Tech continues to transform the real estate world. It helps us assess the value of property. It enables people to spot trends. It assists real estate pros as they market, map, and make predictions. It enables “dream home” buyers to participate in the design work.
Most important of all, technology plays a housing affordability role.
Here, we take a peek at just a few innovations in real estate to watch.
Virtual Reality Offers More Than Walkthroughs.
Five years ago, analysts at the high-profile accounting firm PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) made predictions for their milestone Seeing Is Believing report. The report looked at likely financial impacts of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) by 2030.
Now, the predictions are playing out. Today’s buyers can explore architectural design through mobile apps or special glasses. We can take immersive home tours, plus a whole lot more.
Builders and sellers may now let customers check out interior changes they might like — before buying, or even before building. Virtual design and staging are now realities.
A Video Game Inspires a New Home Design Platform.
Unreal Engine 5 is inspired by the global gaming phenomenon Fortnite. It lets clients virtually walk through a home and change interior design with the click of a mouse, Fox Digital reports.
Some developers now design condos and then sell them to interested people by using 3D metaverse-style tech, reports Fox Digital. These leading-edge projects can cost up to a million dollars and take months to create. But early adopters are reaping benefits. They can give potential buyers a feel for living in the homes. They can allow for substantial redesigns as desired, averting potential order changes later. They can help a developer plan for sustainability using accurate data sets.
Whether a platform integrates special eyeglasses or goes television-style, gaming-inspired software presents new ways to create, and to market, real estate structures and styles.
Of course, spending a million dollars is not on most people’s Bingo card in 2024. In fact, many people just can’t buy at all. Rentals are a huge sector now, and tech innovators consider renters a target market, too.
Technology Helps People Handle a Tough Housing Market.
Small landlords want helpful, empowering technology. So do renters. So, can new technologies help first-time buyers and small property investors punch above their weight in a time of expanding corporate ownership of rental homes?
What about technology that helps people seek out affordable housing markets?
Increasingly, rental applicants are looking out-of-state. This is because, given real estate prices and borrowing rates, housing affordability is worse than it’s been in more than three decades. Yet remote and hybrid work settings are now normal. Home technology continues to advance, allowing for more long-distance and contract-based working arrangements.
Then There’s AI Tech That Unlocks Access to Deeds.
To obtain a mortgage and acquire a deed, people have to show credit strength. Rent-reporting software can help. It deploys artificial intelligence (AI) to expand the sources of credit data for a lender’s consideration.
Conventional loans are starting to integrate rent payments into mortgage applicants’ histories. The Credit Builders Alliance runs a Rent Reporting Center to help property owners and renters, and recommends software with add-ons for rent reporting. It’s one way AI in real estate tech supports housing opportunities for people. Expect this, and other financial empowerment ideas, to thrive in the U.S. housing environment.
Our hats are off to the innovators committed to housing affordability and inclusivity. Access to a home deed should be everyone’s prerogative.
Supporting References
Kristen Altus in the New York Post (part of NYP Holdings, Inc.): Real Estate Industry Takes Page From Popular Video Game to Sell Homes (Mar. 23, 2024; originally published by Fox Business, quoting Eric Fordin from Related Group).
Michael Lucarelli for HousingWire (HW Media, LLC): Real Estate – Five Trends That Will Reshape the Real Estate Market in 2024 (Dec. 19, 2023).
Jeremy Dalton et al. for PwC United Kingdom, via PwC.com: Seeing Is Believing – How AR and VR Will Transform Business and the Economy (Nov. 15, 2019).
And as linked.
More on topics: “Virtual twin” 3D building models, AI instead of real estate agents?
Photo credit: Eric Mclean, via Pexels/Canva.