Augmented Reality in the Property Marketing Industry

Augmented Reality (AR) overlays digital information, such as images, videos, and other interactive elements, onto the real-world environment. This technology is typically associated with software and apps, viewed through devices like smartphones and tablets, or hardware like headsets or glasses, allowing users to interact with both virtual and physical elements simultaneously. The quality of these products varies greatly, and the application of this technology in smaller, wearable packages, such as glasses, is still in its infancy.

Introduction

Products like the Apple Vision Pro are more bulky than simple glasses but have received great reviews since their launch. Competitors to the Apple Vision Pro include the Meta Quest Pro, which is also a headset device, and the Pro XR Glasses, which take a minimalist approach, acting as simple glasses on your face.

The idea behind Augmented Reality is to enhance our everyday lives by increasing the flow of available information at any moment throughout our day. This type of wearable technology will ideally reduce our reliance on our phones, smartwatches, and other devices, so that our hands can remain free while we reap all the benefits of the devices we’re so used to.

As someone who has played video games throughout my life, where statistics and numbers and words appear readily on my screen as I progress through the game, Augmented Reality similarly wants to provide us with the same experience, except in real life. This opens up a vast array of possibilities for property marketing, introducing new ways to present established technologies such as Virtual Staging and CGI, while making the customer experience more engaging than ever.

This article will cover the following:

• The difference between Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, their use cases, and how they are poised to complement each other.
• Use cases for Augmented Reality in a general sense, and more specifically in the property industry.
• Three perspectives on Augmented Reality, from real estate companies to commercial projects, as well as home buyers and sellers.

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Understanding Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality

In the property industry, we are most familiar with Virtual Reality technology in terms of products such as virtual staging, where a home’s interiors are altered or completely changed. In other industries, such as gaming, virtual reality technology has become far more immersive, allowing users to play in real time in some 3D world they can interact with.

The auto-mobile industry has adopted Virtual Reality in a different way, allowing the design of exact 3D replicas of engines, wheels, gearboxes, and how all these components fit together, creating virtual vehicles before they’re sent into production. The common thread here is that these Virtual Reality applications have limited integration with the real world; they are self-contained in their virtual domains.

On the fringe, Augmented Reality may seem very similar to Virtual Reality, but the key difference is how Augmented Reality technology is set up to integrate with the real world, often in real time. Augmented Reality means sliding a digital layer on top of our analogue experience, in a way we haven’t experienced before even with our current reliance on our digital devices.

This may mean holding up our phones to paintings at an art gallery to reveal 3D renditions protruding from the art piece, or doing the same thing at a brand new architectural project reveal, and interacting with these 3D renditions intuitively, like enlarging, rotating, and clicking on points of interest to learn more about them. And as you turn your Augmented Reality-enabled device to other parts of the space you’re in, other digital experiences will reveal themselves without annoying buffer times, creating a seamless flow between digital and physical realms.

How Augmented Reality Enhances Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality is already involved in the property marketing industry, such as Matterport 360 Virtual Tours, virtual staging and renovation, virtual architectural renderings, and so forth. This technology is already making the world smaller, meaning remote property viewings are more accessible than ever, but Augmented Reality is set to further bolster the perks of Virtual Reality. Here, Augmented Reality is all about real-time, current data, and communicating that information seamlessly.

While Augmented Reality focuses primarily on in-person experiences, remote Virtual Reality experiences will be augmented with real-time data such as information about the area a property is located in. Smart homes will particularly benefit from the perks of Augmented Reality in the future, and when conducting remote viewings, you’ll be able to see real-time data like the which certificates of approval still need to be completed, which inspections have been completed, the water pressure of various taps, and even the information about the model of the built-in stove and its extractor fan.

Use Cases for Augmented Reality, Generally and in the Property Marketing Industry

In the next few sections, we’ll look at the power of Augmented Reality in the manufacturing and medical industries to give you an idea of the power and possibility behind the technology. Following this, we’ll dive into how this technology is poised to enhance the property marketing industry in never-before-seen ways.

The manufacturing industry consists of many moving parts, from machinery and robotics to people and logistics. In the research and development side of things, Augmented Reality means that 3D, life-sized models of complex machinery can be overlaid onto the real-life site, while multiple experts work on the 3D model together, enabling them to manoeuvre around and inside the model before any of its parts have been produced. This level of viscerality, of having virtual objects right in front of you, is something not possible when working with such virtual renders on your computer screen.

In the medical sciences, surgery is a task left to the most qualified experts in their particular field. Augmented Reality can assist doctors during surgeries, overlaying real-time information about the patient's vital signs in the doctor’s field of view as they perform an operation. Information like the best location to create an incision or the optimal place to conduct the stitching of damaged organs will be possible with Augmented Reality, being overlaid onto the patient's organs in real-time.

While not a matter of life and death, property marketing will benefit from this technology in similar ways. There are opportunities for all players in the property industry to benefit from Augmented Reality, from commercial property tycoons, real estate agents, architectural firms and construction companies, as well as the consumer at the end of the line who is looking to buy, rent, sell, or invest.

Commercial Property and Augmented Reality

Commercial property is an endeavour often funded by various stakeholders, whether they’re entire corporate entities or individuals looking for long-term investments. Augmented Reality can step in to add a new layer of engagement for property developers who are looking to attract investors and make them believe in the product beyond the concrete and steel.

Imagine, as an investor, you travel to the site where a new data centre is proposed for construction. Instead of relying on static CGI images on your phone, you put on your Augmented Reality glasses, and the data centre pops into life before your eyes. You’re able to see the exterior of the data centre in high definition, and as you toggle different layers on and off, you can clearly see the proposed electrical infrastructure, as well as information about how many litres of water and units of electricity the centre will use per month.

Similarly, architects can use this technology to viscerally understand how their proposed designs will look and function when they travel to the proposed construction site, thus gaining key information about their design before anything is sent to the construction company. Once buildings are completed, Augmented Reality glasses could sync with your Google Calendar and actively direct you to your in-person appointment, laying out waypoints for you in terms of the floor number and office room location, for example.

Private Property and Augmented Reality

Turning away from remote applications for the moment, let’s hone in on how Real Estate companies may turn to Augmented Reality on the ground. Firstly, property walk-throughs with clients will become a truly customisable experience. In empty homes, with technology like Augmented Reality glasses, prospective buyers will have the opportunity to overlay previously created virtual staging products onto the empty rooms of the home.?

Being able to test run various interior design choices such as furniture, finishings, and paint colours in real-time while they walk through the home’s rooms. With simple gestures, these buyers will reorganise furniture, swap different products in and out, and potentially even see how their current furniture will fit into their new home. Information like the length and width of a room and the plug points can be overlaid onto the buyer’s vision.

More advanced applications may include the amount of sunlight a given room receives during different times of the year and what the average temperature in those rooms would be during different seasons. This data could be taken from digital thermometers throughout the home.

The possibilities of Augmented Reality, in the above instance, are heavily dependent on the continued evolution of smart homes and the Internet of Things. Buyers may even learn real-time information about the neighbourhood that the property is located within while driving to their physical viewing, such as the distance to the nearest school, shopping centre, green grocer, transport link, and other businesses in the immediate area.

Real Estate companies may introduce Augmented Reality into their window card property displays on their premises, allowing pedestrian street traffic to gather more information about a property than ever before while viewing a relatively simple piece of marketing. Combined with blockchain and smart contract technology, buyers may be able to make offers on the spot simply after viewing the property using Augmented Reality technology.

This type of technology can extend beyond window cards, and properties for sale which are integrated with Augmented Reality technology could notify potential buyers as they travel past the physical home itself, only alerting users who are actively looking for properties within that price range, location, size, etc. This type of marketing means that potential buyers can find their new home during their day-to-day transits, without even having to use a search engine on the internet.

Ethical Considerations

This whole deal of Augmented Reality meeting marketing opens up a can of worms in terms of ethics. As Augmented Reality practically means walking around everywhere with cameras on our faces, the walls between public and private will begin to crumble, especially since those developing this technology, such as Apple and Meta, already contain expansively detailed personal profiles of all those who use their products.

Augmented Reality technology will allow a further window for these tech giants to peer into our everyday lives, allowing them to add to their profiles of us with even more nuanced and detailed information. When advertisements start to appear in this new Augmented Reality, will we have the option to turn them off, or will these ads only disappear after we scoop up some cash to buy an ad blocker?

There are already ethical concerns about overly personal advertising, and with data collected from Augmented Reality products, product marketing will be so specific it brings into question whether the consumer will even have a choice in whether they purchase a product or not.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve briefly discussed some of the best Augmented Reality products on the market at the moment, although these devices are still relatively clunky, while the smaller, more wearable devices are less powerful. This technology is only getting better, and the small number of competitors in the industry means there’s huge potential for new competitors to enter the market, driving innovation and lowering the costs of these products over time.

We then compared and contrasted Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality followed by a brief description of how these two technologies are poised to enhance each other. Again, Augmented Reality is far more focused on real-time data and presenting it in a seamless way to anyone using the technology.

Some of the practical use cases for Augmented Reality were then explored, using the manufacturing and medical science industries as a segue for understanding the powerful capabilities of this technology. Finally, we delved into the practical applications of Augmented Reality in the property marketing industry, showing examples of how this technology may be used by commercial property investors, construction companies, architects, real estate companies, and ultimately the consumer. A truly exciting world of possibility awaits us!