Virtual reality technology used to be a costly investment mostly reserved for entertainment. Over time, both VR hardware and software got cheaper and more accessible. Many architecture-adjacent industries have seen the potential of this technology and started adopting it for various purposes in recent years. Realty experts have already been using 3D architectural visualization for a while, so they began experimenting with VR early. Now, using VR for real estate is becoming quite common, for several reasons. Here are 4 ways virtual reality has enhanced realty marketing and changed the industry! After them, you will find how VR differs from AR, 360 and 3D tours, which devices buyers use, where VR pays off in sales and leasing, and what a tour costs.
#1. VR is effective for showcasing properties in remote or rural areas
One of the biggest challenges for realty agents is selling properties that are located far from big cities and towns. Oftentimes, even getting there can be a chore, let alone bringing clients for a house viewing. But as more people want to move out of the cities, remote housing is rising in popularity. VR for real estate makes selling such properties much easier.
With virtual reality, potential buyers are able to not just see the house and its neighborhood but also actively interact with them. VR headsets let users look around to see every nook and cranny of realistic 3D models of houses and their surroundings. And, most importantly, 3D virtual tour rendering can be experienced at a realtor’s office or even at home, provided a headset and controllers are available. No need to spend hours driving to the location.
#2. VR helps sell unfinished properties with ease
According to statistics, more than 90% of houses for sale are either under construction or haven’t even reached the foundation stage. Needless to say, selling real estate objects that aren’t completed is a difficult task. Clients need some tangible representation of their dream homes. Normally, static property development CGI would do just fine, but customers have become more demanding. They want something new and fresh, especially when it comes to luxury high-end homes.
VR for real estate leaves a lasting impression while presenting projects exactly the way they’ll look when finished. Clients find it both informative and enjoyable to visit their future home in the digital dimension while it is still an empty lot in reality.
#3. VR saves time both for clients and realtors
The real estate business values speed and comfort. Potential buyers can be in other countries or regions, or simply too busy to visit a remote property. As such, realty experts have to make viewing their listings as convenient as possible. VR rendering for real estate is a massive help for this task.
In essence, a virtual reality tour is exploring a fully realistic 3D model of a building adapted for VR software use. This means that all a person needs to do is download the files to their PC or laptop, plug in a VR headset, and dive in. This way, potential buyers can get a full tour of a property without having to visit it or even taking a trip to a realty developer’s office. Of course, the customer will want to visit the place eventually. But real estate VR is a solid marketing tool that will help them make this decision. This way, it frees up precious time both for clients and realty professionals. There are always more real estate advertising campaigns to start and new projects to develop while prospects view properties in virtual reality.
#4. VR for real estate offers unparalleled immersion
If there’s one thing virtual reality for real estate excels at, it’s immersion. Even the basic VR space with no interactivity is a memorable experience. But it can go further than that. By adding interactive elements, like doors, appliances, and scene changes, the exploration can be enhanced drastically. With a push of a button, customers will be able to change the color of walls, lighting, time of the day, or weather outside. Using controllers, which become more intuitive and natural each year, it’s possible to touch, pick up, and move objects around. These are the features that are currently available.
Several full-dive VR technologies are already in the prototype stages, such as simulating touch, smell, and other senses. Just imagine the possibilities! Visiting a rural house on sale, walking through a garden, smelling the flowers, and feeling the breeze, all that without leaving the comfort of one’s home!
VR, AR, 360 tours and 3D tours: what is the difference
The four terms get mixed up in listings and in sales decks, but they describe different things. The difference that matters most to a buyer is how freely they can move and what they need to see it.
| Format | What the viewer gets | How they view it | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| VR | Stands inside the space at real scale and walks through it | Headset | Sales offices, expos, client meetings |
| AR | Digital objects laid over the camera view of a real place: furniture in an empty room, a building on its lot | Phone or tablet | Staging vacant rooms, showing a project on site |
| 360 tour | Panoramas from fixed points; the viewer looks around and jumps between hotspots | Any browser, phone included | Listings, presale pages, leasing websites |
| 3D tour | Free movement through a 3D model; for unbuilt projects, a real-time model with options such as a unit selector or finish packages | Browser through pixel streaming, a sales office screen, or a headset | Large developments sold off-plan |
For an existing home, “3D tour” usually means a camera scan of the rooms. For a project that is still on paper there is nothing to scan, so every format above is built from the architect’s drawings as CGI. The same model can feed all of them: stills, panoramas for a 360 tour, a real-time tour and a headset version. AR is the odd one out, since it works on top of a real place; we cover it separately in our article on augmented reality in real estate sales.
Headset, browser or pixel streaming: how buyers view a VR tour
The device decides who will actually see the tour. A headset gives the strongest experience to a few people; a browser link reaches everyone with a phone.
- Headset. The buyer walks the rooms at real scale, looks out of the windows and sees finishes up close. It works best where someone can hand the headset over and help: a sales office, a property expo, a meeting with a buyer. Few buyers own one, so it rarely works as the only format.
- Browser. A 360 tour opens from a link or an embed on the website or the listing, with nothing to install. It is the format that travels: agents send it to buyers in other cities and countries, and it works on a phone.
- Pixel streaming. A real-time tour built in Unreal Engine runs on a server and streams to the buyer’s browser as video, while the buyer controls it. They get the free movement and the options of a 3D tour without a powerful computer. What they need is a stable internet connection.
- Sales office screen. The same real-time build can run offline on your own device in the sales office, which removes any dependence on the connection during a showing.
In practice, developers rarely pick one. A common setup is a browser tour for everyone who finds the project online and a headset or large screen in the sales office for buyers who come in.
Where VR works in real estate sales and leasing
Pre-construction sales
Off-plan buyers commit to something that does not exist yet, and a tour is the closest they get to a viewing. For Presti, a builder in Montreal, we made virtual tours of five residences in the Robertson condominium to presell apartments in a building that was not yet built. For ORA Residences in Malta, a mixed-use development with two residential towers, the brief went further: an immersive tour with unit search, layout and interior style options, and VR for the showroom.
The sales office
The sales office is where VR earns its cost. A buyer who has already seen the brochure puts on a headset, steps onto the balcony of the unit they are considering and checks the view from the floor they want. The sales team controls the session, answers questions on the spot and can switch to the next layout in seconds.
Remote buyers
Buyers and tenants who cannot travel need a browser link, not a headset. For Compass we built a 360 tour of townhomes in San Diego while the complex was still under construction; the tours sit on the project website, on an interactive map of the site, to help lease the homes.
Commercial leasing
Office and retail tenants decide on layout, light and fit-out, and the decision often involves people in different cities. A tour lets the broker show a floor plate with two fit-out options, the lobby and the amenity floor in one link, before the shell is finished. A real-time tour adds what a tenant cares about most: switching between layouts and checking the view and the daylight from a specific floor.
VR tour cost and timeline
The price depends on the format more than on anything else. These are the starting points from our price list:
- 360 virtual tour of an apartment: from $800, up to 12 viewpoints with 5 rooms included, 3D model of the apartment included.
- 360 virtual tour of a single-family house: from $925, up to 12 viewpoints with 6 rooms included, 3D model of the house included.
- Immersive real-time tour in Unreal Engine (VR version on request): from $10,000. The final price depends on the size of the project, the number of interiors, how detailed the surroundings are and which features you need, for example a unit selector, a furniture configurator or CRM integration.
A 360 tour of a single interior takes about two days, and a tour of a whole apartment or house with several rooms usually takes about a week. An immersive Unreal Engine tour takes two to four weeks, depending on the size of the project and the list of features. Either way, you send the plans and a brief and get a fixed quote within an hour.
If panoramas are enough for your listing, see our panorama tours for apartments and houses. If buyers should walk freely, pick a unit and put on a headset in your sales office, see the interactive tours we build in Unreal Engine.
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VR has advanced radically in the past few years and keeps pushing the limits. It offers incredible immersion in realty development marketing. Clients can walk around their future homes as if they already live in them even when they are still under construction. A house is in a remote or rural area? No problem, VR for real estate can be used from an office or even from home. VR saves time not just for customers, but for realty professionals too, giving more opportunities to work on other important tasks.
To see where VR sits among other tour formats, check our guide to how 3D virtual tours are made.
Need 3D modeling of properties to use with VR software? Order 3D visualization services for a home or office rendering and use cutting-edge technology to sell houses with ease! Related reading: renderings versus VR and an immersive property tour in Malta.
Catherine Paul
Content Writer, Editor at ArchiCGI
Catherine is a content writer and editor. In her articles, she explains how CGI is changing the work of architects and designers. Outside of office, she enjoys yoga, travelling, and watching horrors.
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