The idea of owning metaverse real estate for profit is one that fills people with all kinds of emotions: elation, curiosity, hesitation. Many are currently experiencing the fear of missing out, but for other investors, there's a different fear: investing in the wrong property from a lack of experience. While it's a huge risk, to be sure, choosing the right property can be made a lot easier if you buy with a pool of other investors. That's where fractional ownership in metaverse real estate projects comes in handy.
Rather than choosing just one property in one metaverse, you could instead buy into a portfolio of properties doing all sorts of different things, helping dilute the risk inherent to this new and emerging world of virtual real estate.
The world's first metaverse REIT launches on PancakeSwap
Investors are no strangers to the concept of real estate investment trusts (REITs), where rather than purchasing a whole income-generating property, you buy a share and distribute the risk among a pool of owners. Well, that's exactly what metaverse real estate company MetaSpace Real Estate Investment Trust (MREIT) is doing with real estate investments.
Although only newly launched, it has already seen aggressive trading on the platform PancakeSwap. The 24-hour trade volume as of December 24, 2021, totaled $92,526, an absolutely impressive feat considering that each MREIT token was worth approximately $0.12 during that period (and that it was a holiday for many).
It's important to note that although "REIT" appears in the name of this company, it exists within the cryptocurrency/NFT space and is not traded on any stock exchange. Instead, it's an attempt to bring the equivalent of REIT investing to the highly unregulated crypto markets. Investing in this unique company comes with no guarantees; however, MREIT will be fully audited with Know Your Client (KYC).
The potential of fractionalized virtual real estate projects
As I stated above, the biggest bonus to jumping into metaverse investing as a fractional owner (in the parlance of the metaverse, you're an owner of "tokens") is that you can have a lot of little pieces of projects that span both high risk and reasonably settled metaverse platforms. Because the metaverse is made up of lots of little worlds, it can be easy to lose a lot of money if you choose the wrong platform to invest in, making fractional ownership of many projects kind of ideal for someone new to this world.
Although MetaSpace is the only REIT-like project in the metaverse currently, with the explosive growth it has already seen, there's no doubt more virtual real estate funds will follow. There is very real potential in the metaverse for gains just like we have in the real-world real estate market, but there's a lot of risk to going it alone.
Choosing the wrong project in the wrong place or in the wrong world can set a new metaverse investor up for failure, and because that space can change in the blink of an eye, it takes a lot of effort to keep up. Having a professional investor at a virtual REIT help guide your metaverse real estate portfolio increases your chances of a win, turning your virtual real estate investment into more of an investment and less of a blind gamble.
Prediction: Cautious metaverse investors will see significant long-term gains
I started writing about metaverse real estate to help fill a gap in our coverage, but I'm still writing about it because I see a very real opportunity for people who are willing to take some massive leaps of faith. Of course, it's hard to know if you're going to have a win with a piece of property that's not "real" in the strictest sense. However, as the pandemic pushes people to take part in various endeavors in the metaverse, including school, work, retail, advertising, and entertainment, the risk is going to shrink.
Remember that millennials are digital natives, and they're leading the charge to this mysterious place where people can meet with anyone from anywhere and experience things that aren't even possible in the real world. Experimental platforms in the metaverse, like Second Life, tested the waters and have proven to have real sticking power (Second Life has been in operation since 2003). Also, GenZ kids raised with Minecraft and Roblox will eventually want to move up to more grown-up spaces that feel familiar to them and where they can hold permanent, valuable stakes in their communities.
As people purchase the equivalent of residential real estate in virtual communities, and companies invest in virtual businesses, virtual real estate will do exactly what real-world real estate does: It will appreciate. Naturally. It's that old supply and demand thing -- a limited supply plus an increase in demand (because the community is getting ever-cooler or more useful) drives equity gains, as well as rate gains for things like commercial rentals.