Virtual Reality Tech Helping Housing Sales in Japan

June 27, 2018

Osaka- Services in the Japanese housing industry that take advantage of virtual reality technologies are helping would-be buyers to choose new homes.

The new services enable customers to simulate the experience of being inside custom-built houses before construction starts and previewing condominiums ahead of purchase or renovation.

The cutting-edge technologies are helping home builders to win contracts and strengthen marketing amid a labor shortage in the industry.

Sekisui House Ltd. launched a service in February that creates virtual reality images for custom-built homes based on the designs of customers.

Wearing special goggles, customers visiting a model home can simulate the desired arrangement of rooms as well as the exterior of the house and garden.

By using personal three-dimensional glasses provided for free, customers are also able to view the image data on their smartphones and share the images with relatives and friends.

Unlike conventional 2-D plans and images, 3-D images provide buyers with a more realistic understanding of homes for sale, company officials said.

"In an increasing number of cases, contracts have been concluded on the basis of the virtual reality data," a sales and marketing representative at Sekisui House said.

Misawa Homing Co., a renovation unit of Misawa Homes Co., provides a service that enables buyers to view 3-D virtual images of their condos following future renovation.

The service, launched earlier this year at model homes in Mitaka, Tokyo, and the eastern Japan city of Chiba, has been positively received by would-be buyers.

The company is considering making the service available at more of its sites, an official said.

Daiwa House Industry Co. is known for using virtual reality technologies to help cut costs and strengthen sales and marketing.

Visitors can view 3-D images of used condos for sale and other properties at an unmanned sales base located at a commercial facility in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo.

"We can certainly make more customer contacts there," a company official said. Daiwa plans to launch some three additional such unmanned sales bases as early as this year. Jiji Press