One of the first big achievements for many residents in SL is securing a property of their own that they can personalise and set as their ‘home’ location. This might mean buying your own land parcel in the land market outright, or more commonly renting a house from a landowner (another resident). However land purchase can be a complicated undertaking and you will hear lots of horror stories about the pitfalls of renting. Linden Labs are about to start testing a new program that will greatly simplify taking that first step into virtual land ownership and make setting up home in world as easy as possible. The scheme will be called ‘Linden Home’ and will be an extension to the Premium Membership.
Premium membership means that you are paying a monthly subscription as opposed to the basic (free) membership. This could be a problem for some people but you already need to have a premium account to own land although you can rent with a basic one.
Under the scheme a 512m parcel of land will be given to applicants in what appears to be a free loan with a complete but unfurnished home already in place. There will be a number of themes and house types available but the occupiers will not be able to remove the houses or sell the land.
During beta testing, a limited number of randomly selected existing Premium subscribers will be offered the chance to apply for a ‘Linden Home’. If this proves a success, Linden Labs are looking to launch it as an entitlement for all Premium subscribers early next year.
