On Tuesday, November 1st, 2022, Linden Lab announced that Homestead regions are now available to Premium Plus members directly from Linden Lab and without the need to hold a Full region.
The offering was first indicated as a “coming” Premium Plus benefit during the Lab Gab session with Grumpity and Patch Linden held on October 21st – see here for a summary of that event – and the November 1st announcement builds on this.
In short the details are:
- Premium Plus members are now able to hold one private Homestead region from Linden Lab against their account:
- Holding the Homestead is subject to the associated fees payable.
- Those intending to avail themselves of the option should also review the Private Regions knowledge base article.
- Regions can be requested using a Support Ticket via support.secondlife.com. Tickets should:
- Place an order via Land & Region → Order Private Region.
- Provide a unique name for the region (in accordance with the region naming rguidelines) and a preferred location on the grid for placement.
- The region can be held only as long as the member maintains their Premium Plus account. Should they downgrade to Premium (or any forthcoming Premium subscription level that does not include the Homestead “benefit”) or to Basic will lose the region.
There are no other changes to Homestead ownership, including the fact that anyone is able to own Homestead regions as long as there is at least one Full private region owned on that account as well, and pay the required fees.
Does This Make Premium Plus More Attractive?
Whether the ability to hold a Homestead region when taken on its own will make Premium Plus a worthwhile upgrade is questionable.
- If you are not already a Premium or Premium Plus member, then looking at Premium Plus purely in terms of a means to obtain a Homestead region probably isn’t a worthwhile proposition.
- When you add the minimum monthly fee for Premium Plus (US $20.75) to the Homestead region tier of US $109, it likely comes out to more than the monthly cost of renting a Homestead region from an established private rental estate.
- Both renting privately and holding a Homestead via Premium Plus have the same core risk: paying the monthly tier.
- If you are currently a Premium Member, then looking at Premium Plus purely as a means to obtain a Homestead region is a little less clear-cut.
- On the one hand, upgrading to Premium Plus from Premium costs at least an extra US $12.5 a month.
- On the other, this fee, plus the month Homestead tier will still be a competitive outlay when compared to renting a homestead through a private estate.
- If you are a Basic or Premium member who already sees value in other Premium Plus benefits (such as the reduced fee for Name Changes, the other reduced fees, etc.), and are attracted to the idea of holding your own region, then upgrading to Premium Plus is liable to be worthwhile and cost-effective.
This last point is really the key to this offer: obtaining a Homestead is not the sole benefit available to those upgrading to Premium Plus, so it needs to be considered as a part of the overall package of benefits, and any decision made on upgrading should be made on that basis. For example, the option of holding a Homestead region is of little interest to me – but the forthcoming Premium Plus Linden Homes do. I’m therefore waiting to see what happens on that front before I make any decision on a potential move from Premium to Premium Plus.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
I have been a very happy Premium member for many years. Having more land (albeit a homestead) is of no interest to me. I have considered all the perks of + and so far, I really can’t justify the increase in expense.
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I don’t understand what this new Premium Plus benefit gives you? Is it the same tier that you would have paid anyway, $109, but they’re waiving the $149 setup fee?
TY for all the fantastic coverage, Inara!!
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Homestead regions normally require you hold a Full Private region as well – this option allows Premium Plus members to hold a Homestead region without having to purchase a Full region first, as per the opening paragraph (I’ve now emphasised the “without” comment for clarity).
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I happy with my Private Region (since 2009) I just could never justify the expense of acquiring a homestead regardless of the Plus Perk. 🙂
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Oh, oh, I see, so that’s potentially a huge savings! Not having to also pay $229/month for a full region first is huge.
Except as you described, you could have rented a homestead from a 3rd party for about the same rate.
It’s a cool option, even if it isn’t for You, Rocky, or me! A whole homestead region!? Yikes, that’s a lot!!
I think Premium Plus, New Homestead Options, New Last Names, etc, etc… are all interesting options to offer people. It seems like LL has decided not to worry about growing the user base beyond what it is today, or making SL perform better/faster, and instead to focus on more ways to slice/more services to sell to, the existing true believers.
(I know there are supposed to be recent “amazing” performance improvements, but my expensive computer and I still live in lag. It took me about 20 minutes and a relog to successfully change tops earlier today)
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The real benefit of premium plus for me would be the increased stipend and the savings in uploads of textures and sounds. I’ve spent many, many L$ on uploads over the years, much more than my usual stipend each month. Additionally, I am currently renting a homestead from a third party and would appreciate being able to pay tier directly to LL in a more automated form, as well as getting concierge-level support. I had planned to upgrade sometime in the future. The homestead offering is just icing on that cake.
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