Mainland Pricing is BONKERS!!

Mainland pricing in general just doesn't add up! I did some quick maths and the bottom line is that your very own super duper deluxe private island will set you back L$7/sqm payable to LL direct. Now this should be the absolute top standard, the benchmark by which all other land in SL adheres to. How can any other land in SL exceed this benchmark figure of L$7/sqm?? It is just WRONG! I know private island owners pay more for maintenance but this is a separate fee altogether and should not be included in any land pricing equations. I also know that land prices are subject to market fluctuations but the cap should always be the magic L$7/sqm! This is profiteering gone mad! I would propose a land pricing cap to LL's to ensure a fair deal for the residents of SL not just for those who can afford a private island but also those who only want a small plot they can call home.

New private islands cost US$100 more per month in tier.

That means that if you're (for instance) buying an island for a year, the equivalent price is around L$11/sqm, not L$7.

Your logic is flawed in two obvious ways, perhaps more.

One. If you buy a whole island it works out to L$7/m. Around here, I can get T-shirts for $1.00 each, but I have to buy 144 of them to get that rate. What if I don't want 144 T-shirts? What if I can't afford 144 T-shirts? What if I dont want or can't afford 65536m of land?

Someone needs to buy the commodity at wholesale rates, divide it up, and sell it in the quantities that most people want and can afford. They need to charge for their time and service.

Two. Go and Google what 'free market economy' means. Land is not too expensive, if it gets bought. I'd suggest there's no such thing as 'too expensive'. A commodity either gets bought/sold, or it does not. If someone buys it, the price was right.

And here's a bonus: Any time you impose price controls, there will automatically be shortages. It's a bit of an economist's lecture as to why, but Google will explain that too.

Every time I hear people complain about the price of land, what I really hear is people complain that they want land but it's out of their price range. If you qualify for first land, hunt for that and then you get the best price of all. Otherwise, just decide what you want more - land, or money in your pocket. You can always rent, if you don't want to buy.

Otherwise, if you really want to get your land at L$7/m, then you've already identified how to do it: Go buy your own private island. If you don't need all that space then sell off what you don't want - at L$7/m. Try out what you're suggesting yourself, let us know in a month or two how it's worked out for you.

-Atashi

OK we'll take your figure of L$11/sqm as the cap. I still see loads and loads of mainland exceeding this L$11/sqm.

As Atashi said, that's the price for a full-on 65536sqm. You would expect it to be marked up when being divided up, to cover costs and time.

I am not talking about private islands in the context of divvying it up from wholesale. I am talking about private islands as the land pinnacle - the very best option for SL living. Private islands are the best luxury SL can offer - as i said before, the 'top standard'. All other land sales should fall in line behind this LL pricing policy otherwise there is simply no perspective, and in RL perspective is everything.

Given that people are paying more that the island per-sqm price for mainland (and yes, it's not just resellers flipping back and forth), perhaps other people don't share your view of islands being the ultimate luxury.

Sure, people who can afford 65536 for their own use might, but if you need 2048 an island of your own isn't an option, is it?

For most people, the choice is between buying mainland, or leasing estate land from another resident. The sale price of an island simply is not an issue for most people, the price of individual parcels is.

Private Islands aren't automatically luxurious. If you buy a private island, you get a slightly sculpted, blank, huge, empty space of grass. Given what you've paid for it and how much you're going to carry on paying for it, you don't just want to drop a prefab home in the middle of it, buy some furniture and then be done. But you can do that with a smaller mainland parcel.

I disagree here. I like mainland for its chaos

Yesterday I bought 512m at 7K. There are parcels going for less. Buy a bit more land and you'll get a 11L$/m.

When I buy land I want a 'slightly sculptured, blank, huge, empty space of grass' I dont want somebody else's build on my land i want a blank canvas on which to work with so I dont quite see your point here

The initial argument is flawed.

If you could buy 512 m2 of private island, it would be a valid argument. but 512 m2 of mainland and 65536 m2 of private island are not particularly similar products. In fact I would go so far as to suggest they may be different things.

I accept that you cannot buy a 512 sqm private island but why should this mean that all perspective is lost. Surely the reference value of land as dictated by Linden Labs with their private island pricing policy still holds true for all land in SL. We are all in the same world here, there should not be one rule for them and another rule for us.

Please read this post, Atashi put it perfectly.

To OP:
For the same reason why there is a market for people trading URLs, why there are distributors and retailers instead of everyone buying from the manufactures...

According to your logic, nobody should be re-selling URL for more than the domain naming companies charge. And nobody should be buying stuff at retail price, that all goods and services should be sold at manufacturer's price.

Unlike many have suggested, "land" in SL is more than just commodities. While in the raw sense it is just some server space on the SL server farm somewhere.

However that "somewhere" in SL could mean sharing the same sim with a lag-tastic club/ zombie farm, or "water front" in a mostly residential/ low use sim. Hence the price difference.

As far as why people mention private island. Everyone has the alternative to go "bulk" Spend the upfrront US$1675 and the $295 a month for their own island. If the mainland pricing bother you so much get your own island.

Welcome to the market economy. Market price is set by supply and demand not cost.

Don't forget that mainland also has the +10% advantage. Plus there is value in just having to deal with LL instead of a middle man with smaller plots. Plus some people like the main land better. Plus....


Well, you get my point.

To Kelly

I want LL to implement a land price cap on all land sales. This cap can be calculated by LL based on an equation factoring in its own land pricing policy and cost of resale services. This may well exceed L$11/sqm but at least it will stabilize the market and add some much needed sanity to all this land price hiking. My argument is a general one backed up by the cost of LL's premier land service. Its time for the regulators to step in and govern land pricing to safeguard both peoples investments and hard earned L$'s.

What part of "free market" are you missing?

As someone else so skillfully pointed out a private island held for a year costs:

$1695+12*295 = 5235

A mainland sim bought for $3000 costs:

$3000+195*12 = $5430

$3000 ~= 12.58/sqm. Seems to me like prices aren't so far off parity after all.

Besides, there are many reasons why mainland is just plain better than private islands. Not least of which is that the only way you'll ever get it stolen from you is if LindenLab goes bankrupt. Also foot traffic will generally be higher for your business. Also there are never any arbitrary rules about what you can build on your land such as how high you can build, how close to the edge of your plot, what style you can build in. Further, and this is pretty critical, you pay your mainland tier at the end of the month not at the beginning. This makes a huge difference if you're holding your land for a very short time. Oh, and you can combine your tier between many locations into one payment. I.e. if I own 512 on five different sims

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That is a good one. It is "Your world, Your imagination." In case you haven't noticed, LL has been slowly give away control over everything SL. Less regulation is always good.

Plus, there really is no way to stop someone from selling land at whatever price they want. If you place a cap on the sell tab for land, you will see people that sell the land for a price on the tab, but it will also cost extra with a person to person transaction.

Rrrrright. Good luck with that.

hmm, not quite sure what stabilise, market and investments are doing in the same paragraph.
I always thought investments meant money for nothing, hence the old adage you need money to make money.

I think we should go one step further, LL should repossess all the land, including the private islands and equaly distribute them all to all SL residents!

Viva la Revolution!

Lets all turn back to clock to the good o' communism!

I mean really, show me a communist country that is doing well. China doesn't count, It's "communist" only in political sense. Economic wise, it may be one of the most capitalist one in the world.

Cuba has one of the best health care programmes in the world!

I still cant understand why some people add to the land price calculation one year of tier as well. If you get a new island simulator, do you have to pay one year tier upfront? Even if yes, this does not affect the price of land, because if you sell the land in your estate, the buyer will have to pay you a tier back, otherwise you will go in loss after a year, right? So the equation that gives 11L/sqm is wrong in my opinion. 1675 US$ one time setup fee divided the 65k sqm gives something very close to 7L/smq, this is the price you pay for your new island, the land price you have to pay for the setup of new land that isnt mainland, and if you sell your estate land for this price, its a no gain sell. You can of course do that if you are interested in getting people to pay your tier, but thats another thing.

So in my opinion 7L/sqm should be taken as the average price for new land. Sure you can sell land, mainland or not, for lesser. Maybe crappy location, maybe you need money asap, whatever, but if you think you are going to sell decent land you may want to ask more then 7L/sqm for it, so taking this 7 as top seems very utopic to me, its like you say a car is produced with a cost of 2000$ and top retail price is 2000$, kinda silly.

Valuating a fair price is very subjective, but if you add 300% to the average price, a lot people may find it overpriced, even if high demand will provide a seller.

If you want land so badly at less than L$11/sqm, you should frequent the land searches like everyone else in SL, not expect LL to make new rules for you. How arrogant! Better yet, you should have been paying attention when the market crashed last week and bought then.

I like living in a capitalist society, RL and SL. People with brains come out ahead.