Powered by the Ethereum blockchain, Decentraland is one of the most popular and renowned virtual reality platforms in the market today. The project has made over 193.33 thousand sales of NFTs and is on its way to becoming one of the leading players in the metaverse industry. If you wish to make the most of the platform, buying and renting LAND on Decentraland can be one of the most viable ways to do so. In this article, we will cover everything you need to know to about renting lands on Decentraland.

What are Lands?

A Land is a digital asset in the form of a virtual intangible real estate or an NFT. The Lands on a virtual reality platform is much similar to buying plots in the real world. Users can buy this digital real estate using the currency of the platform it is located in.

Read more about this on Buying Virtual Land in Metaverse: Where and How to buy?

How are Lands in Decetraland

The Decentraland map is divided into several parcels that are scattered over the land. The dimensions of each parcel are 52 feet in width and 52 feet in length, making it a perfect square. This parcel is also the least and minimal amount of quantifiable area that you can hold. Beyond this, multiple plots of land can be combined to form an estate. When you enter the world of Decentraland for the first time, you will be taken to Genesis Plaza, which is the centre of the virtual platform.

The pricing of a plot of land is dependent and proportional to its location as well as size. Once you buy land, the proof of ownership is given in the form of a LAND token. On Decentraland there is a total of 90,601 plots of land, constructing and purchasing which is quite simple. The entire purchasing process of a piece of land on Decentraland is quite uncomplicated. All you have to really do is visit the marketplace (Decentraland – Marketplace), log in with your MetaMask wallet and look for the land that you wish to buy.

Learn more about Land in Decentraland in our article on Buying Land in Decentraland; Is Decentraland Land a Good Investment? (2023 Updated)

What is Land Renting on Decenraland

The decentraland platform has now allowed users to gain extra income from their owned lands. With the new Renting System in place, if you own land on the platform, you can Rent LAND in a secure and trustless manner. This renting process is done through a “combination of signatures that are stored in a server handled by the Decentraland Foundation (off-chain) and Ethereum transactions (on-chain).”

Why should you Rent Land on Decentraland?

Renting land can have many benefits. When you became a Landowner, you get the advantage of renting land, which can prove to be helpful in increasing your returns.
The following are some instances of the various pros of renting land

  • You can earn passive income from your already owned land and make it work for you as its value appreciates
  • You can become a commercial landowner and reach new markets and users
  • Input costs are way lower when compared to renting land in real life.

How to rent land on Decentraland

Follow the steps given below in order to list a land for rental purposes on the Decentraland platform.

Step 1: Visit the Decentraland Marketplace and go on to “My Assets”

Step 2: Click on the LAND option. If you own a land, you will have to approve the Rent Smart Contract in order to be able to rent the land. The listing would also need a signature from the Owner as well.

Step 3: You have to set up the price of the rent on a per day basis in MANA, which is the currency that is native t the Decentralland platform. Then you have to also set the number of days you want to allow people to rent your property. The total price will be paid upfront, and in total for that rent but the customer. This rent is calculated as The price per day times the number of days.

Step 4: You as a landowner are also allowed to set an expiration date for your property listing. By doing this you safeguard the option that if the LAND wasn’t rented until the selected date, the listing will be removed from the Marketplace. Through this process, even the smart contract will reject the expired signature so that no one can rent it for the listing price and duration previously selected. The expiration date serves as a security measure that aids in preventing the land from being rented for an undesired price or duration.

Step 5: Once the rental details are filled in, your land will be listed as a plot available for rent on the Decentraland Marketplace.

Always remember these three things before listing a property,

  • Once you rent a LAND to a Tenant, the plot can not be sold until and unless it’s claimed back.
  • After the renting of land, any sort of Bids from potential buyers can not be received either.
  • Even after renting, the owner of the land still holds his Voting Power.

How to Edit or Cancel a Listing of Land?

If you wish to change the details of a rent listing or even cancel the listing, you can do so before anybody rents it. To edit the conditions of the rent just click on the pencil icon on the listing LAND detail. You can also find the option there to remove the Listing from the Marketplace and the blockchain. Do not forget that doing this will cost some money, which means that Editing and cancelling a listing require a transaction gas fee.

How to check Renting Status?

To check the status of your rent listing just follow these simple steps. First, go to My Assets and then click on Store. Then you will see the On Rent option, clicking on which will take you to your listing statuses. The three possible status are as follows:

  • Listed for Rent – This means The listing has been confirmed and is available for users to rent in the Marketplace
  • Rented Period Over – This stage implies that the listed LAND is available to Claim Back or List Again for Rent by the LAND Owner
  • Rented until “date” – This one signals that the LAND is already rented and the Tenant has Operator Permissions until it’s claimed back or rented by another user

After the rent period is over, you as a landowner have the authority to either Claim your LAND Back or List it for Rent Again. However, remember that the Operator Permissions are not transferred automatically back to the LAND Owner. For the process to get these permissions back, the LAND Owner has to Claim the LAND back by sending that transaction and paying for the gas fee. Until then the Operator Permissions will remain with the tenant and not the land owner.

One way to escape this is by directly listing the LAND for rent again, when you do so you don’t have to pay a gas fee but the Operator Permissions will be kept by the previous Tenant until a new Tenant confirms a new Rent.

On which functions are transactions charged?

On the platform of Decentraland during renting or becoming a tenant, various fees are charged for doing different functions. In order to ensure the security and decentralization of the platform, the Renting system relies on the Ethereum blockchain as a source of truth.

The Transactions or fees in the blockchain are very little. What this does is that it provides a robust and trustless system for LAND renting, and keeps it affordable at the same time.

Transactions are charges on the following processes

  • Listing a plot for rent
  • Claiming a LAND Back
  • Editing an already published listing before it is accepted by a tenant
  • Allowing the Rent Contract to operate your MANA
  • Changing the operator

Glossary of the terms used in the article

  • Land Owner: A land owner is an Account or address that has the ownership over a LAND. This land could be a Parcel, an Estate, or both.
  • Tenant: A tenant is an Account (or address) that borrows or rents the LAND from a LAND Owner. The Account of the tenant is the only account that is authorized to change the Address that has Operator Permissions.
  • Operator Permission: The address with this permission is the only one that can deploy scenes in that LAND.
  • Transactions: Transactions are functions on the Ethereum Blockchain transactions that cost a gas fee.