Tag: Horizons

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, but Whirly Fizzle and I decided to monitor things to see how they progressed, and I gave a brief snapshot at the end of the first week of auctions, and another when the auctions reached a half-way point.  The final lots of parcels was auctioned on the 12th-14th February, and given this, I’d thought I’d round-out the updates with an overall look at things.

All L$  / USD figures are approximate and based on available data. Some approximations have been made using the average parcel price for a region if the actual bid price was missed in collating data (applies to a total of 8 parcels across 864). The US dollar figure is based on a rate of L$260 to the US dollar.

SUMMARY OF AUCTION BATCHES AND TOTALS
Batch	No. Regions	No. Parcels	Total L$	Total USD
Batch 1	10	240	8,744,976.00	33,634.52
Batch 2	8	192	4,304,186.00	16,554.56
Batch 3	8	192	3,334,978.00	12,826.84
Batch 4	10	240	4,489,691.00	17,268.03
TOTALS	36	864	20,873,831.00	80,283.95

Note: a total of 4 regions have been re-auctioned; however, two may have been re-auctioned as a result of original bidder defaulting on payment, as the parcels were apparently re-auctioned without being claimed. If the original payments were made, then a further L$59,131 / approx US $227.42 should be added to the appropriate totals.

Unsurprisingly, this batch of auctions drew the highest bid prices, due in part to the fact that two of the region – Horizons Apollo and Horizons Pandora – have genuine access to sailable open water – the open water to the west, north and east of the Horizons regions currently represent the grid edge, and is not accessible.

Both Batch 1 and Batch 2 were part of my half-way report, and since then, there has been some juggling between those parcels initially put up for sale, those initially offered for rent, and those offered for either rent for purchase.

For those interested in a more granular breakdown of auctions by batch / region, a complete set of tables is available here. The following tables provide a breakdown of parcel usage, based on original bidder’s actions with the parcels they obtained.

GENERAL STATUS OF PARCELS – ALL REGIONS, 864 PARCELS
		Parcels Obtained For
	Auctioned	Sale	Rent	Either	Comm.	Private	Unkn	Re-auct’d
Batch 1	240	100	59	13	4	17	46	1
Batch 2	192	57	55	24	7	13	35	1
Batch 3	192	101	15	37	2	11	26	0
Batch 4	240	69	57	17	5	10	82	0
TOTALS	864	327	186	91	18	51	189	2

Notes

• Comm = obtained for commercial use
• Private = obtained for residential or group use
• Unkn = those most likely obtained for sale / rent but which either have not (as yet) been offered for either / do not appear to have been made available (parcel holders did not respond to enquiries)
• The re-auctioned parcels are limited to those were a second payment for the re-auction amount can be confirmed. As noted above, two other regions re-auctioned may not have been paid for by the original bidder prior to being put back up for auction. These are currently available for rent, and have been classified in the Batch 2 rental figures.

SNAPSHOT OF PARCELS OFFERED FOR SALE BY ORIGINAL BIDDER
Total for Sale	Unsold	Commercial	Private	Offered for re-sale / rent	Withdrawn from sale
327	180	23	31	81	12

Notes:

• “Offered for re-sale / rent” indicates parcels purchased from original bidder and offered for sale / rent by purchaser
• “Withdrawn from sale” indicates parcels initially offered for sale by bidder, but then set to  “not for sale” & with no indication they are available for rent.

SNAPSHOT OF PARCELS OFFERED FOR RENT BY ORIGINAL BIDDER
Total Offered for Rent	Available for Rent	Rented Commercial	Rented Private
186	157	12	17

 

SNAPSHOT OF PARCELS OFFERED FOR SALE OR RENT BY ORIGINAL BIDDER
Total Offer for Sale / Rent	Available	Sold	Rented
91	64	10 (5 on resale)	17

Notes:

• Of the 10 sold, the 5 not up for re-sale have been sold for commercial / private use
• The 17 rented parcels represent a mix of commercial and private use

General Observations

General interest in Horizons appears low – however, this many change now the auctions have finished. Currently, most of the land sales which have occurred post-auction have been between those land resellers / renters originally bidding on the parcels, rather than onward selling to those interested in using Horizons as either a home or a business location.

Sale prices across the  regions appear to be settling into the mid-20K through mid-40K range, although some – notably those with direct open-water access  (as opposed to river / canal access) or perceived water access can carry a premium. Rentals appear to remain at low ebb. As noted previously, this could be down to a lack of direct promotion by those offering them for rent.

Of the 189 listed as “unkn”, almost all are held by those selling and / or renting parcels, so it is not unreasonable to anticipate these being made available for sale / rent if / when current offerings are sold / rented.  One of those holding such parcels did confirm they would be offered for rent, but declined to indicate when.

Those interested in Horizons parcels – whether to purchase (Premium) or rent (anyone), should tour the regions with care. A number of parcels are offered for rent / sale offering boat docking where this is not strictly accurate (e.g. the parcel doesn’t directly join water, or the water it faces is actually off-sim). The regions are also unzoned, so judging how well they may keep to the desired theme is hard to quantify. There are a number of decidedly “non-sci fi retro” buildings across the regions, but many of these are place holders, and should be seen as indicative of the overall region styling.

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!

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)