Genesis City is evolving before our very eyes. Since the launch of the eagerly anticipated Decentraland Estates feature, enabling LAND owners to join their adjacent plots of LAND into one larger plot of LAND, it seems the Decentraland community have gone bonkers. Every man and his dog is creating a mini kingdom they can call home, but is this a good thing?

This article breaks it down to the good, the bad and the opportunity of Decentraland Estates.

Decentraland Estates – THE GOOD 1: The Map Evolution As the community continue to form their Estates, the Decentraland map is changing and evolving, at the same time unearthing many new private projects and innovations that have been bubbling on in the background and yet to be seen by the community. Which leads nicely on to…. 2 …The Creation of New Districts Now that LAND owners can join their plots of LAND, new districts have started to appear, which in themselves will presumably house their own communities and in turn attract more users to Decentraland. Hidden Hill, Power To The People and The Muslim Quarter are just 3 examples of many popping up each day.

3: The Community is Alive & Well The launch of the estates feature has quickly demonstrated that the Decentraland community is alive and well. This was clearly demonstrated by the fact that Decentraland Estates NFT shot to No#9 of the most popular NFT’s list within 24 hours according to Etherscan:

Already the #9 most popular NFThttps://t.co/WVYVj7CA4k https://t.co/2e4zGYqpz5 — Esteban Ordano ⚡️ (@eordano) 30 August 2018

This really does show a deep interest and dedication from those already invested and owning adjacent LAND in Decentraland. Decentraland Estates – THE BAD Whilst there are many benefits to the existing community for having Estates, on the flip-side this could cause more barriers to entry when onboarding new investors to Decentraland. 1: Less Cheap Parcels For Sale As if often discussed, LAND prices are currently high and can be barrier for new investors. Since the release of the Estates feature around 1500 parcels have now been taken off sale on the marketplace. Presumably, these are the parcels which have been used to create the Estates. If there is a decrease in the supply of plots of LAND for sale, then simple economics suggests that this will push up prices. 2: Marketplace Activity As Estates cannot currently be bought or sold on the marketplace (this feature is coming soon) then that leaves less parcel choice for new investors to get onboard.

More importantly, Estates are LONG term investments. If too many Estate owners take a “buy, HODL and list for 10,000,000 MANA” approach and decide not to build, then this will be detrimental to the marketplace.

A flourishing and highly active marketplace is vital to Decentraland’s progress. LAND needs to be attainable.

The buyers’ market for Estates will lie with large businesses with big budgets, most of which will have little interest in investing large amount amounts of capital for an Estate in Decentraland unless the footfall from users is there. All the while, highly priced Estates (with nothing built on them) will do nothing to attract new users by just sitting there unbought. By not building and just ‘buying to flip’, Estate holders are literally harming their long-term chances at being able to sell. 3: Big Players It has been made clear that there are some ‘LAND Whales’ with large LAND holdings. The Estates feature now further highlights this on the map with many Estates being owned by single accounts.