Land Sales Crash

[Diablo Lioncourt]

Anyone else notice that the apparent slowdown in land sales is becoming a freeze?

Just curious how others perceive what's been happening.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Diablo Lioncourt

[BilliJo Aldrin]

1 hour ago, Diablo Lioncourt said:

Anyone else notice that the apparent slowdown in land sales is becoming a freeze?

Just curious how others perceive what's been happening.

Does LL publish stats on land sales? How do you know its slowing down or freezing?

 

[Melissa Starlight]

Seems to be not slowing down to me.

[Cedric Brown]

Decent land with all the known attributes are priced too high for the average player and maybe the larger deep pocketed players are tapped out. No one seems to be lowering the prices either. When something decent pops up at a relatively decent price it's bought.

[Katherine Heartsong]

Not sure. The land prices are getting too high for most folks I think.

I know I always convert back to US$ before considering a parcel to buy and my appetite to go much past 10–15K has greatly diminished in the past year or so.

Now, oddly enough, just last month I had a reasonably well known land seller offer me 100,000L for my Blake accessible 1/4 sim which I thought was nuts. I told them no, and they promised to up their offer. To me that's silly. That's $400 or the price in RL of a small car repair bill. But what struck me was how much they wanted it which is tempting, but then I noticed I can't get anything near as nice with the same sort of water access anywhere else for anything less than what he wants. They're trying to flip it and make 50K+.

Decent land prices are insane, and do not get me started on the 1024 with the double prims. Asking/expecting/getting those prices indicates a severe head injury to me.

This all said ... I still see lots of cute little 1024s though in the Mainland Sales forum for under 5K that do seem nice for someone looking for a basic parcel.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Katherine Heartsong

[BilliJo Aldrin]

3 hours ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

This all said ... I still see lots of cute little 1024s though in the Mainland Sales forum for under 5K that do seem nice for someone looking for a basic parcel.

Yep, and believe it or not, a 1024 is plenty for someone wanting a small place to call home. Heck one don't even need to waste prims on a house. It never rains, its never cold, just rez a few trees and permanently camp out.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

 

I was searching land yesterday, there are plenty of cheep 1024's for sale. You can even get roadfront for 2 k, which is a total bargain. So are prices too high? No not really. Flippers demand outrageous prices as usual, but that's nothing new.

[Raspberry Crystal]

I was looking at the land auction site, and it seems it can be cheaper to pick up parcels there than adopting abandoned land. eg around  0.5 Linden dollars per metre squared (some go for higher of course).
A few aren't selling at all.
I don't remember seeing this last time I checked which was around 18 months ago.
 

[Diablo Lioncourt]

I've noticed that as well, Raspberry. I've also let people have roadside and water 1024s for 500L just to get them off my tier.

About a year ago, auctions for Zindra were far less common and a 1024 could typically fetch about 8-10k.

Now there more of them, and they typically go for about half that.

I've seen people struggle to give away Kama City roadsides for 10L a m2.This is an area where roadside parcels typically sold for 25-30L a m2.

It seems like it got worse after they opened the 2048s in belliseria.

[Zalificent Corvinus]

54 minutes ago, Diablo Lioncourt said:

I've seen people struggle to give away Kama City roadsides for 10L a m2.This is an area where roadside parcels typically sold for 25-30L a m2.

Before the move to cloud, and covid, roadside Kama city could be had for about 12/m, then with the temporary halt in sales of PRIVATE estate regions, and the modest boost in concurrency caused by covid a really odd thing happened.

 

"Really Stupid People" claimed that SL had a "land shortage", and started hiking prices, in accordance with the "Imaginary guiding hand of the fictional free market fallacy fairy's not a law at all of supply and demand (tm)".

More recently, two of the less reputable bottom feeding land flippers, resumed active hostilities in their ancient blood feud with a pricing war.

These two factors combined, the realisation that there is no land shortage, and the begger-thy-enemy price war have driven prices down again to pre covid prices.

 

For G and M rated non-roadside, non-navigable-waterside, unless it has a really spectacular view, any price over 1.1/m is robbery, for A rated, maybe 5 or 6/m. Roadside, 12/m isn't an unfair price.

 

[Cedric Brown]

15 minutes ago, Zalificent Corvinus said:

More recently, two of the less reputable bottom feeding land flippers, resumed active hostilities in their ancient blood feud with a pricing war.

These two factors combined, the realisation that there is no land shortage, and the begger-thy-enemy price war have driven prices down again to pre covid prices.

Creative destruction..capitalism at work

[Prokofy Neva]

On 11/26/2023 at 3:42 PM, Diablo Lioncourt said:

Anyone else notice that the apparent slowdown in land sales is becoming a freeze?

Just curious how others perceive what's been happening.

Couldn't be happier!

Even though I have land for sale I'd like to see move.

Because people like you selling microparcels for a fortune are frozen in that pernicious activity which always ruins the view.

Destructive? Yes, but not creative. Capitalism? Actually, no, as we live in an authoritarian state where the government lets you buy this land abandoned to flip -- and it should know better than that. It's more like oligarchy. 

 

[animats]

There's an incredible amount of vacant land in SL.

Zindra used to look more full, because the main land baron would put some filler building on his empty properties. He's no longer bothering, nor are his competitors. So there are entire half-regions empty, and overpriced.

Corsica is still cheap. I have a little roadside plot there, backing up against a huge area of abandoned land. I should do more with it. Right now it has a little garage/repair shop and a spare bike, plus one of my NPCs to keep an eye on things.

[Sid Nagy]

As a private land lover, I never pay more than nothing for a parcel. Plenty of land available in all kind of sizes. The situation hasn't changed in years.
At the moment I have a corner parcel (so protected view on two sided) with 1713 LI for 1330 L$ a week.  I'm not complaining. And if ugly building lovers move in next door, I just move on, no selling hassle. Done deal within a jiffy, no L$ have to exchange hands for the land.
I find the whole land pricing in (for large chunks desolate and ugly) Mainland only worth a chuckle when I think about this land buying and selling.
Land is available for tier only folks.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Love Zhaoying]

Regarding "high prices" as a factor of slowing land sales...

I admit that I paid L$130k (IIRC) for my 2048 parcel, but I wanted an adult land double-prim parcel to take maximum advantage of my Premium Plus.

Would I have been happier if my land was less expensive? Yes, but mostly because if it were cheaper, I could sell it to someone else and get a different 2048 double-prim plot. However, since there aren't a lot of 2048 double-prim plots:  I'm likely to sit on mine for a few years. 

I suppose that I find some SL Real Estate agent / company that has a similar parcel to "swap". More likely, I would find someone with a similar parcel to sell (for less or more L$). But I'd still have to find someone to buy my parcel at a "premium", unless I go ahead and take a loss.  

All those factors mean, that instead of buying / swapping / etc., because my parcel was L$$$, it is contributing to the "slower land sales".

 

[Cedric Brown]

45 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

But I'd still have to find someone to buy my parcel at a "premium", unless I go ahead and take a loss.  

Your parcel would sell in a flash for the price you paid. Just saying

[Love Zhaoying]

7 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Because people like you selling microparcels for a fortune are frozen in that pernicious activity which always ruins the view.

I wasn't aware that @Diablo Lioncourt was into microparcel sales.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

15 minutes ago, Cedric Brown said:

Your parcel would sell in a flash for the price you paid. Just saying

I don’t understand people hating to sell land at a loss. Every cent one ever puts into Second Life is a loss, you can never get it back, but selling land at a loss? Nooooo thats unforgivable.

If LL pulls the plug on SL tomorrow, thats a definate loss, becaus I doubt LL will be giving refunds for anything.

😂

[BilliJo Aldrin]

On 11/28/2023 at 8:38 AM, Diablo Lioncourt said:

 

I've seen people struggle to give away Kama City roadsides for 10L a m2.This is an area where roadside parcels typically sold for 25-30L a m2.

 

I hope you are right, because there is a 1024 beside my place in Kama City that i would be happy to pay 10 K for, but not the 30 K it went for the last time it sold.

😁

[Prokofy Neva]

2 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I wasn't aware that @Diablo Lioncourt was into microparcel sales.

Happy to show you inworld.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

54 minutes ago, Prokofy Neva said:

Happy to show you inworld.

does he have any for sale super cheep? 😂

Edited December 2, 2023 by BilliJo Aldrin
added an emoji for emphasis

[BilliJo Aldrin]

8 hours ago, animats said:

There's an incredible amount of vacant land in SL.

Zindra used to look more full, because the main land baron would put some filler building on his empty properties. He's no longer bothering, nor are his competitors. So there are entire half-regions empty, and overpriced.

Corsica is still cheap. I have a little roadside plot there, backing up against a huge area of abandoned land. I should do more with it. Right now it has a little garage/repair shop and a spare bike, plus one of my NPCs to keep an eye on things.

I really have to disagree, there is no vacant land in Zindra, every sq m is owned.  If a zindra sim is “half empty” because land flippers are trying to sell it at insane prices, then it is still in fact full. The only way to bring down Zindra prices is for LL to build more Zindra sims. If they fill up because flippers keep buying, then keep rezzing more.

Thats how Horizons got so big isn’t it?

Edited December 2, 2023 by BilliJo Aldrin
clarification

[Qie Niangao]

That wasn't the point, though. As @animats said, "Zindra used to look more full" but now the for sale land is left vacant. It's a different effect. Not sure which approach is better for sales.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

33 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

That wasn't the point, though. As @animats said, "Zindra used to look more full" but now the for sale land is left vacant. It's a different effect. Not sure which approach is better for sales.

I think the only thing that matters is price. If i was buying, Id much rather look at empty parcels than ones cluttered up with the sellers crap.

But thats just me. 😁

[Zalificent Corvinus]

2 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

That wasn't the point, though. As @animats said, "Zindra used to look more full" but now the for sale land is left vacant. It's a different effect. Not sure which approach is better for sales.

I know exactly which Land Baron @animats was talking about, and I suspect the reason  they haven't put up empty buildings on newly bought parcels is either that they decided it wasn't worth the time and effort, or possibly due to them taking an extended holiday and leaving things in the hands of a csr/sales rep.

 

2 hours ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

I really have to disagree, there is no vacant land in Zindra, every sq m is owned.

^ This, more or less. Just because it doesn't have a building on at ground level, doesn't mean it's "vacant".