Second Life Land

Second Life land is easy to own and even easier to maintain. The virtual Second Life world allows users to buy land, re-sell land, or rent land. Once a user owns land he can then begin to build it up by opening shops, building homes, recreational areas, business spaces or one of the many other options available to Second Life land owners.

Membership and Ownership

In order to purchase land from Linden Lab, the creator of Second Life, you must have a premium membership. This membership comes with a weekly stipend of 300 L$ (linden dollars) and the option to buy 512 square meters of land to get you started. If you own more than 512 square meters of land you will have to pay a land rental fee (tier fee).

Land is also available through private sellers known as resident landlords. Users can buy or rent land from a resident landlord without having a premium membership. In this case they will have to follow the rules set by the landlord regarding what can be done or not in their land, the payment form and other details.

The Cost of Land

Buying land in Second Life is comparable to buying real world land. Land purchased from Linden Lab is auctioned off in complete parcels usually measuring 65,536 square meters. These parcels are an entire region.

Second Lifers can purchase smaller parcels of land from resident landlords. Once a resident Landlord has bought a complete parcel he can split it up in any way he desires and sell it or charge users rent. For example, a non-paying member will pay US $8 a month for 1,024 square meters of land.

Just as in the real world, there are disputes over land. Unfortunately, if you have bought land from a resident landlord Second Life will not mediate the dispute – in their eyes the resident landowner is still the owner of the land.

Regions

Land comes in 2 different types of regions. Users can purchase mainland or a private region. Mainland land is one unbroken land mass. It is open to visitors and usually sold in larger parcels.

Private land is just that – private. Second Life land that is private is called an “island”. Once you own an island you can develop it in any way you please. Private Second Life land owners also have the freedom to manipulate their land topography (terraform), a benefit not available to mainland land owners.

There are 3 different types of private land: Full Region, Homestead Region and Openspace Region.

A full region offers the highest performance. It has 15.000 primitives “prims” available for building and scripting. A mainland entire region has also the same number of prims.

A homestead region is intended for low-density rental, quiet residential or light-commercial use.

An openspace region is intended for scenery (forest, countryside or ocean).

To own a homestead or openspace a user must first own, at least, one full region.

Owning Second Life land can be fun and profitable. Many Second Lifers have built flourishing businesses on their Second Life land.