Zug – Everyone is talking about the metaverse. Daniel Rutishauser from Inacta is convinced that the merging of the physical and digital world also offers completely new opportunities for the construction and real estate sector. Will the broker soon go virtual?
A company without its own website? Unthinkable. What the website was yesterday and the smartphone today, the Metaverse will be tomorrow, assures Daniel Rutishauser. “We are now entering the next evolutionary stage. The physical world merges with the digital. And this offers the construction and real estate sector completely new opportunities.
Get out of the game and go into business
Rutishauser is a partner of Zug-based crypto and blockchain consulting firm Inacta. Every day he deals with the question of what are the next steps we will take in the digital revolution. One thing is clear to him: instead of clicking through the Internet and enduring boring video conferences, we will soon immerse ourselves as avatars in walk-in, three-dimensional, hectic worlds. Not only in the private context, but also in the corporate environment. “Anyone with children or grandchildren will certainly be familiar with gaming platforms such as Minecraft or Roblox. They give us a taste of what will also find its way into the corporate world.”
Our own self receives a double (avatar) which interacts in virtual space with the avatars of other people who are really (or in the flesh) elsewhere in the (real) world. The metaverse as such, by its own definition, wants to provide a real-time, continuous and accessible experience for everyone, which of course also includes a functioning economic system in which money can be spent and earned. “Blockchain as we know it today allows people to directly own or transfer property rights in a cryptographically secure way without a central authority, bank or platform being able to tamper with the certificates,” says Rutishauser.
And the money, it’s pouring into the Metaverse right now. Tech giants like Microsoft or Sony are constantly buying up companies in the games industry, because they are still the culmination of creation in the great and vast metaverse, from which new business models for other areas can be derived. Companies like Crypto Oasis Sentio and Crypto Oasis Collection offer the opportunity to invest early in the metaverse and also use these assets for professional applications.
progress within the limits of what makes sense
But where exactly are the interfaces between the virtual, visionary and extremely dynamic metaverse and the real estate industry of the year 2022? Daniel Rutishauser smiles. He knows the image of the slow liner that has to change course. And specifies: “It is not a question of advancing progress just for the pleasure of progress, but of using innovation where it makes sense and is profitable.” Moreover, and he attaches particular importance to this assertion, the construction and real estate sector would not start from scratch. At this point, it is worth mentioning Building Information Modeling (BIM), i.e. network planning, since it is already used in design, construction and management. Or the ability to inspect apartments that don’t yet exist using VR glasses.
Recently, Rutishauser continues, a digital clone of the drawing board city of Neom on the Red Sea was presented to the experts – “in detail” in 3D – even before the first entries were made. “In the metaverse, you can identify all those challenges and issues early on that can actually cost you a lot of money or even cause your project to fail. In this context, it suffices to think of the shadow cast.”
What sets the metaverse apart is its decentralization. The individual platforms merge into a huge uni or omniverse accessible to everyone in the world – or so the theory goes. The individual becomes part of this parallel world in the form of a representative. Rutishauser is convinced that the properties of the metaverse are just as important as in reality. Also and above all in view of their value. “Real estate is a safe haven for investors, whether physical or digital.” Demand drives supply, supply drives demand: this development can also be observed currently in the metaverse.
Artificial space for real values
The leading Swiss real estate companies are already stepping up their involvement in the digital world. Just like that, maybe in the blue? Daniel Rutishauser shakes his head and mentally creates a bridge to illustrate the precise reasons: “If you see the rush that has taken place on digital art in recent months, for example, then it is obvious that the owners of their works of art and collectibles also want to present themselves in the digital world.» It therefore needs representative galleries or halls and buildings, which ultimately must all be planned, created, sold and managed. “At Inacta, we have created a virtual island with pavilions that companies can use for their purposes. »
Presence and presentation spaces, or even the maintenance of buildings, would offer the real estate industry a practical gateway to enter the metaverse. “And here,” says Rutishauser, “we are no longer talking about local or regional real estate management, but about global, or better yet, endless business transactions.” In this regard, it is probably only a matter of time before the first brokers become virtually active.
Thus, the Metaverse has long since passed the big bang. Now it is growing, expanding more and more, continues Rutishauser. “Of course, I still like to eat my own pizza and I don’t leave it to my avatar,” he laughs. “But I can still place the order in the metaverse. Ultimately, the virtual universe will behave like the Internet and the website: “In a few years you won’t waste time thinking whether you want to be in it or not, you’re simple – also in the business of real estate. » (Inacta/mc/ps)