Will the Lindens Relent?

The internal housing market seems a little … odd at the moment.   And the reason is not hard to fathom.  Perople are holding their breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

That shoe is, of course, the second tranche of the price rise on the Open Space sims, now known as Homesteads.  Last October we were told that the prices would be increasing by an eye-watering 67% – something that occasioned general outage and protests.

It lead to a partial relenting by the Lindens; the price increase would come in two phases – firstly in Hanuary to US$95 (+ VAT for Europeans, of course) and then, in July, to the full US$125 (plus VAT for Europeans).

Predictably, the land mass shrank as a result – by how much is still a little unclear as stats went a little haywire at that time too.  It is clear that some people abandoned, some people sold (sometimes at a significant loss – several land barons picked up property at HUGE discounts at that time) and some people took advantage of a grace period to amalgamate four homesteads into a full sim at no extra cost.

Some beautiful and unique sims were lost – such as the Princeton art sims (ironically at a time when some of them were appearing on Second Life’s opening splash screen.

More significant was probably the loss of trust which is only being regained very slowly and which has – in some quarters – poisoned the whole PG/adult debate – although I suspect that was always due to get ugly.

You can read all my posts on the issue here.

But, against this background, some people hung on to their Homesteads, gambling that at best the second price rise would never happen, at worst they’d have six more months in their much-loved homes.  It doesn’t make economic sense – with a Homestead you are paying US$20 more a month than you would for the same primmage on a full sim, and you have severe limits on avatar numbers (together with the knowledge that at some point in the future, as yet undefined script limits will be imposed too).  Still, people have traded that extra cash for … privacy?  The pride of saying something is entirely theirs?  The chance to build their (limited) dream?

But you have to be a considerable dreamer to accept avatar limits, as yet undefined script limits and a price of 67% more than you would pay for a piece of regular land.

I’ll cheerfully admit I have a horse in this race.  The Prim Perfect headquarters are located on a homestead – as is my main home.  It’s not high script; I moved my magazine servers out back in January.

Already it’s a pain not being able to host exhibitions there or parties.  I love Oliveto to bits … there are simple pleasures, such as standing on the little wooden bridge across the stream close to the house and watching the first rays of dawn glowing red on the water for just a couple of minutes as day breaks and the fireflies fade.

But it is simply not worth my keeping it once the second price rise kicks in.   So, like many other homesteaders, I’ve been crossing my fingers and hoping but … the time is coming for those who hung on grimly in the hope that we could keep our homes at an only slightly excessive price to start packing our belongings into a battered Ford and start heading out.