When Did Land Get So Expensive????

I haven't bought land in a while, seeing as I have a decent 4096 plot I've been running my small business on. Today i had figured i'd expand into the plot next to mine, it being on sale, and went to check it out. i was a bit shocked to see if being sold for $L13/sm, so off i went to look for less expensive land...

I did not find any...

Nothing under 10/sm.


So when did this horrific trend begin? With the price hike on the Islands?

Most likely. I noticed quite a few 512 sq m plots going for 6k L$!!! That alone made me do a double-take

I can't even find a plot for sale anymore!!!!!!

The land search is inundated with land "sales" which really aren't sales at all.... I'm so pissed that i cannot even look for legit land for sale because convenants and sublet land is listed.

How the hell can people get away with listing land for sale if it's not really even for sale.
To me it seems to be a total scam that someone can list land for sale, and when someone buys it, it still stays as the sellers land. WTF is up with that?

Doubledown just answerd the question.

Lindens have land extremely tight right now. Little to no land for sale == huge prices.

and the ones you do find are in the $L 13-20/sm range, which is outrageous for subpar land that is available.

All i can hope is that LL is going to flood the market with more land.

The first time I searched, I was shocked that after selecting "For Sale" from the drop-down almost all the listings were actually "For Rent." I don't want to rent.

Most likely I'm going to keep my 1024m, and never get more land because the horrible search functionality. For Sale should mean For Sale. There should be an "advanced options" to break it down so you can select to see all land in "region X", within this price, within this land plot size, and exactly who is selling it.

Given that LL has problems providing Search functionality, I'm not expecting much.

Edit: Actually forget I mentioned a new feature. LL should do whatever it takes to allow the Asset Server/Database to scale to 100,000 concurrent users... new features be damned.

I saw a 512k plot for L$15000 lol

Linden has no control over that, and that's a good thing. Because Linden don't have to regulate SL beyound ToS. Vendors are fully responsible for what they put in an ad. Lying is not against ToS.

LOL what Jeff is saying. I have alot of land Im renting.

Hi there.

Because the population of SL has been growing a good deal, although not as fast as the main page stats may show (LL has said that only about 10% of people who register and try SL actually stick around) and because these new members demand land, combined with the fact that LL is not releasing much First Land AND because islands now cost more via tier & initial cost making it impossible to arbitrage new island land via rentals, more members see it worthwhile to buy their own plot rather than renting from a virtual land arbitrageur, we see an increase in mainland land values. Tier is also a good $100/month cheaper to own a full sim of mainland rather than a new island, which has further increased demand for mainland plots. Some people think that LL will up tier rates of mainland sims and may "grandfather" old plot owners the old rate, which again has driven up demand. If LL were to release more land, prices would fall, but not to their old levels, as humans are rational and know that in the future and even now it is cost efficient to own your own land rather than renting it from an island owner, this drives up demand for mainland and so price. (It is also probable that LL will eventually raise island tier for even "grandfathered” islands.) There is also a backlog of Sims "pending" that LL still needs to add to the system. There are a lot of people and corporations who want land NOW and so are renting or buying Mainland while they wait or are renting sims from people further lowering supply. I don’t know if it is true, but I hear NBC or someone is renting a few Sims while they wait for their own sim orders to go live.

If things are left as they are (LL changes things VERY often), eventually equilibrium will be found and renting will cost approx the same as owning. As the land prices rise, the thought of renting (even at higher prices than before) will once again become attractive, which will slow demand for mainland. I believe LL is trying to balance the market and eliminate any possibility of arbitrage. Thus a main reason for island price/tier increases. (Example: Buying an Island + tier for 1k and renting it out for 1.2k, while the same amount of land + tier on the mainland would cost 1.3k, making everyone demand the rentals. No risk + return = arbitrage)

The higher island prices and tier also drives down demand for new islands and so drives up demand for mainland, as less can afford/have the utility to own a whole island and so demand smaller plots via mainland.

There are other things to consider such as preferences, the snob effect and irrational behavior, but to make things easy; we'll focus on the main issues of our model found above and assume our market is perfectly competitive and efficient.

Some people further insist that "land barons" are snapping up plots of land to drive up prices. I find this unlikely as it has not happened much in the past and today we have a higher volume of land transactions and a more efficient market making it less possible for any one or a collusion of a few land barons to be able to manipulate prices, thus we will follow the model above and assume the market is efficient and free from manipulation.

I hope this helps!
Cheers!

Maybe its about time it was.

Broccoli

I saw one for 55K and a 1024sq for 200K... (both beachfront)

The greediness of some players is pretty shocking, like they think someone will actually buy that..those with that kind of money know better (unless the are looking/hoping for a rich noob with more money than sense)

Even the newspaper is separated into for sale and for rent.

All that should be including with a search function is the ability to checkmark covenant on or off.

Part of the problem with new players is that they don't know any better, and think it's just how things are. Those of us who have been here a while, and know that land should be a lot cheaper can warn them... but then they have to be somewhere they can actually read about it.

I was amazed last night to see how expensive some of the quite average land was - and how much "L$99999999999999" land that has no business being there was too.

A big problem that compounds the issue is the first land scammers that are snapping up everything and instantly reselling it for a huge profit. The worrying thing about that is that there is nothing to stop people at the moment, and I don't see any action from Linden Lab planned either.

My guess is that the land sales tab will go the same way as the events calendar - spammed beyond usefulness - and ignored completely, even though it would only take a couple of people maybe an hour between them a day (if that) to actually go through everything and get rid of the junk.

Broccoli

cheapest lot that was available next to me for 512m was 25 usd dollars worth. the other bigger lot that was 2024m was 150 usd dollars worth but it was sold. I guess some people don't mind pay for it personally I don't get it. First week I was here I bought something for way too much lost 12k trying to sell it then got stuck with additional tier for 3 lots but neighbor had tons of land waited and sold his for over 150usd now is on private island.
I guess for me it was expensive lesson. Though some newbies are getting the huge prices asked for.

Hmmm.... I guess I should be very happy with the 4608 sq/m I own now. It was very easy to get those. About half of the sim was for sale over then (begin this year). If I did spend 10.000 L$ for it all, it is a lot.

As I am running out of prims, I am looking for some more plots in Maia. But until now I am unsuccessful... and I don't even want to think about the price yet when someone is willing to sell something... It will be high, I am sure of that.

Morwen.

From what I've seen, 6000 for a single 512 lot is a bargin, and rarely found! I've seen single lots as high at 30,000,, but of course, they're still for sale.

6500 and 9000 local 512 plots last night but what disturbs me is one nearby has a 16 sm fragment. Undeveloped at the moment but suspicious.
Plot next door is undeveloped with red ban lines still!

A newbie recently paid 40,000 for a 512 plot adjacent to my land. My friends/co-owners and I explained to him that he way overpaid. I'm not even sure why the previous landowner had it for sale, since he obviously didn't actually want to sell it. Still, even for that outrageous price it may have been worth it, since the plot is completely surrounded by pristine wilderness (the half-sim we own, and Protected land.)

Johan, many land owners put up land for sales just to attract newbies and others who are looking for land. They hike the price because they really don't want anyone to buy it. 512 m2 for 40K is insane but I guess a newbie just wanted it and now the owner is rich but lost his land.

I honestly think this sort of "price hiking" for the purpose of driving traffic to your land is actually increasing the price of surrounding lands and in turn your land. If you own a piece of land in a SIM where there are few other parcels for sale at resonable price, then try this: List your piece of land for 1.5X as much as the other guys. You will soon see that some land investor/newbie will buy your neighbours land and then relist it for higher price (very close to yours). This will play until all of the land for sale in your SIM becomes the norm of what you set before. Don't set yours up so high. It just won't work.

its not really that land "should be cheaper" I buy/sell land and yes, the current market rate is on the low end L$12/sqm. Warning users, kinda a waste of time? What are you saying to them "oh dont buy that 512, it SHOULD only be L$4000". We havent seen 4k 512s for a long time, and they were 2k when i started. The prices are what they are. Do you tell people in real life when someones going to buy your house what YOU paid for it? Its a fact that property value raises, even in SL.

Its not greedyness, its not crazy prices, its none of that. Its supply/demand. People are willing to pay a higher price, the market goes up. With SL pushing almost 2million members now, and the obvious shortage of land, its driving prices up.

The prices wouldnt be that high if people weren't buying land. Now I was thinking about it since the climb. I think it may actually create more creativity in the grid. Now with land prices being to some a significant chunk of change, most people aren't going to buy land unless their gonna do something with it, a build, store, whatever.

All in all dont expect land prices to drop overnight. Sure a drop in price will come, but LL needs to fix their supply issue with new servers. Auction mainland sims are easily topping US$3000 now, and an obvious shortage in firstland.

Nothing will affect the current upswing in the market unless LL dumps 2-3 firstland sims a day, and at least 5 or more sims at auction a day.

i'm not sure where your looking but i've seen some cheap ones... though there is a LOT of over pricing from people reselling land with out even bothering to attempt to do it up in any way shape or form, not ever terrarforming it a bit.

It dose take a while to find land, especialy good land but.. as long as you find a good place and understand that land is normaly prices depending on the plot not only size.
also some people are just plain stupid with pricing there land.... they choose to place it at what ever they want.
i know of one plot around a 1024ish region, plain flat land trying to sell for 50k in a low traffic area... needless to say its been attempting to 'sell' for nearly amonth now, i'm not sure if thats not wanting to sell too much or gread or the person REALY not knowing prices...
rember to shop around. i've see plots for 3,500-4k market for flat green land yet they seam to be sellling faster and faster so you may need to work hard and have a sharp eye for land.

rember plain standard green flat land is a ruff basic, people normaly pay more for extra good points. though people tend to not like PG or snowy land or land which impossible to terraform into any kind of flat building enviorment.
some things which normaly bump the price of a plot:
things with are unblockable on one side or more are normaly increased in price.
sometimes 'landmarks' like lindon boardwalks, roads etc increase too. sometimes if there near high taffic it dose but it depends on who its aimed at. i.e being next to a busy club is great for a shop where you want fly bys very bad for a home.
land no where near water is cheaper then land with a view of water.
water with a view is cheaper then 'water land' aka water submerged.
'water land' is cheaper then land with water and land.
land which has water and land and is unblockable is prime.

so its hard to say '6k' is expensive... expensive yes for plain green flat. a bargin for water land, mega cheap for unblockable watefront.
i think its partly due to lack of firstland.... from what i've hurd there has been no first land recently thus a bit of a bottleneck... not to mention a lot of people decing to resell land as an easy root to cash with out much work. (and yes i am one of them yet i do give a LOT of extras with my plot to justify the price which is normaly market value or a bit less. since i like custom building home and furnishing them.. personaly i hate prefabs.. i like it to be designed for the land. i hate it when people just shove a prefab on and call it 'furnished home').

I'm new to SL but have made a lot of money trading in EverQuest. People always complained about high prices there, too.

For some reason, people who set high prices (whether they sell anything or not) are called "greedy," while those who offer low prices are not. The great thing about a free market is it is self-regulating. If SL land is too expensive, it simply won't sell. If people buy it at those high prices, then it's by definition not too expensive. If people are willing to pay 10k for a 512 m2 plot of land, then why would any land owner want to offer it for less? (There are actually some good reasons, but as a general rule they don't apply.)

I got some decent First Land; my neighbors aren't obnoxious and I have Gov. Linden maintenance land running along one side. I'm content there. Yet why not consider what it would take to get me to move. If I can get a comparable plot of land elsewhere for 10k, why not set my land for sale for 40k? That way, chances are I won't sell it and I get to keep on living there. In the event that I do sell it, however, having 40k will help assuage my pain. Either way I'm happy...until people start volunteering their opinions on how greedy I am or how crazy I am or how I'm ruining the game or something. I don't get it; if they don't want the land, don't buy it.

They say everyone has their price, yet most plots of land aren't priced. People with plenty of cash and not enough land will probably by default end up buying land with a price tag than making offers to people who haven't listed theirs.

I also suspect that some people place ridiculous prices on their land (e.g. L$999,999 for 1024 m2) as a way to raise traffic; their land shows up yellow and land hunters come by to check it out.

As land is one of the few limited commodities in Second Life, it's quite easy for some of the big land dealers to snap up some land, hike up the prices... and then encourage people into renting from them instead.

There's something definitely not right about land prices right now, and I do hope that Linden Lab look into what's going on - and fix it.

Sadly I think "First Land" has to go - that's one of the big scams right now damaging the game for many. Or at least, some restrictions that make the scam far less likely to happen.

It's just a pity that, even in a virtual life, some people only put their own needs first, at the expense of others who actually need that help of low cost land. Otherwise it's going to be less and less paying members and more and more free players.

I will never, ever "rent" land, especially given some of the strange 'covenant' things out there at the moment, as it's just throwing away money for something that isn't actually yours, despite the sales pitch.

Broccoli

Those big land hogs that I've seen swooping on first land ahead of the newb's it was designed for will never make a sale to me. Was looking just a week ago, found a great plot, average price, then i saw the white and red sign... see ya. I detest people who would do something so low... listing high is one thing, but swiping something that wasn't intended for you is another... they can all rot afaic...