South China Morning Post, oldest English-language media outlet of Hong Kong, recounts unusual trend gaining steam among local real estate moguls
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While the metaverse is the hottest segment of the global Web3 ecosystem in late 2021, in Hong Kong, euphoria around in-game land plots is reaching “fever pitch,” local analysts say.
Virtual property instead of real property?
According to a South China Morning Post article by Josh Ye, virtual land is in the spotlight of large-scale Hong Kong property traders and brokers.
#HongKong property tycoons, brokers snap up virtual land in #metaverse as valuations soarhttps://t.co/q0PEN9zAOd
— Andy Yee (@ahkyee) December 18, 2021
Mr. Ye reports that both property heavyweights and real estate traders in Hong Kong are interested in purchasing plots of virtual in-game land in various metaverses.
The author attributes this interest in virtual plots to the scarcity of real-world property in Hong Kong. The island is well known for its incredibly high home prices.
In Q2, 2021, the average home price in Hong Kong rocketed to $1,990 per square foot. For smaller households, this indicator may rise above $3,270 per square foot.
Metaverse tokens are in the green despite pullback
Throughout 2021, land plots in NFT-centric games became the most expensive type of digital asset. Axie Infinity, Decentraland, The Sandbox, etc. created virtual metaverses in which one land plot can cost thousands of dollars.
Also, this year witnessed a number of splendid rallies of core native cryptocurrencies of metaverse protocols.
Even amid the ongoing pullback of cryptocurrency prices, metaverse tokens perform well: MANA token is almost the only token out of the top 100 that demonstrates double-digit gains today.
MANA is up 12% today, while AXS added 3.8% in the last 24 hours. The Sandbox’s SAND jumped 7% overnight.