanbul can be designed in one application, and it can be put on sale again and then a willing investor will have a chance to buy it. Logically, in this case, it seems unrealistic to talk about the creation of the shortage factor across the Metaverse”.
Being neighbors to real estates bought by celebrities also gains value in virtual land
Baki Budakoğlu, Chairman of the Board of Denge Değerleme, also addressed the parameters encountered in attempts to purchase land in Metaverse: “In priority purchases, proximity to Metaverse Center, accessibility, population density, being adjacent to real estates purchased by celebrities or purchasing lands close to them is rather recommended or preferred. As can be seen, there are no restrictions on the development of the land, such as housing, hotel, school, shopping mall, or factory area. Moreover, a regulatory and planning institution is not foreseen, since it is accepted that investors who are included in the virtual universe will decide on the house to be built. In other words, it is essential to make a joint decision on the platform, and it is thought that with the registration of the owner on the blockchain, its ownership will become public, that is, it can be claimed for everyone”.
It is difficult to meet on common ground about how to use the lands in the virtual universe
Pointing out what kind of benefit that the real estate offers for the Metaverse universe to gain value, Budakoğlu said, “Of course, if the investors in that virtual universe and the board comprising of the authorities of the institution that designed the virtual universe decide for what purposes the land will be used in any virtual universe subject to an investment, it may not be enough for them to meet at a common point, because there must be issues where valid and correct decisions are taken in terms of the existence, development, and sustainability of the said virtual universe. In other words, it will be necessary to determine the usage purposes and settlement conditions of the parcels by contributing from the perspective of many disciplines based on human psychology and social life, as well as city planning, survey engineering, architecture, civil engineering, management disciplines, otherwise, there will be an unplanned construction that will not create synergy in terms of both commercial and social life. I don’t even mention silhouette, the aesthetics. Of course, usefulness, another factor for a parcel to contain a value, namely creating benefit will only be possible with planned production.
Budakoğlu mentioned that a YouTuber could easily change the two-storey building he had previously built on the land he invested in the virtual universe, by choosing the three-storey one from the building symbols on the side of the screen, and added: “did he increase the value of his real estate? Or did he lower the value of his land instead of increasing its value with the choice he made, who knows now?”.
