As a Florida licensed real estate agent taking the Meta (which stands for metaverse) Agent course, I am thrilled to dive into four major bridges existing between the metaverse and real estate.
Have you noticed how many posts and media articles are circulating about the metaverse these days? Especially on the topic of branding, entertainment and real estate investment. It’s quite incredible.
However, the metaverse is not that new. AR/VR tools have been used for a while in connection with commercial real estate, with the goal of either upgrading a property, improving the energy efficiency or the security of a building or offering immersive experiences to enhance customer experiences and grow sales. Of course, these softwares or applications are not necessarily backed by the blockchain technology, but they are the B2B metaverse stories that most of us, including GenZ fans who grew-up playing on Roblox.
How can the metaverse impact real estate?
Here are four major applications of the metaverse on real estate:
1-Improving or reimagining the design, condition, maintenance or use of a commercial property.
3D renderings can help a real estate owner, developer, buyer or tenant visualize how a commercial property can become if its structure, roof, interior design, colors or some of the materials that are used are changed.
According to Pix Virtual:”Virtual reality is an extremely useful tool when preselling or pre-leasing properties. Whether new construction or renovation, research shows that 75% of people cannot fully understand the space by looking at 2D illustrations or plans.”
Creating immersive experiences and virtual showrooms can expedite the sale or lease (if the property is for sale or lease of course), the permit approval process, construction, expansion or redevelopment.
2-Creating immersive experiences to enhance brand loyalty and retail sales.
Visionaries 777 creates interactive experiences using AR/VR to enhance the customers’ journey, therefore allowing brands to access a competitive edge. The example above shows the beautiful experiences that were created in the Cartier boutique window display and in their Hong Kong store, revolutionizing the connection between the customer, the product, the brand and the store, opening an endless range of possibilities and pleasant moments.
These tools offer a spectacular way for retail brands to create a deeper engagement with their prospective and actual customers online and in-person in stores around the world. Stores can become happening places where exclusive and magical moments take place.
3-Creating virtual office meetings.
The pandemic has pushed millions of people to work from home, accelerating remote work from home or away from a company’s offices. Many have returned to work in a store, warehouse, factory or office, however, fully remote positions and hybrid jobs, combining a part of remote work and a part of work at the office have exploded.
I have come across organizations (especially in the web3, blockchain, Proptech or simply tech industry) that do not have a head office and have a community of employees and contributors, scattered around the world. In this case, the office meetings take place virtually; on Zoom, Google Meet or on the metaverse. Many companies now understand the importance for employees to avoid spending much time in a long commute to and from work. They offer the possibility of working from home part of the week and in the office the rest of the week and when in-person meetings are necessary for collaborative work.
According to a recent article published by XRtoday.com: ”Virtual reality (VR) is still a daunting task for most in the tech industry. Although extended reality (XR) technologies are developing at a much faster pace, many people still see them as a tool for entertainment. The future of remote work, however, has changed significantly after introducing VR. The reality, pun intended, is that immersive technologies are transforming all verticals and aspects of life, including the workplace.”
In the case of meetings on the metaverse, each employee can be represented by an avatar.
Around 50% of Z generation and Millennials expect to do part of their work in the Metaverse in the next two years, according to the latest Microsoft Work Trend Index Annual Report.
In order to jump on that trend, Microsoft has created Mesh avatars, which will be available to Teams meeting users in private view. In this case, employees will be able to connect with presence in Microsoft Teams meetings without turning their camera on. Bravent offers the option to create metaverse and virtual meeting settings with the possible integration of tools like Microsoft Teams. Metacorpo allows to create customized professional meeting and relaxation spaces for a higher well-being of employees and therefore an expected higher productivity.
4-Buying, selling and renting real estate in the metaverse.
Buying real estate plots in the metaverse can seem like a surreal way to diversify one’s investment portfolio, however this has been happening and becoming one of the ways for many to invest in a high-risk option as the metaverse progressively becomes more mainstream.
JP Morgan Bank opened its first lounge in the metaverse (Decentraland) back in February 2022. Many brands, tech and blockchain companies have their office or store designed for the metaverse too, just like TerraZero, which offers branding, marketing and sales experiences in the metaverse. It’s clearly a way for companies and brands to enter the digital world space while investing in virtual real estate.
Some of the real estate investors who have traditionally invested in physical real estate will remain cautious and focus on what they know: investing in physical asset ROI and leveraging value on their tangible properties. Others will venture into learning how to invest, develop and rent their virtual parcels of land in Decentraland, The Sandbox or Axie Affinity (to name a few) in order to generate rental income or will simply invest and resale or flip once the value of their digital properties increase.
There are various virtual real estate options out there and each metaverse has its specific offers. Bear in mind that you must be comfortable with the opportunity to lose your funds or win a great income in a few months or years from now. Invest with the money you do not need and do your due diligence. Value depends on the location (obviously the virtual land will have more value if it’s located next to a museum or a famous brand store), the local “traffic” of avatars, the scarcity or limited number of land parcels and what you decide to have built on it. There are also options to rent virtual land in order to see how you are getting used to exploring virtual worlds.
The concept of digital twin has been quite popular lately; it can be explained as the virtual twin of an existing property or product. Here too, engineers and data scientists have been working with digital twins of buildings, roofs, pipes and other connected to commercial properties for a while. The digital twin is a real-time digital counterpart of a physical object or process with the goal of visually seeing the impact of certain things on an object or property, in terms of performance and use.
As an example**, Skylum** is an under construction physical residential building located in Vilnius, Lithuania. The apartments featured in its 20-story digital twin are currently for sale, however the virtual building not located in any country or city you would know. The Skylum virtual apartments will grant buyers access to Decentraland and The Sandbox while allowing them to customize their virtual property as an office, an apartment or an event space. As of now, asking prices are roughly between 5 and 10 ETH.
As a real estate taking the Meta Agent course, I would be happy help you explore virtual property investment options. Reach out to me with your questions.
Twitter: @athomeinmiami