On Tuesday, November 15th, the Lab launched the Premium members’ Horizon community, a “retro-futuristic” environment featuring 36 residential regions each with 24 parcels available for auction to Premium members. The auctions opened on Friday, November 18th, with parcels being auction in batches.
One week on, and a total of 87 parcels have been or are up for auction, of which, 67 have closed as of Friday, November 25th, marking the first week of auctions. Whirly Fizzle and I have been tracking things during the week, so we’d thought we’d offer an update on how things are going.
Auction Results Fri Nov 18th Through Friday Nov 25th
| GENERAL INFORMATION | ||||||
| Total parcels | Auctioned to date | For re-sale | For rent | Commercial | Residential | Unknown |
| 864 | 67 | 26 | 13 | 5 | 11 | 12 |
Notes
- “Unknown” parcels are those which appear likely to be put up for sale or rent. Of these:
- Four have been obtained by land sellers, with 2 initially put on sale, then withdrawn.
- Five have been obtained by land renters but are not currently for rent.
- Three could go either way.
- Of the commercial parcels, four appear to be rentals; one is parcel holder / store operator.
- “Residential” refers to those parcels purchased by individuals without any obvious land marketing in their profiles & who have not won auctions for other parcels. These could still be sold / rented out or used commercially.
| RESULTS BY LOT |
||||||
| Lot | Parcels | Top bid |
Lowest bid |
Average bid |
Av sqm bid |
Total L$ paid |
| 1 | 10 | 57,270 | 30,133 | 43,689.80 | 42.66 | 436898 |
| 2 | 12 | 65,010 | 30,121 | 39,976.75 | 39.04 | 479721 |
| 3 | 15 | 40,030 | 29,510 (x3) | 31,306.73 | 28.65 | 469601 |
| 4 | 10 | 42,670 | 31,110 (x4) | 35,464.50 | 34.53 | 354645 |
| 5 | 10 | 40,110 | 26,010 (x2) | 37,751.80 | 30.91 | 317518 |
| 6 | 10 | 33,009 | 27,887 | 29,790.20 | 29.09 | 297902 |
| REVENUE |
|||
| Date | No of lots |
L$ raised in auction | Approx US $ |
| Nov18th-25th | 67 | 2,356,285 | 9,000 |
Notes
- Taking the lowest bid price for all auctions closed to date, and applying it to all remaining parcel yields a potential total revenue of L$24,582,224 / approx US $94,500.
- Taking a median bid price of L$36,330 based on closed auctions to date, and applying it to all remaining parcels yields a potential total revenue of L$28,955,010 / approx US $111,365.
| PARCEL RE-SALE PRICING, FRIDAY NOV 25 |
||||||
| Total | Av sqm auction price | Av sqm sale price |
Av sqm mark-up |
Highest initial price | Highest current price | Price spread |
| 26 | 28.05 | 57.38 | 104.56% | L$100,000 (x3) | L$99,000 (x1) | L$33,000 (x4) – L$99,000 (x1) |
Notes
- The figures above are only a snapshot – re-sale prices are fluctuating; prices set for parcels auctioned in lots 5 and 6 are likely to be reduced.
- Initially, 28 parcels were put up for sale. Two were withdrawn on Friday 25th.
- Of the remaining 26 parcels currently for sale:
- Six parcels were initially priced at between 25 and 3 times their auction price; all have had their re-sale price reduced by an average of 50%.
- Four parcels have seen a reduction in price since first being placed for sale of between 2.5% and 21.52% per parcel.
- Eight parcels are currently for sale at a median of 2.5 times their auction price (ave L$70,000 per parcel). current tends suggest these will be reduced.
| PARCEL RENTALS, FRIDAY NOV 25 |
||||
| Total | Rented to Date | Upper rental price |
Lowest Rental Price |
Median Rental |
| 13 | 4 | L$835/w (x1) | L$595/w (x4) | L$775/w (x4) / L$795/w (x4) |
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
This artificial scarcity for virtual land is infuriating. The Horizons marketing pulled me in and I was very ready to upgrade to premium and pay the monthly tier for one of these parcels… but I just can’t afford to buy one at the prices they’re going for. So disappointing.
It’s no wonder the Lab isn’t carrying this awful business model over to Sansar.
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Honestly, unless the pictures of the houses are simplified, they just don’t cut it. They look like somebody’s second or third prim builds, not houses that co$t a lot of Linden$ to own. Hate to say it but Zindra has better “futuristic” housing designs than these offerings. It’s a pity that Zindra designs are limited to Zindra, too, since the road designs and intersections are near perfect for a Sci-Fi sm but Zindra is by definition not for everyone.
What is the most confounding is the fact that just buying a Premium account automatically provides you with a FREE house in one of the Linden Lands complete with 512 square meters of land. How these offerings are going to compete is puzzling since the last time I checked, Free was cheaper than the least expensive of the lots offered here. Am I missing something?
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While the supplied houses are not my cup of tea either, as noted in my main report, people are not restricted to using them. If they prefer, they can use any design they like (preferably in keeping with the theme idea) – although it *will* count towards the parcel LI (those provided don’t count towards the parcel LI as they are rooted on Governor Linden land). But, with 702 LI available, using some of the capacity on a structure shouldn’t be restricting when it comes to furnishing, etc.
Where Linden Homes are concerned, there is no ability to swap-out the house for one of your own, they don’t have the double LI allocation (so 175 LI available for use on a 512 parcel). Horizons homes offer 1024 with 702 LI (x2 bonus), as noted above, and the “free” 512 sqm tier can be put towards them, leaving the additional cost of $3 per month – or roughly the cost of stipend.
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“the “free” 512 sqm tier can be put towards them, leaving the additional cost of $3 per month – or roughly the cost of stipend.”
The first tier is 5 USD a month , not $3– but stipend is $ 4.80 a month , at 271 L/ USD . Getting an alt premium is the best way to go IMO.
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Yes, that was a late night slip of the fingers on my part, ta for pointing it out.
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Since the 1024 can be turned into group land it would be very easy to have a lot be “free” tier wise (somewhere around $2 to $3 a month US if your accounts were paid using the yearly option) but the prices are staggering for sure.
Good revenue for The Lab and will no doubt help with the continuing financing of Sansar (not a bad thing). Rental prices seem pretty reasonable and the layout of the lots and flora are pleasing. Just wondering how it will all look in a few months :D.
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There have been two parcels which now appear to have gone to group held. At the time the report was drafted, one looked like it might be for group use, rather than rental / sale, but it wasn’t clear which way it might go. I’ll be following-up with another look, maybe after the first month of auctions, providing Whirly and I can keep pace with how things go. If that comes up, it’ll hopefully be clearer how many might have taken advantage of group holdings for the parcels.
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You state above:’ “Residential” refers to those parcels purchased by individuals without any obvious land marketing in their profiles &who have not won auctions for other parcels.’ I was curious to find out how you know who has not won auctions previously?
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Because in terms of Horizons, we have not come across their names assigned to any other parcels within the various lots auctioned to date. Generally speaking, those either looking to re-sale / rent the parcels they’ve obtained have indicators in their profile that they operate a land sale / rental business, and their names occur across multiple Horizons parcels won across multiple bidding lots.
As such, it seems logical that Horizons parcels held by individual names are likely to be used residentially, rather then speculatively obtained for the purposes of re-sale / rental. But this is only a “best guess”, taken at the time the available information was being assessed (and in fact one parcel which initially seemed to be for private use now appears to have been rented out subsequent to this article).
If you mean how do we know the individuals haven’t won auctions for Mainland elsewhere, we don’t. The observation is meant purely in the context of Horizons.
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Yes, that is what I meant…sorry for the mis-interpretation. Thank you for taking the time to do this research for us!
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No worries, and you’re welcome! 🙂 . We’re still tracking how things go, so a possible follow-up in time. Maybe after the first month and / or at the end of the auctions.
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