Why id land so expensive?

I'm new to SL, so I don't really get. Why is it so expensive? And you can't seem to own any permanently. -sighs- I'm so confused.

Land prices are similar to rl in that is will sell for whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Also location will have a major effect on land prices.

The sales listed on private estates or islands are actually rentals so there you are subject to the rules and regulations of the estate owner. If you are a premium member, you can purchase land on the mainlands. Then, tier would be paid to LL rather than the estate owner.

What do you consider "permanent" to be in a virtual world?

Purchase price can be close to zero depending where you get it.

As for recurring costs, the issue has to do with two factors. One, the fact that storing and transmitting data on demand isn't free, and two, this is how the Company makes their income (so we can all enjoy the world).

Bastards they should sell t-shirts like everyone else

Land costs exactly as much as it is worth.

Well "Land" certainly should never be Free, despite what the ever increasing SL freebie society thinks.

Why it's so expensive lies on Linden Labs doorstep, as its their main income generator at the moment and has been for quite some time!

A SIM (whole region of 65536 sqm) on the Mainland Continent costs 195 USD (+ VAT if you're European) in tiers per month and payable directly to Linden Labs.

In most cases owning an Estate SIM (detached from Mainland) costs the Estate Owner 295 USD in tiers per month plus a one-off purchase price of 1000 USD (unless purchased from another SL resident). These are all paid to Linden Labs.
It would not be feasible for any Estate Owner to rent or lease land to SL residents for next to nothing...they'd soon be out of business! That's the reason they chop up their lands and attached a rental or tier fee too it....so they can recover the monthly costs made to LL. Estate Barons don't commit such large capital expenditure without not wanting to make a bit of profit along the way....hence their rental or tier fees charged to SL residents will be a bit higher than their unit costs from LL.

Ria,

land is not really expensive, it has been much worse

Depending on whether you are premium member or not, you can choose between mainland or estate. The "About land" dialog shows if you are dealing with mainland or not. Some differences:

- Mainland
Always a purchase price. You pay tier to Linden Labs directly, and are owner of the land as long as you pay tier. See tier as maintenance fee for the server space you use.
No convenant, so some pieces of mainland can be quite messy and laggy, but there are real jewels as well. You can build whatever you want on that.

- Estate
Sometimes a purchase price, but often (almost) free. You do not pay tier, but you pay rent to the owner of the estate. They often call that tier as well, and you pay it often through a rent box. You are renter, so you can be booted by the owner, or if the owner does not pay their island tier fees, Linden Lab can close the region.
Almost always with a convenant, which you should read very well. It tells you what you can and cannot build on your parcel.

Some people prefer mainland, others estate land. Both have their positive sides and their negative ones. When you live in Europe, renting on estate often is cheaper because you do not pay VAT.

When renting on estate, try to find people who already do that, to find trustworthy estates.

Here's a RL analogy: Do you really own property in RL? Monthly you pay taxes, at least in the Colonies, and you pay for upkeep, e.g., utilities, etc. If you don't pay taxes and the upkeep, the tier equivalent, you lose ownership.

Uh.

Land is expensive. Period.

Maybe if you are well off in RL it is not expensive to you, but for us normal average income earners, mainland is expensive. Paying $1000L for an estate is expensive. Tier is expensive.

The cost of land and whether or not it is expensive is determined by your own personal wealth and ability to afford it.

People who can easily afford it, often do not call it expensive.

Just because Ria is new to SL, maybe a little elaboration is in order about this. The prices you see on parcels for sale doesn't mean the land is worth that amount. In fact, it almost never is, otherwise somebody would have bought it already. (Indeed, I've bought quite a few parcels and have very rarely paid the full asking price.)

One would like to say that the price actually paid for a piece of land is exactly what it's worth to the person paying for it. But in fact there is plenty of opportunity for "buyer's remorse" when the land doesn't turn out to be quite what one thought one was buying. The classic example of this is the disguised "donut hole"--a parcel with one little chunk in the center somewhere that's owned by somebody else. But the nature of being "not worth it" can be pretty subtle: I was looking at some very pretty waterfront at auction earlier this week--and then noticed that the Map had a high avatar count for the sim; I opened the statistics bar to discover that the place was in a perpetual state of deep lag.

The point being that it's very easy to make a mistake and pay much more for a piece of land than it's actually worth.

As for purchase prices of land (you're actually leasing land and not really owning SL land)...that can vary wildly. Some Estatebarons will give you the land next to nothing as the aim is really to get the reoccuring monthly tier charges from you. If they do that, it will take them a lot longer to recover the capital expenditure of the SIM i.e whatever purchase price thye paid for sim. The majority of EstateBarons will charge a lowish purchase price (compared to 2007)....so that some of the proceeds will offset their SIM purchase price.
In a few cases EstateOwners will set the land purchase price quite high so they are able to recover most if not all their capital outlay in one go. That could be high risk in this current market and the "Land" may sit unsold for quite some time.

Individual plot owners re-selling their lands, tend to set it as high as they can to recover most of their initial purchase prices......if they unable to sell their land, they quite often "abandon" the land to avoid paying more monthly Tier charges. This also applies to leasing land on Mainland too.

I suppose its feasible to ask....why doesn't LL reduce their SIM purchase prices and monthly Tiers during this RL recession? If they did, it would ultimately mean cheaper land and monthly fees for both SIM owners & the small plot owners/renters......but unfortunately LL is a business first and foremost, that is required to pay 300+ employees and all the related company running costs.

However their might be a case for a small reduction to the whole Tier structure, one that would stimulate the "Land Economy" from sim owners down to small plot owners......leading to more people wanting to rent or lease SL land. Its hard to assess what those figures might be.....only someone working for LL and well versed in creating "Business plans" incorporating "what-if Pricing scenarios" could provide a feasible answer to what the most beneficial Tier structure in terms of their own company profitablity.

Hi, Ria!

Virtual land drives the whole Second Life economy. Linden Lab owns all the land in the world (server space) and they lease it to us residents. Land is a resource in two major ways...it's square meters, room to build things. And it's prims...the more land you have, the more prims you can rez, and the bigger and more complex things you can build.

Other posts have laid out the underlying price structure...the up-front "purchase" fees and the monthly tier or rent costs, so I won't repeat that.

People own land for many reasons. One of the main ones is to have fun with your own piece of the virtual world...to build a home, or a garden. To have a place to meet with your friends. To show off your creativity and imagination. The other main reason is to make money in some way...by renting out the land to others, or by building a store and sell your products, or a club to offer entertainment. And so the land fees we pay to Linden Lab drive the prices you pay for everything in Second Life...the shop owner has to make tier, in addition to her other business costs.

I do both with my land. I live on it, but I have more than I need personally, so I rent out parts of it to tenants. The rental income pays most of my monthly tier, or even makes me a tiny profit, plus I have enough prims to build to my heart's content.

You can have lots of fun in SL without owning or renting land. Many of my friends are "homeless", or live with a partner. You can use a public sandbox to create things. The only drawback is that you can't leave them there, out in the world.

But having land adds a whole new dimension to the SL experience. I've owned land almost the whole time I've been in SL, and I wouldn't want to do without it. I like logging in to the same familiar place and looking around me at the environment I've created. I like asking friends over to visit. I like the responsibility of caring for my tenants when they have problems. I like remodeling...and in SL, that means more than just rearranging the furniture. You can rearrange the very ground itself! Change a shoreline, move a mountain, build a stream.

For this privilege, I pay, on average, about $30 to $40 a month (I need a lot of prims to satisfy my addiction). You may find you need less...or more. Land, and building things on it, can become an addiction of sorts. Is $30 a month "too expensive?" Not for me. Second Life is my main form of entertainment. I'd spend more than that going out to eat at a restaurant, or buying a couple of DVDs.

Land is pretty cheap right now, with the current turmoil on the mainland. It's a buyer's market.

Yes, Lindal's comments hits the mark.

At the end of the day SL is really a cheap form of entertainment.....and it can be very entertaining indeed. You only have to see the total number of hours spent in this creative world to realise that.

I know when i visit a Pub/Bar in RL...buying a round of drinks for say 4 friends will cost me around £12 (18 USD)....in 20 mins or so those drinks will be consumed. For the same 18 USD you can easily bag a lot of entertainment in SL over a given month.

People can price their land at whatever they like (I think there is a cap now), so some put stupidly high prices but are highly unlikely to sell. But the real land market consists of sensibly priced land, of which there is plenty.

Land is much cheaper than it was just over 2 years ago prior to the price collapse, which had a lot to do with lots of new land being 'discovered' and offered for sale.
Prices were about three times what they are now.

You can own land permanently as long as you pay your SL subscription and whatever monthly tier fees you incur.

Monitoring the auctions (land) is one way of getting a feel for what is ACTUALLY being paid for land, as opposed to the 'list' prices of land put on the market by both individuals and traders.

A decent plot in a reasonable area (residential mostly, mature) cost me just over $3000L this week, which I consider pretty fair. It's 512sq m so as a Premium member no tier to pay. Sure it needed some work - terraforming - but nothing too difficult, and I've already added a house so I have somehere to call 'home' in SL.

Right on the mark!

For the price of a dinner you could buy a 2048 parcel (which is a nice size for a small home) and maintain it a few months, too. That's pretty inexpensive entertainment. Compare it to what you have to pay to your national TV agency and/or for cable.

Land price isn't the most expensive cost. That's tier.

As the saying goes "God - in this case, Lindens - are not making mainland anymore so its a bit like real coastline or central London. Land here will always cost. It's a fair deal if you use it wisely and consistently.

By the way, I see land is starting to creep up in value again. Some decent 512 plots are in the 50 thou range.

I suggest you look around, find a nice piece and invest. Even recessions end.

Exactly right! Except for the part about not making more. There's a new continent Ursula coming online soon and chances are they'll start printing more basic mainland eventually as well. Plus there are more and more estate sims all the time.

Off topic slightly but Mainland is still the best for landscape and "virtual reality". Chaska Gorge and my lovely Mimas is a great place to "live". I never really got excited by "weetabix islands".

Just went on and went to my place in Mimas - I bought 2800 sq metres at the foot of Mimas Mountain (as I call it) on November 1st 2006 and paid 26 thousand.
I paid for it from money I made in SL (never mind how). Dana Hickman was my neighbour then and still is. I believe I bought it from David Valentino and old slers will remember that David built one of teh first nightclubs on this spot. For months afterwards peopel rezzed in my home looking for the club. It was great fun. I remember Flaming Man who flew in on fire but I managed to "douse his flames". I also used to seduce the guys who were role playing as soldiers in the barracks a little way off and the day their "Sergeant" came to see me and said, "I know your type, Chippewa, and I'm keeping my eye on you!" Marvellous. I was actually a little scared of him.

It's been a bargain.

A lot of estates do look a bit bland, especially the cookie cutter paradise island ones, but there are some very good builds too. Like someone stated earlier there are pluses and minuses for both Mainland and Estate SIMs. I own both Estate and Mainland sims and like them equally for different reasons & purposes.

BTW: you can rent mainland too (?)


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