Home opens have been a part of buying or renting a house for over a hundred years. You advertise a property, people turn up, and then you (hopefully) get some offers. Rinse and repeat.
While homes have changed substantially since the 1910s thanks to advances in construction, home opens have pretty much stayed the same. Until the past couple of years when realters began using virtual reality.
Virtual reality has boomed in the last few years, thanks to new affordable entry-level hardware, like the Quest 3, and people opting for more remote choices since Covid. And now that a bigger portion of the population has access to a virtual reality device, more businesses are incorporating virtual reality into their service catalogues. In fact, according to Statista, the number of VR users in Australia in 2024 is around 3.1 million people, and is expected to reach 3.8 million people by 2029. With nearly 1 in 7 Australians expected to own a VR headset, the real estate industry has a great opportunity to tap into an unsaturated audience right as the boom begins.
So put your local listings down and grab a headset, because we are going to look at how the real estate industry can ‘level up’ using virtual reality.
VR is revolutionising how homes can be seen by prospective buyers, offering flexibility for both the real estate agents and the clients. You can now view a new home from anywhere in the world, allowing out-of-town, international, or buyers with disabilities a more flexible way to purchase or rent homes. And vice versa, if you’re listing your home, using VR to showcase your home allows you to reach far more prospective buyers.
I can already hear you asking ,“what if I don’t have a virtual reality headset?”. Most virtual tours can be viewed on a computer or mobile phone, allowing viewers to click through a property and look around, similar to Google Maps street view.
If you’ve ever been in the market for a new home, you know how much time it takes to find that perfect place.
With virtual reality, the need to travel to and from a property, hold a home open, or conduct a tour, is greatly reduced, allowing agents to spend more of their time focussed on other tasks. By focussing more on displaying homes through VR, real estate agents can reduce the amount of physical marketing needed to advertise a property, like high-quality photography and printed materials. And if an agency decides to bring the production of VR home tours in-house, then the only costs associated with implementing VR home tours is the cost of a 360-degree camera. According to Matterport, properties listed with a virtual tour sold for up to 9% more on average, and closed 31% quicker than properties listed without one. This means that agents can spend less time trying to sell properties, allowing them more time to sell more properties.
And it’s not just the agency that saves time and money. Without any time restrictions when viewing a home through VR, buyers can spend as much time as they want looking through a property, potentially even becoming emotionally attached to one. Virtual reality allows agents to focus on scheduling visits and viewings with buyers who have already seen the property in VR, reducing the number of ‘wasted viewings’ by 40% allowing viewings to go quicker, smoother, and become more focussed on the finer details of the property. And as an added bonus, the buyer is able to save money associated with travelling to and from a viewing, especially if they are out of town.
Embracing the innovation of virtual reality shows clients that you and your agency are at the forefront of modern technology, allowing you to build trust and rapport with your clientele as a leader in your industry. VR can provide a futuristic and modern touch to listings, catering to buyers who expect more engaging and interactive experiences. VR tours tend to generate more inquiries and views, due to their easy availability, which generates a greater return on investment for your marketing costs. Virtual tours also help keep people on a website 5 to 10 times longer than they otherwise would have.
Virtual reality and architecture are not strangers. Most of the big buildings or skyscrapers that are built today go through a few rounds of review through virtual reality. This allows the architects, construction companies, and stakeholders to view and experience their designs and visions in a true-to-life scale, letting them see any potential issues in the designs. And as the technology behind virtual reality becomes older and more refined, the costs for adopting virtual reality is becoming increasingly affordable, and not just for big businesses.
The real estate industry is on the edge of embracing virtual reality and is already changing the way that homes are marketed and sold. By offering accessible, convenient, and immersive ways to connect homes with buyers, VR benefits not just the real estate agency, but the buyer as well. And as the technology evolves, we will see the real estate industry embrace the adoption of virtual reality even more, bringing buyers to their dream homes more efficiently than ever before.
Written By Epigroup
CCIWA, Business Law WA and REEFWA has taken all reasonable care in preparing this document. The contents of this document do not constitute legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. Specific advice for your situation should be sought from CCIWA, Business Law WA or a professional adviser before any action is taken. Neither REEFWA, CCIWA nor Business Law WA accept responsibility for any claim that arises from any person acting or refraining from acting on the information contained in this document.
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