Metaverse: how to buy a house | Wired Italy

“Hey dad, are we going to buy a house in the metaverse?”. “Sure son, but where do we have to go? From the
notary? From the real estate agent or the lawyer? ”

We are not dreaming, nor are we in a science fiction film, but the dialogue we have just witnessed is what happens on a daily basis. In fact, even the real estate market in the metaverse is experiencing a exponential growthjust think that globally for 2022 the phenomenon is expected to reach a turnover of approximately 1.5 billion euros, 2.5 billion in 2023 and over 3.5 billion in 2025, according to data taken from a ‘ analysis carried out by Scenari Immobiliari and presented to Forum dell’Abitare 2022.

Where can we buy a (virtual) home in the metaverse?

They exist well 32 metaverses dealing with the sale of digital properties (virtual therefore, in the form of nft), among which the Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels and Somnium stand out for business volumes, platforms on which about 270 thousand digital real estate “metaproperties” of different sizes are on the market. Currently the real estate market works similar to the real one, in that there are buyers and brokers who conclude transactions on blockchain with smart contracts. The metaverse, like real cities, is divided into districts that are often “inhabited” by users who share the same interests and passions, for example Tokens.com has raised $ 16 million in funding for the purchase of buildings and land, starting from the Decentraland fashion district with the stated goal of hosting fashion events and retail stores.

But isn’t it going to be a housing bubble?

Maybe, but in fact it seems at the moment (this is not a financial investment advice! For that, contact your specialist advisor) that just like the traditional real estate market, digital real estate in the metaverses tends to fluctuate less in value – if not even to appreciate – even during periods of strong fluctuation and decline of more “traditional” tokens or coins (such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies). As with other crypto, digital scarcity also characterizes these digital assets. The “virtual lands” in the metaverses are in fact limited (someone, as with cryptocurrencies, might observe that new and different ones can always be created). For example, Decentraland has only 90,000 plots of “digital land”.

The strong price increases (but watch out that the oscillations can go in both directions),
combined with the ease of buying and selling “virtual properties” (which however requires at least minimal digital skills), they mean that this phenomenon could be here to stay. Of course, not all metaverses will eventually succeed, but those that do are likely to have major success. With the expansion and greater diffusion of the metaverse (certainly not yet mainstream) even iL real estate digital seems destined for a rosy futureor at least he cannot dismiss himself with a phrase of skepticism, without having first deepened and considered.

We rent our property, but watch out for scams!

The lease will not be a contract to be registered with the Revenue Agency (this does not mean that there are no declaratory obligations regarding both cryptocurrencies, NFTs and income from staking etc.), but will be governed by the underlying smart contract which will prevent its sale during the lease period. In any case, even in the metaverse it is necessary to be cautious in buying the property to avoid being victims of scams verifying the title of origin (for example in the case of markets based on blockchain, the ownership of the wallet from which the NFT corresponding to a specific “lot” of virtual land is sent), especially on secondary markets (using a block explorer or similar to go back to the historical).

In conclusion, having a real estate space in the “new reality” can be an opportunity in the short and long term, not only to “give a home” to the avatar, also awaiting European regulations that are about to see the light (including the Artificial Intelligence Act, the Digital Markets Act, the Digital Services Act, the Data Governance Act and the Data Act) which aim to protect users from the dangers of the network, guaranteeing , at the same time, their freedom.