Top 5 Ways In Which Augmented Reality (AR) Is Transforming The Luxury Real Estate Industry

Marketing | Updated on: 18 January 2024

In the past decade or so, we have made leaps and bounds of technological advancement. While fundamental aspects like the internet and wireless connectivity were once considered as pathbreaking innovations, we have elevated these to create other exceptional advancements.

Augmented Reality (AR) is one such advancement that is a product of digitization, which effectively means the creation of an enhanced reality using digital interference. AR is the merging of a user’s real environment with digital information. Unlike Virtual Reality which creates a completely stimulated environment, AR seamlessly blends visual, sound and sensory information into the perception that the user has of the real world.

Augmented Reality in Real Estate:

Virtual property tours

The real estate industry has adapted to the new age that is driven by technology, and it has also incorporated some of these trends into its traditional operations. Automation and digitization are now used in almost every aspect of the real estate business, and these go hand-in-hand with the increased usage of technologies like VR and AR.

Augmented reality in real estate industry has evolved the sector by allowing it to enhance the consumer experience on sites, which consequentially leads to improved sales. For purchases such as those of luxury property which demand a lot of financial commitment, site experience is the most crucial aspect of convincing a consumer to make a purchase. The site experience should be such that makes the property desirable to the consumer, and it must enable the consumer to visualize their home or place of business in that property.

Augmented reality can easily allow real estate agents and developers to provide this kind of an experience, and is also equally beneficial for the consumers since they can make a well-informed decision about luxury purchases. It has hence made a significant contribution towards improving the operations and efficiency of the industry.

While there are numerous benefits of the use of AR in real estate, the following are 5 of the most important ways in which it has transformed the industry:

Project Planning and Visualization:

AR allows consumers to see a property in its final stage of completion, even before the development is finished. This encourages the sales of under-construction properties too, since consumers have been shown an almost accurate imagery of how it will look once completed. Furthermore, the use of such technology can help in the accurate planning of projects. Projects often have to face delays and extra costs due to improper project planning, caused by the lack of clarity regarding the other associated elements. This challenge is overcome by the use of AR, and it makes project planning highly efficient.
Enhancing the Marketing efforts:

In real estate, and especially for luxury projects, it is imperative to have good marketing since it can give a business a big advantage over its competitors. It becomes even more important in the case of luxury real estate, as good marketing can create a high aspirational value for the projects and hence lead to more sales. AR can enhance the marketing for a real estate property, since it offers the consumers a chance to see an improved version of the property. This will attract more consumers, and thereby lead to higher sales. Furthermore, the reach of luxury marketing is also widened with technologies like AR, since consumers can have a good site experience even before physically visiting the property.
Efficiency in Sales:

AR has made luxury real estate sales efficient, by allowing consumers to make informed decisions through enhanced site visits. Since consumers are able to experience the full vision of properties from the comfort of their homes, and in some cases without the property even being developed, they are encouraged to make positive decisions and hence it helps sales. There is also a benefit for real estate agents or sales teams, since their time is not engaged in organizing and conducting site visits, and they can instead work on following up with other potential leads.
Analysis of Consumer Preferences:

Augmented real estate allows valuable insights and data regarding consumer preferences to be gathered and analyzed. Lead scores can be increased, and they can be prioritized more efficiently with these insights. Since luxury property has a longer buying cycle, it becomes more essential to keep the leads interested and with targeted nurturing. Also, during augmented site visits, the technology can capture and record elements that engage the attention of consumers. This enables developers to align their projects with the trends of consumer preferences, and also helps in determining the presentation formats for augmented real estate tours.
Improved Return-on-Investment (ROI):

Augmented reality allows real estate agents and developers to quantify and track their consumer engagement using measured parameters. AR technology gathers and stores various types of data, such as the number of people virtually interacting with a property, the time that they spend in such interaction, their location etc. This enables agents and developers to optimize their augmented real estate visits, which is especially important in the luxury sector.