Worldwide and locally in New Zealand we are experiencing record breaking online interest in virtual tours following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Google Trends data visually shows the spike in search interest for ‘virtual tours’. The level in which searches have increased is phenomenal.
Worldwide interest started to surge mid-March and reached peak levels on March 27th and has remained at many multiples over pre COVID-19 search volume.
For businesses like topVIEW who have been specialising in virtual tours for over 5 years, this five year chart shows how dramatic this increase is.
“We are experiencing an unprecedented volume of enquiries for virtual tours each day. The majority of these enquiries are coming from real estate agents and agencies looking for new technology based approaches to showing houses to buyers following lockdown restrictions and social distancing guidelines. But we are also seeing enquiries from businesses with show rooms, show homes and retail spaces to name a few.”
Sam Kynman-Cole – topVIEW founder and Virtual Tour Specialist.
Both because of and as a result of the record level of interest in virtual tours, there is an unprecedented number of news media stories talking about virtual tours. Every day many more news stories are published along the lines of how real estate agents are turning to virtual tours to show houses to buyers digitally, along with the likes of video tours, Zoom video calls.
US based camera and 3D virtual tour software maker Matterport has reported similar suges in demand.
James Morris-Mauneul of Matterport said requests for its property 3D virtual tours have increased by 700% over the past weeks.
Local Auckland real estate agents have been quickly ramping up their virtual offerings.
Caleb Paterson, Managing Director of Telos Group Real Estate started offering complementary 3D Virtual Tours with all new listings in late March.
For real estate agents, 3D virtual tours are a game changer, and they’re needed more now than ever before. The real estate industry is able to get back to work on Tuesday 28th April 2020. But operating under Level 3 isn’t normal. REINZ has released guidelines for agents on how to operate under level 3 lockdown. Agents must have a COVID-19 safety plan, they can’t host open homes and agents should still work from home. Fortunately real estate agents have the go-ahead to host private home viewings, but along with all the health and safety measures and contact tracing steps required, any viewers need to be highly qualified buyers. The 3D virtual tour both gives the buyer a tool to explore the property and pre-qualify themselves accurately and a tool the agent can use to virtually take the buyer around the house via video call like Zoom before taking the rigorous steps required to do an in person showing.
topVIEW are 3D Virtual Tour specialists. We’ve created many hundreds of high quality virtual tours for businesses and real estate agents in Auckland and across New Zealand and internationally. For a free 15 minute video consultation, where we can discuss your needs and how a virtual tour may be highly beneficial to you, contact us today.
To learn more about our 3D virtual tours for businesses, click here.
To learn more about our 3D virtual tours for real estate, click here.