Transforming real estate with Virtual Reality

Please check out this article or use a contact form if you are looking for a specific answer regarding VR experience in Bristol/UK, virtual tours and 360 degrees photography, photogrammetry or video services including guided tours and slideshows, 360° live streaming or 360° video over-capture as well as drone photography, video roof inspection, giga-pixel panorama or just a high quality imaging.

 

Housing market during the lockdown

The UK government has put on hold most of the non-essential parts of the British economy including the entire property market, to halt the spread of the coronavirus. While property website Zoopla forecast a 60 per cent fall in sales over the next three months, the Ministry of Housing’s new guidance states:

"There is no need to pull out of transactions, but we all need to ensure we are following guidance to stay at home and away from others at all times, including the specific measures for those who are presenting symptoms, self-isolating or shielding."

Ministry of Housing

 

Opportunity for the Virtual Reality

The circumstances in the housing market are very different than in 2008, because demand has slowed at the same pace as supply that generally means we expect the bounce back to be pretty quick. The practical impact of Covid-19 on buyers’ and sellers’ ability to transact, as it limits people’s ability to go about their normal business can/could be mitigated with the use of Virtual Reality (VR) technology.

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

Alexander Graham Bell

 

So what happens when the lockdown is over? Given that mortgage approvals in February 2020 hit their highest level since 2014, we can expect that there will be plenty of pent-up demand. People have lots of time on their hands to browse, but just don’t expect any viewings. Unless...

Imagine showing someone around a portfolio of homes from the comfort of their own sofa. Virtual reality offers experiences like no other, guiding your clients through space, allowing them to feel the presence in the room and conceptualise what’s difficult to imagine from a picture.

Contact us to harness the transformative power of virtual reality or read on to learn more.

2020 is the year of VR

Once the risk to human life has reduced and steps are taken back toward a fully productive economy, it is worth spending some time envisaging what this 'new normal' might look like. A recent survey by Perkins Coie LLP positioned Real Estate fourth in a list of sectors expected to attract the most VR related investment over the next 12 months.

NASA VR HMD (1984)
NASA VR HMD (1984)

Virtual Reality have seen a dramatic infusion of investment in the last decade. Total revenue estimation of VR/AR software in real estate is $2,6 billion by 2025. Like every new technology, mass adoption takes time, effort and money. Fortunately VR is't that new! We had over 30 years to get ready for the VR revolution.

VR revolution has already started, changing social interactions and many industries, including real estate. Since 2015 when VR has emerged as a new marketing tool and became more versatile and affordable, agencies began to show multi-million dollar houses and apartments located in Los Angeles, New York City, London, and Dubai to potential buyers.

Today high-end VR headsets costs below £300, while entry level head gears for compatible smartphones are on sale for as little as £30. Such price makes it affordable, not only to the business and tech enthusiasts but also to the general public. Since the worldwide lockdown virtual reality headset sales skyrocket!

Oculus Quest (2019)
Oculus Quest (2019)

MacPixelVR offers professionals throughout the real estate industry an easy, quick and affordable way to use VR and maximise the opportunities, supporting the sales process. Many VR devices were already widely available and also affordable, but the best part is that your clients can benefit from our VR solutions without any investment. A smartphone, tablet or laptop with any modern web browser are sufficient to take advantage of the Virtual Tour - no additional software required.

We have had to make the difficult decision to suspend our VR presentations due to COVID-19 and we are happy to assist you virtually, using available technology and following social distancing guidelines.

Compatiblity

Join our Virtual Tours Community using one of the VR Headsets or other compatible device like smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop PC. Game consoles like Play Station, most modern smart TVs and set-top-boxes are already compatible with our Virtual Tours technology. We don't want to spook you, but everything indicates that soon even your new fridge will follow in the footsteps of wide adaptation and deepening compatibility :-)

Google Cardboard

Google Daydream

Samsung GearVR

Oculus

HTC Vive

Windows Mixed Reality

OSVR

Mobile - smartphones and tablets

PC - laptops and desktops

Seeing is believing

Engage prospective buyers with interactive presentations and immersive content. Here's a flat representation of the VR experience.

MacPixelVR proves that we are no longer bound by the pixels alone, liberating your spaces to multidimensional, immersive experience. In our opinion VR is the same to photography as a good quality hi-res picture to a plain text description. Are you ready to use the latest in 3D / 360° & Virtual Reality technology to enhance real estate sales?

How we do it?

First, we take a series of photos which we develop and edit, and then we stitch them together using dedicated software. The resulting rectilinear panorama is then processed to create a virtual scene. We add hotspots and link them with relevant scenes. At the end all scenes are rendered in various resolutions and sliced to smaller tiles, to improve the performance and loading time. The last step is publishing on the website or dedicated VR platform.

Stitched 360° panoramas

Improve the customer experience

COVID-19 is changing the way we engage with the world around us. As a multimedia and interactive content creators we understand how brands should navigate in this new exciting medium representing the immersive technology of Virtual Reality. You want to grow your business despite the lockdown. We know how!

MacPixelVR has been created to cater for any size organisations from small local businesses all the way through to large multinationals. 20+ years of experience in multimedia and early adoption of VR/AR, 3D and 360° photography and video gave us an opportunity to work with many clients around the world.

some of my clients

Who's a good fit?

MacPixelVR can be used across the entire real estate sector from construction companies and estate agents to architects and interior designers. Other sectors also can benefit from our VR solutions. We're here to support you every step of the way - from the content creation to publishing, marketing and training.

Partnering with MacPixel brought our clients tangible business results. Our Virtual Tours save time, effort, money and increase ROI on house viewings, enabling agents to present properties during these difficult times.

Our VR education program is designed exclusively for MacPixel Partners to enable them to service their clients from the selected industries with VR.

Aerial Photography

Challenge your views, change your perspective! Elevated mast and aerial photography, video and panoramas.

Aerial panoramas

Aerial VR

We use every visual aid which helps you to sell the property. From the rural areas to tropical shores, our elevated mast & aerial photography helps you to stand out but what if we combine this with VR - a Virtual Tour or 360 degrees panorama? Check out our aerial virtual tour of Portishead.

Benefits of Virtual Reality in real estate

Buying property for personal needs or business requires a lot of time and patience. It gets even tougher when the property and the customer are geographically distant. These days housing market is facing yet another challenge - social isolation.

Virtual reality can combat these obstacles and has the potential to save time and money for real estate preview in the future, by visiting property remotely.

MacPixelVR technology is capable of demonstrating such real estate virtual tours. That could be guided tours in video format or 360 degrees interactive tours with free navigation throughout sites.

TL;DR

For your convenience we listed 5 main benefits of our transformative VR technology:

  1. Availability
    While most of the non-essential business has been put on hold, VR content is available online 24/7.
  2. Saving time
    Nothing is as valuable as time. With virtual tours, there is no need to spend days and hours visiting properties. At the same time there’s no rush, only freedom of exploration and interaction for a viewer.
  3. Saving money
    At first glance, VR seems expensive but since smartphones are VR capable, there is no entry barriers for new customers and practically every smartphone, tablet or laptop can deliver VR content, while you can save money instantly.
  4. Worldwide offering
    The world is more cosmopolitan today, people are moving from place to place and we will see increased mobility in the following years. Virtual Reality eliminates distances. That’s why since first VR tours were created the realtors started to expand their client base, not limited to local buyers.
  5. Creating emotional engagement
    Unlike 2D print visualisation, floor plans and even photographs, virtual tours provide immersion and realistic presence feel. Viewing pictures or videos is nothing like moving by yourself from one room to another and looking around. It surely helps to close the deal, by invoking the sense of ownership.

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Why MacPixelVR?

The way we consume content is evolving. It has never been easier for brands to be ignored. MacPixel is also evolving from real estate photography and publishing towards immersive content. Our expertise in human-computer interaction and early adoption of emerging technologies, gave us an edge over our competitors. Now we want to pass it forward.

Behind the scenes - CODMUCA project 2007 European Union Grant
Making of CODMUCA project - 2007 EU Grant

About Mac

Thank you for visiting my website. My name is Mac and I’ve been exploring visual art and science for over two decades. I'm passionate about VR since it was invented.

20 years ago as an IT graduate (Multimedia & AI) working on the frontier of eLearning I realised that I can merge my soft skills with hardcore science and interests in psychology, marketing, ergonomics, aesthetics & art.

I developed my career as an HCI expert (human-computer interaction). At the same time I’ve been running a successful graphic design agency with photography and multimedia in the core of my business. VR technology has given me a great opportunity to expand my business and cover everything visual, unleashing my full potential in art and science.

Please visit my social media: Facebook & Instagram for updates and my gallery for more images.

Let's get the conversation started

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COVID-19 safety measures

The safety of our clients is of a paramount importance and we decided to temporarly suspend our VR presentations. We are happy to assist you with your own VR headset or compatible smartphone. On location we use FFP3 masks, silicone gloves and UVC light with ozone which has a more powerful function than UVC itself. We leave your property disinfected and ready to use within 45 minutes after disinfection (this time is required to let ozone decomposition complete).