Spain-based real estate developer Metrovacesa has set its sights on becoming the first Spanish developer to sell its real properties in the Metaverse thanks to a recent partnership with Datacasas Proptech, a Spanish startup specializing in online property sales.
The news arrives just one week after metaverse data provider, MetaMetric Solutions, found real estate sales on the four major metaverse platforms reached $501 million in 2021 and estimates at this pace, sales could reach nearly $1 billion in 2022.
Metrovacesa and Datacasas properties are set to be available on Decentraland – one of Metaverse’s “Big Four” for real estate sales alongside Sandbox, Cryptovoxels and Somnium.
Users of the virtual space can register on the platforms, create an avatar, and interact with the companies that have bought or rented land there, Metrovacesa explained in a Monday blog post.
Still in its early stages, the real estate developer revealed the pair have designed and created a virtual building based on its current Málaga Towers project, located in Málaga, Spain. Potential buyers can request information, view videos detailing the project, and review plans all while walking though the 3D model in the metaverse.
Users can also interact with a virtual salesperson and learn the next steps to book one of the homes the pair will offer. If the customer requires it, the transaction can be completed in a 100% digital process.
Despite being founded in 1989, Metrovacesa set out four years to stay in line with changing landscape of real estate development and began to double down on projects in Blockchain. According to the Spanish developer their focus turned to tokenization of assets, traceability of the milestones of the promotion process, integration of technology with BIM, certification of its DOMUM sustainable commitment and tokenization of a participative loan.
For Metrovacesa, these experiences place the developer in a better position to understand the technology on which the metaverse is based and capitalize on it, since any transaction in metaverse is developed with virtual currencies, through ‘smart contracts,’ as well as with NFTs (non-fungible tokens), i.e. unique digital assets.
“From the field of innovation, our goal with this proof of concept is to create in the metaverse a laboratory in which to test: a new relationship channel with a 100% digital customer profile and its desirability towards the acquisition of a physical or virtual home, forms of payment and investment through NFTs,” said Carmen Chicharro, Commercial, Marketing and Innovation Director of Metrovacesa.
A number of companies have already begun the experimentation process within the virtual landscape and investors are proving their willing to spend the (virtual) dough. In January, Janine Yorio’s virtual real estate development company, Republic Realm, spent a record $4.3 million on a parcel of virtual land.
The Plein Group, a Switzerland-based fashion company, also bought a virtual estate for the price of 510,000 Manas – Decentraland’s own cryptocurrency – on Monday, corresponding to approximately $1.4 million.
One user even went as far as spending $450,000 to be Snoop Dogg’s neighbor via the Sandbox platform where the rapper intends to build a virtual version of his home and host events.
For Datacasas Proptech, the move to a VR setting for real estate seems like a natural pace. The company noted that, of the 12 million euros worth of new build properties it sold in 2021, a good amount of transactions were completed through the client’s cell phone.
“The blockchain will change everything in the real estate world, and Datacasas Proptech, together with Metrovacesa, will be leading this transformation,” said Santiago Cabezas-Castellanos, CEO of Datacasas Proptech.