There’s a real estate boom going on in the metaverse! They hit $500 million dollars last year, and are expected to double this year, to one billion. The uptrend took off recently when Facebook announced plans to expand into the metaverse and changed its corporate name to Meta Platforms. CNBC reports that virtual real estate sales have gone up ninefold since Facebook’s announcement in October. (1) Hi, I'm Kathy Fettke and this is Real Estate News for Investors. If you like our podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review.According to metaverse data provider, MetaMetric Solutions, investors spent a total of $83 million in January sales alone. Analysts based their 2022 projections on that amount of spending throughout the year. But some analysts are anticipating more growth. Analytics firm BrandEssence Market Research expects the virtual real estate market to grow at a compound annual rate of 31% a year through 2028.What is the Metaverse?But what exactly is the metaverse? And why are investors buying real estate that has no corresponding plot of land on this earth? Facebook explains it like this:“The “metaverse” is a set of virtual spaces where you can create and explore with other people who aren’t in the same physical space as you. You’ll be able to hang out with friends, work, play, learn, shop, create and more. It’s not necessarily about spending more time online – it’s about making the time you do spend online more meaningful.” (2)Andrew Kiguel of the Toronto-based Tokens.com told CNBC: “You can go to the carnival, you can go to a music concert, you can go to a museum.” This activity is carried out with a cartoon-like character called an avatar that represents you in your virtual world. (3)Many celebrities have already ventured into the metaverse with their avatars, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, DJ Marshmello, and Paris Hilton. She threw a New Year’s Eve party on her own virtual island.Real Dollars for Unreal PropertiesTo capitalize on this idea of social interaction in the metaverse, investors are paying real dollars for unreall properties in prime locations that could, some day, be worth tons of money. Maybe. Prices are going up fast right now. Kiegel says that many properties are up 4 to 500% in just the last few months.Popular Metaverse PlatformsThere are many metaverse platforms, and new ones are launching every day, but there are just four that are attracting most of the land sales right now. The “Big Four” are Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium.The Sandbox is the biggest metaverse real estate platform. It has more than 166,000 parcels of land that measure 106 yards by 106 yards each. In December, they each sold for an ether equivalent of $12,700. An ether is the token used for Ethereum transactions, much like a bitcoin.Investors can use cryptocurrency to buy, develop, and sell parcels of land. Like the real world of real estate, their value can rise as they are upgraded and turned into more desirable properties. Metaverse real estate investor and advisory firm, Republic Realm, is creating 100 so-called “Fantasy Islands” with dream-like villas and amenities that include boats and jet skis. The company sold 90 of the properties for $15,000 apiece on the first day of sales, and some of the buyers are relisting them for more than $100,000.Republic Realm recently paid a record $4.3 million for land in the Sandbox. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company now owns more than 2,500 plots of virtual land in 19 different meta-worlds. It bought the $4.3 million dollar property from Atari SA.Two Ways to Buy Virtual LandThere are two ways to buy virtual land – directly from the platform or from a developer. Investors can also make changes, although it’s not as easy as picking up a paint brush, because you have to change the code.Tokens.com set the previous record when it bought digital land for $2.43 million in the “fashion district” part of Decentraland. The metaverse real estate market is beco