Image copyright Julius Meinl Image caption The average price for a house in Los Santos has been estimated at $316,000
Property prices in virtual Los Santos soared 22 per cent over November last year, furthering the US shooter’s appeal.
Property listings website Trulia’s data showed prices in the fictional city have risen much faster than US cities, or even the wider market.
This means there are a lot more homes for sale in Los Santos – with the hope more buyers will be drawn to the game.
© Microsoft
According to the stats, there are currently 7900 listed properties for sale in Los Santos, with the average price being $316,000 (£280,000).
This is around 23 per cent more than the global property market, which has an average price of $257,000.
Trulia analysed an average of 1,000 listings over the last four months, coming from 1,000 sellers – and found the average cost for each property is $2.8m.
It has revised its price expectations of 25 years ago, when the average price was $180,000.
The average price in the game is likely to rise further, as developers have pledged to create more “economically viable” apartments.
Over the last few years, the primary way GTA players have bought property is by making their own real estate in the game.
The global average rise was around 14 per cent.
Even with the game attracting millions of more players, Trulia believes prices would be even higher if it was not for the current challenges facing the US economy.
President Donald Trump has blamed the Federal Reserve for recent price rises, saying it “is punishing the American public for years of economic growth under Republican rule”.
The US economy has long struggled to hit growth levels of 2 per cent, and Trulia said it expected prices to rise by only 4 per cent over the next year – and even this is not enough to keep up with inflation.
However, the affordable housing issues which have kept prices down in places like Brooklyn, New York, could work in the favour of sales in the fantasy Californian city, researchers said.
The game has been downloaded 20.5 million times since its release in 2013.
In April, online retailer Groupon offered buyers the chance to buy a Los Santos home for less than the average price, after a local real estate firm published another list of the most expensive homes in the city.
Image copyright Xbox
The average price in the fictional city is a whopping $5,400 per square foot, which puts it ahead of ultra-luxury US cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, which are much higher.
Los Santos is not the only fictional city to house record prices, and it is not a new trend for developers to create new neighbourhoods within a virtual world, where players can create their own homes.
However, players are only allowed to buy one house, which they can then sell on and start a new family in.