In its 2017 Commercial Real Estate Study Deloitte has identified the rising trends that affect the supply and demand on the global market of real estate, be that for housing, work or leisure.
According to this study, ‘‘The real estate industry is increasingly influenced by rapid technological advancements and significant demographic shifts, which include growing urbanization, longevity of Baby Boomers, and differentiated lifestyle patterns of Millennials. In addition, macroeconomic and regulatory developments continue to impact profitability.’’
Several key enablers for growth in real estate were identified such as: Internet of Things (which makes our homes smarter thanks to the greater data analytics capacities), sustainability/health and wellness, cybersecurity, 3D printing, demographic data and predictive analytics, cloud and mobile technologies, and enhanced productivity outsourcing.
Likewise, Augmented and Virtual Reality can be implemented to a great extent in real estate given the fact that the entire landscape of this industry shifts and that buyers of today make decisions differently than it was 10 or 30 years ago.
Millennials who have entered the workforce and are in their mid 20s to mid 30s do not always consider buying properties since their work and lifestyle choices may enable them to be based in several countries.
For instance, those who consider themselves digital nomads and do not buy but rent may calculate that their housing expenses actually decrease when they rent, which is of course location-sensitive to a great extent. Since Millennials and upcoming Generation Z are digital natives, they are also ready to adopt innovative technology much easily and this includes VR and AR.
After a lifetime of work and maybe inspired by the connectivity, extensive travel and flexibility of their grandchildren and children, Baby Boomers actually decide not to retire in terms of leisure. Therefore, some of them may actually get interested to make informed choices and purchase with the help of Virtual and Augmented Reality.
Augmented and Virtual Reality are the next frontier in marketing and in many other verticals, which means that they become the great option not only for consumers, but also vendors.
Let’s now look at the sector of real estate through the eyes of the real estate agents, the professionals driven by the timetable of their clients and sales oriented.
Typically, two greatest obstacles that real estate agents have is that they very often need to book meetings from one venue to the other one which takes quite a lot of time, resources, dealing with traffic and sometimes even their potential client is not able to see all the locations at the same time, so the visit needs to be repeated.
Secondly, pictures from the catalogue and the property that are seen live do not look the same and the client may get disappointed easily.
This is when Virtual and Augmented Reality jumps into the scene as it solves both challenges: it saves time and enables viewing properties as they are, filmed with 360 degree cameras and other perks of Virtual Reality devices.
Now let us consider three ways how AR and VR can help clients to choose their next ideal house or office, yet this time with even more mesmerizing and interactive experience:
1. SEE PROPERTIES AND IMAGINE YOURSELF AS IF LIVING THERE WITH GUIDED VR TOURS
Now thanks to 360 degree photo even the properties that are still in construction can become alive in front of the eyes of buyers and clients. At some point even the narration can be used and when 360 degree video or photo is experienced through the lens of Virtual Reality the experience of choosing the perfect home or office gets even more emotional and personalized.
These are also benefits of MRgenie which helps you create VR 360 photo navigation and step into your new home.
2. USE THE APP FOR BEST REAL ESTATE AND TOURISTIC SIGHTS
Have you ever wanted to include extra comments when you were passing by some amazing places in your neighbourhood?
With this intention, our company created Real Estate app that enables real estate client and agent to see all the remarkable places in the proximity of a potential new home or office. In the end, so many of us have chosen our new places to live and work because of a nearby café, lovely library, or park, right?
Upon using Real Estate app, potential clients and real estate agents view what memorable places are in the proximity of the desirable property and they can check them out. Available properties are shown on real estate agents’ screens and it turns out that this extra tech tool helps real estate agents have even better conditions to sell.
Apart from enabling the real estate agent to present to the buyers VR 360 photos and videos of the property, this app enables viewers to experience the neighborhood and sights according to some of their categories of interest: Schools, Parks, Sport clubs, Night life, Restaurants, and Shopping, etc.
3. BUY REAL STUFF THANKS TO VIRTUAL E-COMMERCE
Nowadays we are several clicks away from creating our ideal room and purchasing it is virtual e-commerce arena. Google Tango is your ally to map out 3D areas and to create 3D models of rooms.
Our company can create customized solutions on Google Tango platform and we have already started discovering with our international clients the potential of this new platform.
Thanks to Google Tango you go through the space that you want to decorate. Then you insert the objects and furniture that you would love to see in the apartment and you may in some the next find the price for it. It is even possible to shift the perspective and angles where these objects will be.
The user can scan the room, include the favorite accessories and furniture pieces that even have the price tag and can lead you later to the e-commerce website.
To show that VR with e-commerce are adopted by global brands, let’s look at the world-class IKEA VR Experience campaign. Consumers use the HTC Vive headset to explore differently-styled kitchen settings, change the color of cabinets and drawers with a click and also access the kitchen from the adult and child perspective as their height in VR changes.
Hope this 1001-word guide for real estate and AR/VR will be useful to all of you. Think about the following points: in which place of the world you would like to spend next One Thousand and One Nights and share your stories as if in the company of Scheherazade.
If you are a Millennial you may be more likely to join sharing economy rather than wanting to own properties, yet still VR and AR may help you answer the fundamental question where you want to live and which real estate agents can be your partners in making the best choice possible.
