Real eState

Virtual reality is shaping the future of real estate – Western Investor

Published

3 years ago

April 30, 2022

Remote work and online sales received a boost during the pandemic and led to changes in how real estate was sold. Virtual tours and remote signing became options for many buyers as the industry pivoted to address the new environment.

But for developers, the traditional display suite remains the cornerstone of sales efforts, providing a physical, tangible encounter with what a future home will be like.

“It’s proven. You can’t debate that it works,” said Hani Lammam, executive vice-president, Cressey Development Group, of traditional presentation suites. “My perspective is that this is such a big decision, you want to be able to touch it and feel it. This is a big investment for people.”

Cressey has never used virtual reality to sell homes, and Lammam doesn’t expect to use it while buyers are still wanting to tour presentation centres.

But since 2016, Stambol Studios of Vancouver has been creating virtual environments for developers from architectural plans to help buyers visualize and understand a potential purchase.

“We basically take [the architect’s plans], turn them into incredibly realistic renderings of the buildings with all the elements that make a building sellable,” said Dogu Taskiran, CEO of Stambol. “If they have a virtual reality headset attached to a mobile device or a computer, then they can get into these units and walk into them as if they are already built.”

Its clients include Etro Construction Ltd., for which it rendered the Turner Dairy project at 17th Avenue and Ontario Street in Vancouver. Visitors could don a VR headset and see what the townhomes planned for the site would look like even before the century-old dairy on the site was demolished.

Stambol also worked with Lark Group of Surrey to create a virtual experience within a job site trailer rather than build out a full presentation suite for an 18-unit condo development on Semiahmoo Spit in Blaine, Washington.

“They could also use the same material to send to their overseas investors or embed it on their website and then use it on social media,” Taskiran said. “One stone gets 50 birds, really.”

This is cost-effective, both because of the reach and the material costs involved. A single suite in a display centre can cost $250,000; building out and furnishing a full home can be many times more.

“Most developers spend up to $2 million to create that and it’s throw-away work, it’s not eco-friendly,” Taskiran said. “This, less than $50,000 will give you one three-bedroom apartment.”

The cost savings appeal to Joey Coupland, vice-president, sales with Wesgroup Properties LP, which uses augmented images to save on material costs.

“Building a presentation centre and a show suite is always expensive, so we’re always considering another option or another tool we could use to display our homes or our product,” she said.

Virtual staging – augmenting pictures of real homes with imagery of furniture – has been the most common practice to date.

“It’s significantly less than buying the furniture and staging [the home],” she says.

But when it comes to a full-on virtual option, she says the physical experience wins every time.

“It’s not the preferred experience we want to create for our homeowners, so we’re always building our show suites,” she said. “We see the benefit in the homeowners coming through and touching and feeling the materials, seeing the attention to detail.”

But as the technology evolves, project marketers like Ryan Lalonde see things changing. Stambol’s creation of virtual realities that people can enter in a presentation suite may well become the sort of environment people will experience from home. This could allow them to shop properties, allowing them to compare homes, or commercial space, without ever going to the physical site.

“Virtual reality is an immersive experience that is … going to unlock and remove some of the roadblocks and the hurdles that they feel in purchasing real estate,” he said.

Parallel reality

However, it could also create spaces people could inhabit parallel to real life, something he sees changing how people socialize. Rather than go to a restaurant or gather at home, people would enter a virtual restaurant space from their living rooms.

This is already the reality at Stambol Studios, where staff collaborate remotely through their headsets.

“Our entire team is actually doing virtual work, together, as if they’re in the same office,” Taskiran said. “You can turn right and talk to that person, turn left and talk to that person.”

On March 21, Stambol launched Order in Box, a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to handle trade in the digital certificates of ownership attached to such environments.

“You will be able to buy a virtual home, paying for it in cryptocurrency and get an NFT for it,” he said. “That will be your record of ownership, then you can get into it and live in it through virtual reality.”

The home’s furnishings and artwork would have NFTs, too. It could sit on virtual land represented by an NFT.

“People gathering around the same asset is what makes something valuable,” he said. “You build up value that way and I’ve known many developers who have virtual real estate now.”

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Real eState

Greater Toronto home sales jump in October after Bank of Canada rate cuts: board

Published

3 days ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales in October surged as buyers continued moving off the sidelines amid lower interest rates.

The board said 6,658 homes changed hands last month in the Greater Toronto Area, up 44.4 per cent compared with 4,611 in the same month last year. Sales were up 14 per cent from September on a seasonally adjusted basis.

The average selling price was up 1.1 per cent compared with a year earlier at $1,135,215. The composite benchmark price, meant to represent the typical home, was down 3.3 per cent year-over-year.

“While we are still early in the Bank of Canada’s rate cutting cycle, it definitely does appear that an increasing number of buyers moved off the sidelines and back into the marketplace in October,” said TRREB president Jennifer Pearce in a news release.

“The positive affordability picture brought about by lower borrowing costs and relatively flat home prices prompted this improvement in market activity.”

The Bank of Canada has slashed its key interest rate four times since June, including a half-percentage point cut on Oct. 23. The rate now stands at 3.75 per cent, down from the high of five per cent that deterred many would-be buyers from the housing market.

New listings last month totalled 15,328, up 4.3 per cent from a year earlier.

In the City of Toronto, there were 2,509 sales last month, a 37.6 per cent jump from October 2023. Throughout the rest of the GTA, home sales rose 48.9 per cent to 4,149.

The sales uptick is encouraging, said Cameron Forbes, general manager and broker for Re/Max Realtron Realty Inc., who added the figures for October were stronger than he anticipated.

“I thought they’d be up for sure, but not necessarily that much,” said Forbes.

“Obviously, the 50 basis points was certainly a great move in the right direction. I just thought it would take more to get things going.”

He said it shows confidence in the market is returning faster than expected, especially among existing homeowners looking for a new property.

“The average consumer who’s employed and may have been able to get some increases in their wages over the last little bit to make up some ground with inflation, I think they’re confident, so they’re looking in the market.

“The conditions are nice because you’ve got a little more time, you’ve got more choice, you’ve got fewer other buyers to compete against.”

All property types saw more sales in October compared with a year ago throughout the GTA.

Townhouses led the surge with 56.8 per cent more sales, followed by detached homes at 46.6 per cent and semi-detached homes at 44 per cent. There were 33.4 per cent more condos that changed hands year-over-year.

“Market conditions did tighten in October, but there is still a lot of inventory and therefore choice for homebuyers,” said TRREB chief market analyst Jason Mercer.

“This choice will keep home price growth moderate over the next few months. However, as inventory is absorbed and home construction continues to lag population growth, selling price growth will accelerate, likely as we move through the spring of 2025.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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Homelessness: Tiny home village to open next week in Halifax suburb

Published

2 weeks ago

October 24, 2024

Anne Joseph

HALIFAX – A village of tiny homes is set to open next month in a Halifax suburb, the latest project by the provincial government to address homelessness.

Located in Lower Sackville, N.S., the tiny home community will house up to 34 people when the first 26 units open Nov. 4.

Another 35 people are scheduled to move in when construction on another 29 units should be complete in December, under a partnership between the province, the Halifax Regional Municipality, United Way Halifax, The Shaw Group and Dexter Construction.

The province invested $9.4 million to build the village and will contribute $935,000 annually for operating costs.

Residents have been chosen from a list of people experiencing homelessness maintained by the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.

They will pay rent that is tied to their income for a unit that is fully furnished with a private bathroom, shower and a kitchen equipped with a cooktop, small fridge and microwave.

The Atlantic Community Shelters Society will also provide support to residents, ranging from counselling and mental health supports to employment and educational services.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2024.

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Here are some facts about British Columbia’s housing market

Published

3 weeks ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

Housing affordability is a key issue in the provincial election campaign in British Columbia, particularly in major centres.

Here are some statistics about housing in B.C. from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s 2024 Rental Market Report, issued in January, and the B.C. Real Estate Association’s August 2024 report.

Average residential home price in B.C.: $938,500

Average price in greater Vancouver (2024 year to date): $1,304,438

Average price in greater Victoria (2024 year to date): $979,103

Average price in the Okanagan (2024 year to date): $748,015

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Vancouver: $2,181

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Victoria: $1,839

Average two-bedroom purpose-built rental in Canada: $1,359

Rental vacancy rate in Vancouver: 0.9 per cent

How much more do new renters in Vancouver pay compared with renters who have occupied their home for at least a year: 27 per cent

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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