Virtual real estate is fast becoming a favorite among investors. Top brands and celebrities are buying plots on metaverses, hinting at the massive potential of the industry. Virtual real estate investments are more than just a trend. Land plots and assets on emerging metaverses have real utility embedded into them.
Depending on the nature of the metaverse, they are used for a variety of purposes. This includes building virtual offices, launching exhibitions, hosting concerts and fashion shows, and more. Imagination draws the limit.
In this article, we analyze the best real estate NFT projects to buy in 2022 and their core features.
Which are the Best Real Estate NFT Projects for 2022
Here is a quick look at the top metaverse real estate platforms of this year.
- Real Estate Investment Club — Overall Best Real Estate NFT Project
- Decentraland — Hottest Crypto Metaverse NFT
- Bloktopia — Unique Web3 Virtual Skyscraper
- Sandbox — Metaverse with Great Potential for Growth
- Somnium Space — Advanced Real Estate Metaverse NFT
Top Real Estate NFT Projects Reviewed
Virtual real estate dominates the NFT market right now in terms of popularity and price. It’s not surprising. Would you rather buy a piece of art or a piece of land? Of course, both are excellent investments. However, the piece of art is collectible whereas a piece of land is productive. If you have the skills and resources, you can convert the land into a hotel, an art gallery, or a business center. If you can’t do it yourself, you can rent it out to someone else and earn rent.
As the world moves to the metaverse, the value of these tokenized virtual land plots and allied assets is bound to increase. But it is important to invest in platforms that have an ambitious vision and a white paper that justifies it. We have picked our five favorite real estate NFT projects in the market that meet these criteria. Let’s dive in and find out how they are positioned to bring significant returns to investors this year.
Real Estate Investment Club — Overall Best Real Estate NFT Project
Real Estate Investment Club grabs the first position on our list for its unique value propositions and real-world use cases. It is a collection of independently constructed, high-quality, moving 1:1 and generative NFTs that will live on the ERC-721 blockchain.
The NFTs serve as your avatars in MetaCity — the Real Estate Investment Club metaverse. MetaCity will be a virtual world where real estate and finance experts come together to share ideas, embark on new ventures, and socialize. Anybody interested in real estate and finance will find a platform in the metaverse. It will offer a wide range of opportunities for users to monetize their assets and services, creating a sustainable metaverse economy.
At the heart of REIC – MetaCity is the REIC MetaHQ, a virtual building designed by a team of developers, designers, and architects. It will be a hub for Real Estate Investment Club members to socialize and hang out. It will host metaverse meetups, educational services, consultation, and investment advice, access to global resources, and investment opportunities, including drop-ins from industry elites and professionals.
Listed below are some of the key benefits of holding REIC NFTs.
- Metaverse access: As discussed above, REIC NFTs are your avatars in Metacity. They give you access to REIC MetaHQ.
- IRL events: They double as your tickets to private IRL events across the globe, starting in Edinburgh.
- Educational resources: They give you access to educational resources on real estate, blockchain, crypto, and NFTs.
- Networking: Meet the REIC community through social media platforms and eventually REIC’s upcoming immersive metaverse.
- Deals: Access to in-house developments and off-market deals across the world.
- DAPG & DCB benefits: REIC community will have priority access to DAPG’s & DCB’s journey. Moreover, NFT holders will be able to explore real estate tokenization and asset fractionalization through DAPG.
Apart from these, REIC NFT holders will receive both digital and physical merchandise from time to time. The community will also have governance rights in the community fund. As the platform grows and evolves, the NFTs will grant more utility, opportunity, and incentives to users.
The quality of the artwork, graphics, and video animation on REIC is worth mentioning. If you have checked out the real estate NFT market, you must have noticed that most projects overlook these factors. Since the designs come out after the initial phases of investments, investors end up regretting their buy. Aesthetics are rarely just about aesthetics. They reflect the commitment of the team and the quality of products. REIC has an extremely talented graphic designer and a team of developers behind the collection, with some having exclusively worked on GTA and Red Dead Redemption.
REIC… ?#NFT #NFTS pic.twitter.com/7w9Ib7xEwT
— Real Estate Investment Club (@REIC_io) July 25, 2022
As we mentioned above, REIC stands apart from the rest of the real estate NFT projects on this list. While most projects limit themselves to virtual world utility, REIC takes it a step ahead. Its unique vision to eventually tokenize real-world real estate using blockchain technology will take off in the coming years. The project aims to build a pioneering infrastructure that will integrate more transparency and decentralization into the real estate market.
Decentraland — Hottest Crypto Metaverse NFT
Decentraland is a crypto platform that has been integral to building buzz around the metaverse in the last few years. Although the project has been in development since 2015, it was officially released in 2020. You will be surprised to learn that Decentraland parcels were sold for a mere $20 in 2017. And MANA tokens, the metaverse token of Decentraland, were only worth $0.02 back then.
Decentraland NFTs are selling for a floor price of 1.94 ETH now. That is worth 3420.7088 USD. MANA tokens, on the other hand, are selling for $0.9633. At one point in 2021, the token was selling for $5.90. The crypto downturn this year has taken a toll on the price of MANA. However, if the project continues to add more use cases to its metaverse, the token will regain its value shortly. The current sales statistics of Decentraland say little about the project’s relevance in the crypto metaverse arena and its growth potential for the coming years.
Decentraland metaverse explained
Decentraland is a decentralized virtual world that uses the Ethereum blockchain to record and facilitate transactions. The staggering sales on the metaverse over the last two years opened our eyes to the potential of virtual real estate. It is best described as a blockchain-based ledger of parcels. Each plot of land is tokenized into NFTs and stored on the Ethereum smart contract.
When you own a piece of land on Decentraland, you control the type of content published on your land. It can range from static 3D scenes to engaging games and concerts. If you can’t utilize your land plot, you can rent it out to someone else and still earn a reliable income. Land plots are bought using MANA, the native cryptocurrency of Decentraland.
The future of Decentraland
The value of MANA tokens and land parcels is driven by the growth of the Decentraland ecosystem and the developments on the land plots. Like the real world, Decentraland has districts, which refer to a cluster of similar themed Land. Users within a district have voting rights to initiate changes in the district.
Currently, prominent brands, celebrities, and investors own plots on the metaverse, revealing the massive potential of the concept and the platform. The trend will pick up in the coming years, making MANA tokens and Decentraland plots worthy investments.
Bloktopia — Unique Web3 Virtual Skyscraper
The next project on our list of the best real estate NFT projects is Bloktopia, a virtual skyscraper that aims to become a central hub for crypto information, immersive content, and Web3 experiences. It is divided into 21 levels in honor of 21 million Bitcoin, and each Bloktopia token owner is referred to as a Bloktopian.
Bloktopians can generate income from the platform through real estate ownership, advertising, playing games, building networks, and much more. It will be a place to relax, socialize, have fun and compete with each other to earn more rewards. From time to time, you can participate in challenges to win exciting prizes.
BLOK serves as the native token of Bloktopia. You will be able to buy BLOK on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. Interestingly, all BLOK from initial real estate purchases will be burnt to fuel the price of the token by bringing down the supply. You can use BLOK to purchase real estate space and in-game assets from Bloktopia.
The purchase of real estate on Bloktopia is called Reblok. You can speculate on real estate and resell it for a profit. Or, you can rent it out to earn a passive income. The platform uses a real-time 3D Creation Engine and blockchain technology to feature an unparalleled metaverse experience for users. Together, these features make Bloktopia one of the best metaverse projects of 2022.
The Sandbox — Metaverse with Great Potential for Growth
The Sandbox is a popular metaverse platform similar to Decentraland. It is a virtual world where users build, own, and monetize unique interactive gaming experiences. The project had a modest beginning as an open-world mobile game early in 2012. Users hardly knew about blockchain and cryptocurrencies back then, let alone the metaverse.
So, it was confined to traditional gamers until 2018 when Animoca Brands acquired the game and integrated it into the blockchain. This drew massive attention to the project, skyrocketing the price of SAND tokens. Especially after Facebook announced its metaverse plans, the SAND token has been trending.
The use cases of SAND token
SAND is the governance token of The Sandbox, which gives users voting rights in matters concerning the project and the community. It is also used to purchase equipment, customize Avatars, and claim assets and land.
Apart from facilitating transactions and the DAO, you can earn passive income from SAND through staking. Interestingly, the platform streams a share of the transaction fees generated from SAND trading to the staking rewards pool and The Sandbox Foundation. This goes a long way in nurturing value for the ecosystem.
The Sandbox in-game assets
Let’s talk about the in-game assets on The Sandbox now. As you can guess, the NFTs are not limited to land parcels. There are more in-game assets like weapons, monsters, and digital art that serve different purposes in the metaverse game.
If you’re wondering why the name ‘The Sandbox,’ the game follows non-linear gameplay that is referred to as the sandbox mode. As a player, you need to build your own universe by collecting and transforming resources like water, soil, lightning, lava, sand, glass, and many more complex elements such as humans, wildlife, and mechanical contraptions. You can later save these worlds and publish them in galleries.
Somnium Space — Advanced Real Estate Metaverse NFT
We wrap up this list with Somnium Space, an upcoming metaverse crypto project that is creating a novel world for immersive communication, e-commerce, entertainment, and virtual living. Somnium’s goal is to bring about a community model for an open, social, and persistent VR world on Web3. It will empower users to buy land, build or import objects, use avatars and scripts, and monetize their contributions using metaverse tokens and NFTs.
Somnium Space will be compatible with metaverse hardware and technologies, keeping in line with the innovations in the industry. Over time, it will create a stunning virtual world that merges with reality. It will be compatible with a wide range of devices like smartphones, desktops, major PC VR headsets like Oculus, HTC VIVE, HP, VALVE, and all Windows Mixed Reality among others. In essence, Somnium doesn’t confine itself to the crypto world.
Conclusion
All the projects discussed above contribute to the metaverse evolution in their unique ways. While projects like Decentraland and Sandbox have been around for some time now, Bloktopia and Real Estate Investment Club are new to the market. When it comes to NFTs and real estate, it is always best to buy them early. In that regard, REIC and Bloktopia are great investments this year.
REIC, in particular, has massive potential for growth as a metaverse investment. The project doesn’t limit its scope to the virtual world. Instead, it has a larger vision of tokenizing real-world real estate using blockchain technology. If the project development progresses as planned, the value of REIC assets is expected to take off multifold by the end of this year.
