The crisis led by Covid-19 has impacted our day-to-day lives and derailed the global economy. The pandemic has disrupted our regular ways of living and working. The way businesses are conducted at the moment keeping in mind social distancing and other safety measures have only compelled to slow down or adopt new ways of running a business. What's hard to find is in-person communication and meetings.
In terms of real estate, the industry has always stayed updated and well-informed with its skilled professionals and its next move. However, the pandemic did not spare the industry and in fact, caused serious losses. The losses will be recovered soon and with this hope, the pandemic has opened new opportunities for the Indian real estate sector. The biggest opportunity lies in the use of immersive technology.
Over the years, real estate has relied heavily on workforce and in-person communication to help customers decide on property buying. There is a presence of property selling oriented technology use but the investment and exposure are relatively less.
The outbreak of Covid-19 seems to have proved to be an eye-opener for real estate. The widespread adoption of immersive technology will change the way real estate as a significant sector operates forever. Let's first understand what immersive technology is.
The key offerings of immersive technology
With the potential of becoming a useful tool for design communication, immersive technology creates a new kind of reality through the means of an interactive and intuitive interface. It enables the users to immerse themselves in a digital environment.
With its 360 approach, the users can look in any direction and see the content. Keeping in mind social distancing as the need of the hour, immersive technology allows people to work remotely without any obstruction.
There are five types of immersive technology:
The most basic immersive technology, 360, is popular and widely used in online platforms such as YouTube and Facebook. The 360 content enables the creators more space to work as well as users can look in any direction while viewing the content.
- Virtual Reality (VR) is quite a familiar term among the young generation. It completely shuts the user from the rest of the world and through a head-mounted display (HMD), the user experiences the content which becomes his/her reality.
- Unlike VR that completely shuts the user from the real world, Augmented Reality (AR) displays digital images that are presented on top of the real world.
- Mixed Reality (MR) comprises combined features of AR and VR. It uses a head-mounted display like VR but in the form of a pair of glasses. Like AR, MR displays digital images on top of the real environment.
- Combining the features of VR, AR, and MR, Extended Reality (XR) comes in the picture as a form of immersive technology.
Immersive Technology allows the real estate sector to tap into consumers’ emotions like no other by showcasing features, amenities, and other benefits when deciding to buy a particular property.
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Immersive technology in Indian real estate
The real estate and construction industry like many other industries in India is trying to cope up with the losses, sustain employees, and find various ways to serve its customers. For so many decades, Indian realty has heavily relied on conventional methodologies, and lack the use of new technology.
A larger inclusion of immersive technology has the potential to revolutionise real estate. Real estate developers who are yet to explore this form of technology should make their move right away, and the ones who have been using it on the surface level should immerse the technology more in their business.
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People in prime cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, and Kolkata are educated, tech-savvy and well-informed, mostly. These cities also have the presence of reputed realtors who are empowered to invest the maximum in resources and technology. Both factors when combined can lead to an enhanced level of business in property dealings. For instance, the facility of finding properties online eventually became so popular that today, online property search accounts for more than 50% out of the total online-offline property related queries.
Visiting various properties before making the final decision is a tiring process. Augmented reality and virtual reality helps the buyers to skip such time-consuming processes. By offering 360-degree tours, AR and VR tours in online marketplaces through their websites, realtors can offer a streamlined experience for the buyers.