Day: January 9, 2017

On Tuesday, November 15th 2016, the Lab launched the Premium members’ Horizons community, a “retro-futuristic” mainland environment featuring 36 residential regions each with 24 parcels available for auction to Premium members, with auctions commencing on Friday, November 18th 2016, with parcels being auctioned in batches of (generally) 10.

Obviously with 864 parcels to auction, it would take some time to get through things. However, the holiday period marked the half-way point in the auctions with 432 parcels auctioned across 18 regions. As Whirly Fizzle and I started monitoring things (largely out of curiosity), and I gave a snapshot at the end of the first weeks of auctions, the half-way point seemed a good opportunity to provide a further snapshot, based on how those 432 regions looked as of Friday, January 6th, 2017.

GENERAL STATUS OF PARCELS FOR BATCH 1 (10 regions) AND BATCH 2 (8 regions)
	Auctioned	Parcels Available For			(Sold / Rented)		Original Auction		Others
		Sale	Rent	Either	Sold	Rented	Comm.	Resid.	Aband	Pend	Unkn
Batch 1	240	95	55	9	(30)	(13)	4	18	1	13	47
Batch 2	192	45	66	24	(3)	(3)	7	13	1	0	36
Totals	432	139	121	32	(33)	(16)	11	31	2	13	83

Notes

• Parcels Available For = those parcels bid for and placed immediately on sale / for rent / either
• Sold / Rented= number of parcels actually sold / rented whether placed for sale  or for rent or either. These set subsets of the Parcels Available For figures, and further breakdowns are provided below
• Original Auction = those parcels which went directly to private residential use / commercial use during the original auction
  • 4 of the residential parcels may in fact be rented out by bidder
• Others:
  • Aband = parcels already abandoned by original bidder
  • Pend = regions obtained for sale, but either currently not on sale by bidder (6) or removed from sale by bidder (7 – see sales review, below)
  • Unkn = regions which are not currently in use, nor are they apparently for sale or for rent, and where parcel holders have not responded to enquiries.

RENTAL PARCELS SUMMARY
For Rent	Total Rented (16)
	Residential	Commercial
153	13	3

• 153 is the total number of parcels available for rent (121), and those offered for rent or purchase (32)
• Of the 153 parcels currently for rent / rented:
  • 89 are offered through one group of rental operators
  • The remaining 64 are offered through 11 rental groups, with between 1 and 14 parcels on offer per group
• The average weekly rental for those parcels offered for rent is L$885 (low: L$550; high: L$975)
• The average weekly rental for parcels offered for sale or rent is L$608 (low: L$495; high: L$800)

PARCEL SALES REVIEW
Total for Sale	Sold (32)				For Sale Below Bid Price
	Residential	Commercial	Both	Re-sale
139	17	10	1	4	20

• Total for regions on sale does not include those parcels offers for sale or for rent – see rental figures above
• Of the 139 parcels currently available for sale / sold:
  • 98 are offered by three land sales groups
  • The remaining 41 are offered by 12 land groups / individuals, with between 1 and 12 parcels per individual / group
  • 5 parcels are on sale at prices above L$100,000, ranging from L$112,000 (58.98% mark-up on bid prices) to L$249,000 (255.67% mark-up on bid price) by two land holders
• Average sale prices:
  • Among all 139 parcels for sale:  L$45,408.
  • Among the three biggest parcel sellers (98 parcels): L$37,360
• The margins between bid price and sale price vary hugely, between just 2.42% (L$41,000 on a bid price of L$40,033) through to 231.38% (L$199,999 on a bid price of L$62,232)
• Some 45 parcels have been reduced in price since first being offered for sale
  • The average mark-down on their original price being approximately 25.88%
  • 20 are current for sale at below their original bid price
    • Average drop below bid price: 17.44%
    • Largest drop 50.02% – sale price of L$15,000 on original bid of L$30,010
    • Smallest drop is 0.3% – sale price of L$38,000 on original bid of L$38,010
    • The majority of these drops have been to parcels auctioned in the first batch, and bring prices down to more closely match the prices of parcels the same bidders are selling on other Horizons regions
• Of the four regions purchased and flipped for re-sale, 3 are by residents without an associated land group / business; one is by another land company active in Horizons.

Commercial Activities

Commercial activities are largely stores (avatar accessories, building materials etc.). Two adult club environments are within Horizons and one sci-fi themed bar.

Approximate Revenue Breakdown

The following table gives a breakdown of approximate revenue across the 18 regions auctioned to date. The US $  value is based on L$260 to the $.

APPROXIMATE AUCTION REVENUES – BATCH 1 AND BATCH 2
Auction Batches	Approx L$ Raised Through Auction	Approx US $ (at L$260 / US $)
Batch 1 (10 regions / 240 parcels)	8,714,966.00	33,519.10
Batch 2 – (8 regions / 192 parcels)	4,309,833.00	16,576.28
TOTALS:	13,024,799.00	50,095.38

Unsurprisingly, the two regions with direct access to open water (that is, parcel which directly access water, with no intervening protected land) – Apollo and Pandora, both located on the south side of Horizons and facing Zindra across water open for sailing / boating, drew the most competitive bidding.

BATCH 1 BY REGION (All 24 Parcels per Region)
Region	Total L$	Approx US $	Highest	Lowest	Direct Water Access
Apollo	962,882.00	3,703.39	L$80,000	L$29,787 (x2)	6 parcels
Astrid	749,142.00	2,881.32	L$45,009	L$27,087 (x2)	None
Galatea	882,008.00	3,392.34	L$70,010	L$27,010	None
Halley	857,738.00	3,298.99	L$60,010	L$27,111	None
Mercury	903,371.00	3,474.50	L$60,010	L$28,110	None
Nova	857,107.00	3,296.57	L$65,010	L$27,110	None
Pandora	1,029,400.00	3,959.23	L$102,454	L$27,110 (x2)	6 parcels
Polaris	960,663.00	3,694.86	L$60,020	L$27,111	None
Thule	785,673.00	3,021.82	L$45,565	L$27,087	None
Triton	726,982.00	2,792.08	L$40,033	L$26,010	None

The second batch of regions auctioned drew considerably lower value bids, with the third batch of regions more-or-less matching the second thus far.

BATCH 2 BY REGION (All 24 Parcels per Region)
Region	Total L$	Approx US $	Highest	Lowest	Direct Water Access
Atlas	542.964.00	2,088.32	L$40,010	L$15,010	None
Celeste	495,317.00	1,905.07	L$30,010	L$12,022	None
Halo	461,464.00	1,774.86	L$32,010	L$13,038	None
Neptune	583,522.00	2,244.32	L$40,121	L$12,121	None
Orion	589,377.00	2,266.83	L$37,799	L$15,009	None
Pluto	521,321.00	2,005.08	L$40,000	L$13,039	None
Sirius	580,799.00	2,233.84	L$42,010	L$12,455	None
Venus	535,069.00	2,057.96	L$40,033	L$26,010	None

General Observations

Outside of those bidding on the parcel lots, there appears to be little direct interest from Premium members in obtaining a property within Horizons. Some may be put off by the Adult rating, others by the lack of any covenant. While the high price of bids places during the first batch of auctions might be considered a reason, the second batch of auctions averages close to half the per parcel bid price of the initial batch, and still generated little direct take-up. This appears to be the case with the third batch.

Rentals  – which should allow non-Premium members to gain a parcel within Horizons if they wished – are currently gaining little traction, although this could be own to lack of promotion on the part of the rental groups. Obviously, the advantage of Mainland holding is they are not a tremendous drain on resources in the way that partially occupied private regions can be.

There may be a follow-up report at the conclusion of the bidding. Or at least a summary of potential revenues. Putting this report together was too much like hard work!