Indian real estate

What does a home buyer seek when buying a home nowadays? Nothing but the best. This is where a marvelous piece of technology called Virtual Reality (VR) has entered as a saviour for builders. With competition reaching an all time high and a crazy race to please extremely demanding buyers, builders have heaved a sigh of relief with VR finally entering the Indian real estate market.

It is an artificial environment which is created with the help of 3D 360 Renders or 360-degree photography. When a person looks at a VR, it gives an impression of that particular created environment being real. However, the coolest feature about it is user interaction. By using VR equipment, one can even “move around” within that space and interact or change the virtual features.

From a home buyer’s perspective, VR helps in two big areas. It helps save time and money. Earlier, a home buyer would have to make do with pictures on brochures or ads or physically visit a site to check out the design, look and feel of the place. VR lets a buyer decide if he likes or dislikes the place within the comfort of four walls without actually visiting that place at least initially. In India, many technology start-ups and popular online real estate marketplaces, offer virtual reality tours of properties. Some of these companies are Virtual Spaces, Navtek Solutions and Housing.Com’s Realty Vision 2.0 among others.

What VR does for a potential buyer is on a much deeper level than any other buying catalyst can ever do. A buyer can literally “enter” any room and redesign it according to his or her taste. This helps the buyer actually see how his/her ideas will look if practically implemented.

With the advent of touch screens, VR has become extremely user friendly. This means countless home buyers can now easily pair their mobile phones, computers, laptops and tablets with VR devices.

Builders are taking advantage of this technology and are using Real Time Options. Colour palettes, materials, furnishing and lighting conditions can be customised easily which is a huge benefit for buyers. It also helps builders analyse and understand in demand trends.