If you’ve ever viewed a property, you will know what it is like… You walk around with a tape measure, trying to work out how and where your stuff will fit and if the building you are in has the potential to feel like home.
For years, estate agents and letting agents have tried their best to help viewers get a feel for a property, but emerging technologies may be about to make this task MUCH easier.
Here are three key reasons EVERY letting agent and estate agent need to get serious about Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR):
#1 – The time taken to complete viewings
Think about it. When prospective tenants or purchasers want to view properties, the agent needs to manage not just the time for each viewing, but also the time it takes to travel between locations.
What if the initial viewings could be done without needing to leave the agents office?
The people wishing to view properties would simply pop on a VR headset and be able to navigate their way around multiple properties with ease, which would help with the next reason…
# 2 – It looks different from the pictures
Even with improvements in photo technology, pictures of a property (like those shared on social media) can still give a very different perception to the reality of a viewing.
Rooms pictured from different angles (and with a wide-angle lens) can often look bigger than they really are.
The use of virtual reality would let prospective tenants or purchasers be ‘in the room’ and get a better feel for the space in each property.
But what if they still can’t picture themselves living there? This leads us to the final point.
# 3 – Virtual remodelling
What if there was a way for people viewing a property to experience it with their own choice of decoration and furniture (and even with a complete remodel of the available space).
Oh, and much of this augmented reality functionality already exists!
Swedish furniture company, IKEA, who have 392 stores in 48 countries, recently announced its IKEA Place app for Apple iOS 11, which uses augmented reality to let people “experience, experiment and share how good design transforms any space”.
Michael Valdsgaard, Leader Digital Transformation at Inter IKEA Systems, says:
“IKEA Place makes it easier to make buying decisions in your own place, to get inspired and try many different products, styles and colours in real-life settings with a swipe of your finger. Augmented reality and virtual reality will be a total game changer for retail in the same way as the internet. Only this time, much faster.”
By downloading IKEA Place form the Apple App Store, users can scan the floor in their place and then choose from over 2,000 IKEA products that can be added into an augmented view of their space.
No longer will agents have to help prospective tenants or purchasers imagine how a property will look with their own furniture in it – augmented and virtual reality will ultimately enable people to see and experience a property as if they have already moved in!
