Have you ever envisioned a picture where you stroll into an apartment through an elevator, check out its interiors and enjoy the picturesque vista from the balcony without moving a leg? No, this isn’t something created out of thin air.
This is what home-buying looks like today, thanks to the aspirational benchmark of technological innovation, virtual reality, online digital sales. A thing long associated with gaming, virtual reality is charting new territories, fomenting revolutions in a multitude of industries including real estate at a searing pace.
Real estate is undergoing a structural shift in its DNA, rejigging its work structures and digitizing its entire value chain to make real estate transactions smoother. A nationwide lockdown due to a pandemic hanging over our future like a spectre has goaded the real estate sector to put its bet on going digital; adopting futuristic technological tools including Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) & 3D tech.
Real estate is the only asset class that needs a physical experience and trades in emotion. Buying a home is akin to achieving a significant milestone in life, isn’t it! So, it is essential to deliver an emotional dimension to the solution of buying a home. Engaging a customer with a positive vibe and at the same time focusing on emotions, senses, realism and imaginations constitute the setting of a digital experience which is augmented by virtual reality.
With the rapid democratization of virtual reality technologies, real estate companies like Square Yards are treating customers to never-before-heard of experiences for homebuying. At a time when physical property site visits are out of question due to enforcement of social distancing measures, homebuyers can virtually visit a property, lounging on their couch through their smartphones, tablets and laptops. They can experience an immersive, three-dimensional virtual walkthrough of properties in a matter of minutes.
It doesn’t matter whether you are sitting in Delhi or Mumbai or Bangalore, you can check out the inside outs of properties in any city. If you are mulling the thought of buying a home amidst a lockdown, looking at the great property deals on offer, Square Yards is ready to delight you with a personalized and immersive virtual experience on their digital platform. The company has added features like 3D walkthrough and location overview through drone technology to its site that emulates a physical environment to create a truly immersive and interactive experience.
A question pops up here…how will homebuyers benefit from this new structural shift in real estate transactions? Here’s a lowdown.
- Virtual property tours: Think of travelling 70 kms from your home to visit a property site. Now compare it to a virtual property tour sitting in the comfort of your home. The latter sounds like a convincing solution, saving time, money and is hassle-free. Just click on the property and you the site will take you on a virtual tour of the property, navigating through every room and showcasing the property in a 360-degree fashion. As you enjoy the immersive, life-like experience, a virtual guide narrates each feature of the property. Realism is also taken care of with spatialized sound ambiences and shifting of interfaces according to location.
- Engineering Visualization & Interior design: With the aid of 3D design layouts, homebuyers can ask to visualize the interior architecture according to their imaginations and focus attention on details. Designs that enhance colour schemes, layouts and floor space are added virtually to create an appeal that matches the expectations of home seekers. It creates an emotional connection and engages homebuyers more efficiently.
- Digital transactions: To create a convenient home-buying experience, virtual tours are followed by a digital post sales process. Here artificial intelligence comes into play where real time inventory blocking engines integrated with multiple payment gateways and state-of-the-art transaction enabler tools like digital signatures complete the home-buying process.
Virtual reality has transformed the way real estate will be bought and sold. It has made the real estate market an open field where properties can be accessed round the clock and can be visited multiple times without annoying the realtors. Looking at the immense potential of this technology, A-listed developers like Godrej Properties, Shapoorji Pallonji, Rustomjee, Shiram Properties, VTP Realty, Signature Global, Bhutani Group and many more have joined hands with Square Yards to bring personalized and immersive virtual home-buying experiences for homebuyers.
