Nigel Paravane

I just got a question via email about how much land to buy when first doing so in Second Life. Here is the response I gave.

That’s a good question. Do you plan to build on the land yourself or buy a prefab? The smallest lot that people usually build on is 512 square meters, and the typical dimensions for that are 16 x 32. Also, you can have 117 prims to build with on that size land (a region is 65536 sm and it usually has 15000 prims, hence approximately 117 prims per 512 sm).

117 is really small to do anything much of value. The houses on them are small and you are crowded by your neighbors. If you build yourself you have more control on the number of prims used since prefabs might have some features you don’t want or not be completely efficient in how many prims are used.

However, if you only buy a 512 sm lot, then your monthly extra charges will still be $0. More than that and you start paying fees. For example, if you went all the way up to 8192 sm (or 16 times that basic lot size), you will pay $40 extra a month. Look on the website for the land usage fees to know how much you are comfortable with paying.

I suggest the minimum that people buy is 1024 sm and try to get that as a 32 x 32 lot. Double that is even better. If you don’t want to buy much right away, buy some land with some lots right next to it that are for sale. That will give you a little more time to increase your holdings and get a joined lot.

Finally, try to pay less than L$10 a sm. You might splurge for prime land or even be able to pay less for more undesirable locations. It all depends what you want to do. This is for the mainland. On an estate you’ll have to deal with covenants and other matters. Don’t assume that you are going to make a killing on real estate, especially with older sims. Be happy if you someday sell the land and break even. As more land is added to the world, I think it’s likely that you will lose some money. That’s ok, but go into it with your eyes open. Try to avoid any land that has floating advertising near it since that really cuts down on the resale value and will likely annoy you over time.