Land Rental Sizes - Poll and discussion

i wanted to guage the interest for land rental before i begin another residentially zoned sim in Pimushe.

i'd been renting 1/4 sim parcels in Larsen with ease for 4 months but have hit a snag since new year and have 2 out of my 4 plots sitting empty for about a month now. i'm trying to figure out if it is because there is less demand for the snow land, or because there is less demand for large parcel rentals.

is there more demand for gridded land for rent or has midge basically filled the demand?

Jauani, the experiment in Midge is an interesting indication that demand exists for a zoned rental community. I waited a few days before looking at Midge, to see what people actually built on their plots.

In my opinion Midge is starting to look like most newly-built-up sims.

I commend Anshe for implementing a variant on the whole-sim rental community experiment tried by Jamie Otis in Abacus. My subjective opinion of Abacus is that it looks noticibly more attractive than most newly-built-up sims.

Pimushe affords a chance to try a different variant of the whole-sim rental community experiment. The topography of Pimushe supports a simple mechanism for preservation of ocean views: view corridors delineated by elevation. For example, waterfront lots could have a height limit permitting a building with 20 meter ceilings. Lots at the opposite (most inland) edge of the sim would have no height limit whatsoever. Lots between the two edges would be staggered such that each receives a dedicated view corridor defined by an elevation range. A reasonable option to accomodate free-wheeling vertical self expression would be to allow building above the clouds.

As you can see, my example assumes that the residences will be spacious. Obviously this is no guarantee that the design mix ends up resembling one of the gracious waterfront developments we admire in RL. You would need to set design guidelines for that. One possible guideline, borrowed from RL, is to allow complete freedom of design within a buffer of evergreen screening.

For an example of this idea in SL check the two major waterfront properties in Windermere. My foliage screen and large trees provide privacy on both sides of the lot line. My neighbour's mansion is comfortably screened from the terrible experiments on my sandbox lot. : D I don't have much need for screening from his mansion, since I built it (texturing courtesy of Tempest Veil), but the view of foliage gives a pleasant counterpoint to the ocean view.

Juani, just like in real life, a rental has to be close to 50% cheaper than buying, or have significant benefits over owning, otherwise, why rent? This is particularly true in today's depressed SL real estate market where land is almost worthless.

I own a few rental properties in RL and I really cannot see a business renting in SL. Most of the rental benefits in RL have to do with tax laws, I do not know how to bring them in to SL. Worst of all, many renters in RL do not own a property because of credit reasons, not because they cannot afford the monthly payment. In SL, if you have the cash, you have the land, as simple as that.

But then again, I am ignorant of the SL market. I am sure folks rent for one reason or another.

- T -

I think it's partly the snow sims. I hear the knock on snow sims is that people get sick of them fast. I lived on a snow sim for months and loved it, and still love it. I rented it to people who bought it and love it and still love it. Some people love snow sims, but for others, it pales on them, they don't like Christmas in July. Sales on snow sims got sluggish as you know, then they were said to pick up, but I don't know if that stays true.

I think there is plenty of demand out there for 4096 or bigger. I sometimes get requests for month-long leases of even 12,000 or 15,000-- the demand is out there, but there isn't an efficient way for people to find each other without an in-game classified ads and classified events/promotional events system which we must work towards in a variety of ways.

Ultimately, I think there is more demand for smaller parcels because people only want to spend what their stipend gives them -- the whole reason they rent is that they don't want to save their stipends or buy on GOM to just buy land, and they are afraid of getting stuck with tier bills, and want flexibility -- which rentals do give them.

Midge is not only about rental but actually allows people buy and own land as well, within the zoning guidelines.



Most new sims start nice and after short time it go steadily downwards when first person starts building ugly. This won't happen in Midge.

Oh whoops I voted the wrong thing. I prefer to rent my own land and have control over the things that are on it.

Anshe, you got me thinking: I'm actually curious about time-lapse views of a sim... photos taken from the same position and angle over a span of months, say, after land in a sim goes public or whatever the case may be. It would be funny in some ways, disturbing in others, but perhaps most importantly, would provide historical evidence for what you are stating.

Do any of these exist?

Sims start nice while most plots are unowned and there's beautiful forest all around you.
Then come the land barons who return all the trees and flatten all the land.
Then come the newbies who rez prefabs.
Then come more newbies with prefabs.
Over time there will eventually be someone with a project in mind, or who just wants more prims to play with. They will expand and take over most of the sim, possibly involving "long-time small-land" residents in some territorial drama.
With any luck, the sim will then become beautifully landscaped and forested once again