Since our previous post and our suspending of whole region auctions, we have been watching the market closely. For the last 3 weeks the previous decline in average Mainland price per meter has halted and the price is now holding steady at an average of L$7.25 (averaged over the last seven days).

After review, we have decided to remain as we have been, so we are not going to add any more Mainland whole regions for the next two weeks. We will review again on the 1st August and blog then to let you know if there is a change.

Finally, my thanks to those of you that have provided feedback to me via email, notecards and during my office hours. Though I may not reply to every single one, it does all get read and it’s great to get such good input. So thanks for that.

The average price per meter is the key metric we observe to decide levels of mainland supply. It takes account of all resident-to-resident sales per day, but excludes a number of data items such as zero value sales (when friends swap land around), Governor Linden sales (including Auctions themselves) and all private estate sales.

We also measure sales by groups and those by individuals separately although at the moment the average price for both is similar (group sales being as much as L$1 per meter lower on average).

It will be no secret to those that have bought or sold land recently, that the average price of mainland has been falling. In 2007 we managed the price down slowly from a high figure of L$12 per meter to a more reasonable L$6 to L$8. It then rose a little as we reached March of this year before falling consistently since then. In recent days we have seen it dip below L$6 per meter which we feel is a little low.

There are a number of factors behind this recent drop, not least the large number of Openspace regions sold through the new Land Store and the changes in island pricing. Of course the supply of new Mainland at auction is another factor.

At Linden Lab, we respect the investments you make in Second Life land and are sensitive to price fluctuations related to our auctions of new land. To allow the market to absorb the land recently added to the grid, we will be suspending whole region auctions for the next four weeks after which we will review the situation again (on or around the 11th July).

We will, however, be continuing to recycle the smaller abandoned parcels via the auctions, and you may see more of those plots becoming available than usual. As the next few weeks go by we will continue to keep you informed via the blog.

The new Land Store is now officially out of Beta, and therefore open for business to all eligible residents. The previous restrictions on who could order through the new Store have been removed.

Known bugs have been squished and the user interface polished; it has been operating smoothly for long enough that we believe it to be ready for prime time.

Obviously if we do encounter any new issues we will move quickly to deal with those. Work will now begin on the next iteration of the Land Store, mainly focussed on allowing island services to be handled through the Store itself.

A big thanks to those of you who used it during beta and provided feedback on what worked and what didn’t, it was greatly appreciated!

We are delighted to announce that the old Land Store has now been switched off, and the new Land Store made available for the puchase of normal islands and Openspaces. However, as part of our gradual rollout of this new tool, we will not be enabling it for all residents immediately. Instead, we will be enabling it for two specific groups like so:

• Those that recently ordered or have expressed an interest in ordering or who we know have been waiting for the new Land Store to go live. Those on this list will be enabled automatically and should receive an email from us once the new Land Store is enabled for them.
• Anyone who applies for access, and wishes to buy a new island or Openspace, and is comfortable using beta software.

In this way, we will be able to control the traffic hitting the new store and watch for any early problems. We will be closely watching how the early orders go and will correct any issues we find. If all goes well for a week or so, we will then open it up to all residents.

How to Gain Access to the Land Store (beta)

To add your avatar name to the LandStore Beta access list, visit www.secondLife.com/support and make sure you are logged in with the correct account. Then, click the “Submit a Ticket” button on the right hand side of the page. On the ticket page* select “Land and Region issues” and then “LandStore Beta Access”. Fill in all the fields and we’ll add you to the access list. It will take ~24 hours for your request to be processed.

• Residents with Basic accounts will be taken to a knowledgebase article and will then need to click on the “Click here to submit a ticket.” link to be taken to the ticket page. On the ticket page, they should select “Special Questions - Basic account or Guest Login” and then “LandStore Beta Access”.

Just to be clear, as the old Land Store is being disabled, if you need to buy an island or Openspace you will need to apply for and use the new Land Store. Applicants will be added/enabled within 24 hours.

Screen shots (click image for larger version) :

Land Portal Page

Land Store Map Page

Estate Listing Page

Estate Management Page

We had hoped to launch the new Land Store today but unfortunately we’re not finished polishing and testing and hitting it with hammers just yet; we want it to be as bug free as possible before going live. So no new Land Store today I’m afraid. I can’t offer a final date for launch, but hopefully it’s not much more than a couple of weeks away. As soon as we have more information about how it will launch, I will post it here.

This means that the Island price change will also be on hold, until the new Land Store is ready. In the meantime we will switch off the old Land Store to avoid any confusion. That will happen today. If you want to order at the old price, ahead of the new Land Store launch, please contact the Concierge support team via the support portal.

As stated previously, any whole mainland regions we put to auction from today onwards should have the new starting price of USD$750. We’re busily preparing the new continent, carving out Linden land and ensuring the waterways are protected. I’ll blog again when we are ready to begin offering that land at auction.

As promised in yesterdays post, here are the fine details for the price reduction and how this affects those that have purchased recently. Before getting into that, I’m going to repeat my final comment on that previous post.

Several have asked if this is in some sort of panic move in response to poor sales. This is absolutely not the case, in fact sales of islands have been very consistent through Q1; we sell between 100-110 islands per week plus a fair number of Openspace regions.

Technology and service costs vary over time and we as a business have to respond to that in sensible ways. In addition, we have to continually assess our business model and make changes where we need to. By and large we have worked hard to keep prices static for long periods, and when we have had cause to increase prices in the past, we allowed grandfathered monthly fees to continue because we value the time and energy those people had put in. Nearly 18 months on and that grandfathered pricing is still in place for many island owners.

This was the right time to reduce the setup price of an island. As any business would, we will review the effects of these changes over the next period and make adjustments or leave them unchanged according to how it goes. If we are able to make savings, then we feel that passing those on to our customers is a good thing.

We believe we are on course for an April 16th/17th launch of the new Land Store, so that will be the day that the price change goes live. If for some reason we have to push that back a week, then the new island prices will move back too. Regardless of what happens with the Island price change, the Mainland auction start price will drop on April 16th.

When the new Land Store launches, setup fees will be:

• Normal Islands: USD$1000 setup
• Normal Openspaces: USD$250 setup
• Educational Islands: USD$700 setup
• Educational Openspaces: USD$175 setup

These prices exclude VAT.

The monthly maintenance fees for Q2 will not change from their current levels.

For anyone that has bought a normal island in the seven days prior to Mondays announcement, including any awaiting delivery now (so any orders placed in April PST), you will be offered a choice between:

• Your order cancelled with a complete refund of the amount paid, allowing you to re-order when the price drops if you wish to, or:
• Keep your order and get a free Openspace region with it. The Openspace would have no setup fee and no monthly fees for a period of 6 months after which normal monthly fees will apply.

For those that purchased a normal island between 11th and 31st March 2008 you will be offered a free Openspace, with no setup fee and no monthly fee for a period of 3 months after which normal monthly fees will apply.

If you have had an Openspace region delivered on the 1st April 2008 or later, you may cancel that order for a full refund.

If any of the above offers affect you, please let us know your preferred option before 16th April by contacting the Concierge team.

An further FAQ article will be added to the Knowledge Base shortly.

If you’re a prospective or existing island owner and have any questions or concerns, please direct them to the Concierge team via the support portal.

As with my previous quarterly posts, here is an update on land, including supply, average prices, abandoned/defunct land and pricing information relevant to Q2 of 2008.

This is a little later than I’d have liked, mainly due to one of the items, Island Pricing, needing a bit more time to finalize. I’ll come to that part shortly. It’s a long post, so join me after the cut..

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For some time now we have been selling a low prim island type to existing island owners called Openspaces (often called void sims by Residents).

This blog post is to announce some important changes to Openspaces..

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Linden Lab hasn’t traditionally been involved in resident to resident transfers other than to action the transfer itself upon receiving permission from the buyer and seller. This has meant that residents have had to arrange any payments privately between themselves and this has proven to be problematic at times.

For new transfer requests submitted on or after Monday 10th March we will be enabling the Buyer in an island transfer to pay the Seller through their Second Life account. This will be our default transfer process.

So how will this work?

Both buyer and seller will create support tickets, via the support portal, that detail the region to be transferred and the value they have agreed on. This value can be in either U.S. Dollars (USD) or Linden Dollars (L$). Both sides will also have to confirm other details about the region being transferred.

If both tickets match (ie. they state the same details and value), we will charge the Buyer through their Second Life account, either USD or L$ as specified in the tickets. Once the charge has been successful, we will credit the Seller the same amount minus the transfer fee that we normally charge. The transfer of the region will then go ahead as usual.

The island transfer fee, always payable by the Seller, is USD 100 (or L$28000 for L$ transfers).

This does mean that buyers will have to have valid payment information on file with us (or have the necessary account credit in USD or L$). The ‘Increase Your Credit’ link on the account pages can be used to add USD credit to an account.

If they use PayPal as their payment method - they will need to have their PayPal agreement set to a high enough limit (by default PayPal limits are relatively low).

If the buyer’s payment fails for any reason, then the transfer will be cancelled and no action taken. Both accounts must also be in good standing (not delinquent) for the transfer to take place.

We hope that this will make the process of transferring islands quicker, safer and more reliable for both buyers and sellers. If you have any questions, please contact the concierge team.

We’ve had lots of great feedback on the Department of Public Works project, and as we still need a few more builders for the first team, it’s time to explain how you apply..

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