Just like anywhere else across the world, the ebb and flow is one of the most common phenomena of the real estate industry in Australia. While property prices were skyrocketing until last year, there are now talks of the markets ‘softening’. Nobody can say for sure if speculations about a property bubble have any substance, but it seems property developers have already started facing lots of challenges. With new legislation being introduced to cool down the market, developers are forced to change their strategies to stay on top of their games.
Virtual Reality (VR) has turned out to be a major relief for developers during these ‘tough’ times. Most marketing mediums help businesses scale up their growth, but VR has gone the extra mile. It is not only a great tool to foster growth and scale up but also helping property developers to deal with challenges that come with market fluctuations.
Banks are tightening their underwriting norms and the government is imposing restrictions. As a result, it has become harder for regular buyers as well as investors to purchase properties. It is one of the most common reasons for the markets softening in the recent months.
In this scenario, property developers are being a bit cautious about their launch dates. Usually, when a new project is launched, display suites are the most common marketing tools for developers. But as many of them are holding back on their launch dates, it doesn’t make sense to invest in an expensive display suite. VR allows developers to do a ‘soft’ launch at a fraction of the cost of the display suite so that they can start to sell straight away and don’t need to hold off.
All a developer needs to do is set up VR in their office. It is the most cost-effective way to start marketing a real estate project off the plan. It not only saves time and money but also gives prospective buyers a very immersive experience as far as property viewing is concerned.
A display suite can showcase a building’s exterior elegance to some degree, but what if a buyer wants to visit the apartment’s s rooftop terrace, gym, pool and common areas. If the buyer doesn’t get an immersive experience even after the developer spends thousands of dollars, we can say a display suite hardly serves its purpose.
A much better value-for-money investment when it comes to giving buyers an immersive experience is VR. For example, a developer can build a two-bedroom virtual apartment and when the buyer walks out onto the balcony he or she can see the view of the entire neighbourhood. If you would like to see the view from the 10th floor you can choose that. Then if you would like to see the view from the 15th floor, you just have to press a button and BOOM, you are there!
Communication gaps are a killer mistake in real estate marketing. Frankly speaking, most mediums are not sophisticated enough to help developers avoid this. Be it a display suite and 3D design or drone videography, nothing comes close to VR in eliminating communication gaps.
VR allows a developer to present all features of a development before a shovel hits the dirt. Even if you combine all other mediums including display suite, 3D design, photography, blueprints and videography, you can’t communicate the prominent features of a development in the same precise way as the VR does. Reason? Well, VR enables buyers to express themselves fully, while experience real depth and distance while in the VR environment. It’s a tool that they can use to rearrange furniture, add appliances or change wall colours. As a result, they won’t be able to complain about what’s being offered to them when the project has been completed.
These are just some of the way’s VR is helping the developer in Australia to deal with various challenges. Forward-looking developers can benefit greatly by incorporating it into their marketing campaigns.