Commercial Real Estate and Virtual Reality

December 20, 2016

It’s taken a while for virtual reality to become more than a dream. And now that it’s here full-time (literally in front of our noses) it’s hard to miss all the different industries looking to implement VR into their arsenal.

In fact, virtual reality was ranked as the second biggest advertising trend of 2016.

And in terms of industries, there’s no bigger one with more VR potential than commercial real estate.

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As one of the most antiquated industries out there, commercial real estate is singlehandedly embracing virtual reality in a myriad of ways. Let’s dive in.

If you think for a second, that CEO’s, CFO’s. HR reps and other C-level executives (who happen to be decision makers for these kind of big moves) have a lot of free time, you’re sorely mistaken. And that’s exactly where virtual reality is looking to open things up by a wide margin.

Yes, big brands are integrating VR into their activations, product launches and other events, but VR is actually becoming a tool to aid the commercial real estate industry.

VR presents an opportunity for not only C level executives to ‘tour’ potential spaces, but also can get a feel for how they could be ‘dressed’ differently, without having to leave their offices. They could realistically tour a dozen spaces across the country in a matter of minutes and make decisions to move their office, company or headquarters solely based on touring a potential space in VR.

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Now, that doesn’t go without saying, I fully believe nothing will ever replace stepping into a space for the first time. Having the ability to use all five senses is a magical thing, and I firmly believe nothing could ever replace it. However, with that said, VR does open up at least one of the five key senses.

Seeing.

And in terms of VR, seeing is believing. With a number of potential devices out there, Samsung Gear, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Google Daydream, Google Cardboard and more, the options aren’t the issue.

Creating the content is.

Crafting virtual reality content (aka mapping a virtual space) is not easy. It requires a bankroll of time and a serious attention to detail. Not only that, but ‘dressing’ a room with options can be painstakingly complicated. Then of course, you have a medium to decide to experience it in. Is it a ‘guided’ experience, or do you fully want to immerse yourself in a moveable space, allowing someone the ability to transcend the interior through the powers of time and virtual reality?

A few last minute thoughts here…

Virtual reality will change the commercial real estate industry forever

Commercial Real Estate Brokers need to be on board with tenants implementing VR tours of their spaces

Commercial real estate owners must be on the VR bandwagon. If they are late to the game, they will be losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in profit over the years to come

‘Time is money.’ Everyone wishes they had more time, but now you can literally save time for those big decision makers by giving them a VR experience

Nothing will ever replace an in-person meeting. However, the people you’ll be meeting with will already have one foot in the door, so to speak

Virtual reality is an easily-shared experience and will be a future form of communication. It will become a standard tool for companies, brands and most importantly, people.

Innovation is key. Chances are your competitors are already reading this. What will you do to outmaneuver them and create something totally unique and original?

If you’re an interested client, or third party looking to implement virtual reality into an experience, please get ahold of our team here at Inphantry.

You can email our whole agency at: base@inphantry.com and check out the bulk of our work here.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter here as well @Inphantry

P.S. A few bonus articles….

“$80 Billion Dollars….that’s how much a recent study by Goldman Sachs Research predicts that virtual and augmented reality will become an $80 billion market by 2025, of which $2.6 billion will be specifically for real estate. This is roughly the same size of the desktop PC market today. The VR/AR sector is transforming real estate, as well as other industries such as healthcare, engineering, and education.” Read more here…

Commercial Real Estate and Virtual Reality

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