Virtual reality has been dismissed as a fad many times in the past; however, mostly every top 500 companies are looking into it and investing big chunks of their budgets in its development. Facebook alone is investing 250 million dollars on VR content production this year, following a previous investment of the same amount.
Contrary to what some people believe, VR is not only useful in the gaming and technology industries, but also in engineering, banking, and even real estate. Jason Salter, head of newly formed property virtual reality company Real VR, started the company to assist clients sell apartments off the plan.
In his experience, potential buyers benefit and see value in a more immersive and interactive marketing campaign; instead of the traditional computer generated images usually used in this market, virtual reality allows purchasers to more realistically visualise the finished product, they are able to walk around the apartment, open doors, closets, and drawers, as well as press buttons and even see the expected views – these images are produced using drones, with photos taken at different heights to accurately represent the views from each floor.
As the company now works on improving user experience, from ease of use, to ensuring menus are user-friendly, as well as trying to integrate a virtual agent who can answer frequently asked questions and minimise the need for users to remove themselves from the VR experience to make inquiries, we expect to see other companies using this technology and investing in content creation for not only off-the-plan sales, but for many other purposes as well. We expect some very exciting times to come in the property management industry.