Rightmove has started to test a virtual reality viewing platform that lets members of the public explore properties without having to leave their sofas.
The Mirror has somewhat sensationally described it as three-dimensional “property porn”.
More prosaically, two virtual reality tours are now available via Rightmove to view on a smart phone through a Google Cardboard headset.
The two properties tested are both in north London – a £2.5m seven-bedroom mansion in Oakleigh Park South and a new development in Finchley Central marketed by estate agent Martyn Gerrard.
Each property was filmed on a camera rig with six connected GoPro cameras, and the footage is stitched together with editing software to create a fully immersive 360-degree video.
People can try out the tour using a Google Cardboard headset on Rightmove’s YouTube channel
For iOS devices the latest version of the YouTube app will need to be installed. The videos can also be viewed by downloading the Littlstar app, the world’s top 360-degree video and VR cinema network.
Potential buyers can also try out the VR property tours at local branches of Martyn Gerrard in its branches at Whetstone and Finchley Central.
Hannes Buhrmann, Rightmove’s head of innovation, said: “Rightmove is always looking for innovative new ways to make the process of searching for and buying a house even easier, and this is an interesting avenue we wanted to explore. We’ve adopted the latest technology and filming techniques to capture and showcase these properties.
“With this approach, potential buyers could get more of a feel for properties and choose ones to visit that really suit their requirements. It could make the whole process more time efficient for buyers, agents and vendors.”
Foxtons is using virtual reality currently only in its Islington office in London. Sotheby’s International Realty is also trialling the technology.
Ahead of the game appears to be Nottingham agent Walton & Allen which is already offering virtual reality viewings on all of its properties, with property hunters able to watch on YouTube via their smartphones.
Walton & Allen is using technology developed by NewtonMedia.TV whose managing director James Newton said that virtual reality does not replace actual viewings, adding: “This knocks down obstacles clients and agents face every day when trying to market a property including scheduling constraints, property access and more.
“Virtual tours have been conducted for years when looking at properties online, but technology has only just been developed to both view through VR headsets AND turn these stills pictures into moving video. This means you can stand outside a property and see how busy the local roads are, for example, as cars drive past all around you. Virtual reality can also include the local country park, thriving marketplace or local attractions.
“Viewers are able to watch at home using YouTube where you can swing your smartphone in any direction to view a different part of the room, although for the best experience it is recommended to use virtual reality headsets to get the full effect of standing inside another property. We expect to see one in almost every home within the next few years.”
Walton & Allen director of residential sales Phil Williams said that the idea is more than a new gimmick and has a practical purpose.
He said: “We want to reduce the number of unnecessary viewings sellers have to go through before achieving a sale.
“It’s all very well estate agents bragging a house has had 27 viewings, but that’s 27 times the seller has had to tidy up and set their time aside for people who, had they seen the Artex on the ceiling or tiny third bedroom beforehand, wouldn’t have wasted their time.”
The Rightmove virtual reality tours are here. What do you think?
Comments (47)
smile please says
‘In fact i cannot ever remember Robert plugging Rummage. I would however from the snippets i have seen, heard like Eye to run a story on it and explain how it can help agents.’
I sincerely hope that this is picked up by the editorial staff – or our resident ‘Proptech’ commentator – although compiling a written explanation will be, I reckon, as easy as explaining the colour purple to a someone born sightless.
I’ve been thinking about this and while the publicity would be welcomed and accelerate revenue growth we’re now past the point of telling everyone how Rummage4 helps agents, it isn’t designed to help agents in the general, it is designed to help ‘some’ agents by giving them an advantage over their competition locally. Telling the Eye audience what it does allows someone else to copy it and the advantage is immediately lost.
If Smile please wants to see how Rummage4 can help his firm the invitation still stands, his is a business I want to help. I would also quite like for AM to understand how OTM tweaked by R4 will help all AM combat the threats to the industry I outlined 18 months before AM was formed.
COR,BLIMEY! Look what I missed yesterday…!
To be honest it was a story that simply by the title didn’t float SS PeeBee in the slightest.
Then I thinks ’44 comments – on an advertorial for a cr@ppy widget? – what’s going on here?’
So I stoked the boilers, cast off, and set sail.
Little did I know that it had all kicked off – and on a non-OTM/Z story for added surprise factor…!
And I’ve got here too late. But the pictures of what happened are, frankly, spectacular!
Seems from where I’m sitting anchored up and surveying the wreckage like some little rickety craft that would clearly struggle to stay afloat in a boating pond decided to take to the big seas and attack an iceberg with a fan heater strapped to her (they’re always referred to in female terms, boats…) bowsprit.
There was only ever going to be one result, and the flotsam recovered from the scene – confirms this to be the case.
The Good Ship HelenaJones92 sank, almost without trace, at approximately 3.31pm (BST) on 27 May 2016 – all souls lost.
Like all disasters at sea – there are lessons to be learned here.
1. It’s really not a good idea to relieve boredom by running headfirst into an iceberg/wall/train/clever person.
2. Trying to punch WAAAAY above your weight usually ends up badly.
3. NEVER tell the others in the typing pool/office/gym/down the pub that you’re gonna teach someone a lesson unless you can/have done.
4. Don’t go into a battle you can’t win in the first place with useless weaponry.
But… somehow – I reckon those lessons will go unheeded.
I WOULD, however, recommend you change username the next time you post, ‘HelenaJones92’. You’ve blown any chance of ever receiving a scrap of credibility from the EYE audience with your efforts to date.
Now… back to the pictures.
I don’t suppose anyone caught it on 3D…?
Weighing into this late in the day. These tours are not going to revolutionise the way we sell houses, but it’s about how you make them work for you.
I’ve been producing quite raw virtual reality video since January, I don’t do do it for every house and it’s mainly for those properties you know are going to attract interest on anyway.
The point being, I use them on my Facebook page, I ask the owners to share it around. We are the only agent doing them as far as I’m aware and we’ve had up to 5k views on our best performer. The knock on effect is that it has got my name infront of 000’s of people for free, doing something different, personal and has led to further business.
Will help when someone is relocating for work and can’t view a rental property before committing.
To be fair, we are not even scratching the surface … and so many underestimate just how much the world will change in the next 10 years (particularly in the ways we all communicate and share)
Some, perhaps, would give ‘the benefit of the doubt’ to this technology for ‘off-plan, £m apartment buyers’ getting a ‘realistic view’ of what they are purchasing through a VR experience (be it in a high-quality ‘experience suite’ or through an App at home) … but the reach will be a whole lot further!
AND … as to as for the “skill of a sales person to reveal just enough (+ create a desire and need for more)” I doubt whether a salesperson will even need to be involved in the process, in the future !! … as vendors of Artificial Intelligence solutions have ALL of that thinking, well in their sights. (A.I. will power all kinds of different services and interactions with better than human levels of perception)
What needs to be clearly stated, is that we should not mix up “Interactive 360 degree tours of homes” (which have been offered to buyers previously and headlined as V’irtual Reality’ … as what is likely to come, very soon … to an Estate Agent / Portal near you, is technology which will do a LOT more than just ‘disrupt’ the playing field!
Thank you for your support, No-one is standing up for the decent professional element of out industry. There is a whole sector of our industry oblivious to PIE or EAT, Twitter and the likes whose business are suffering at the hands of the lies, exaggerations and false claims of some rally quite odious characters. When you take on that sort of devious nastiness you have to expect a run in with ill mannered folk.. At least she posted under her own name and didn’t just hit the dislike button, she has to be respected for that, although it might not go down too well with the corporate professional image she probably ought to portray.
Well said!
When I buy my first house I’m going to go on a fantastic 360 degree tour.
It will be at the house itself.
I love these when they’re done in the right way 🙂 I spotted one released recently which looks amazing! http://space-360.co.uk/ (no it’s not a plug – I don’t even use them).
I they may be a gimmick now, but I reckon they’ll last and become more of a necessity going forward.
Bring on more of this I say!
I love all this stuff, I think it is clever technology. But, it is boring to view and disorientating (plus shocking image quality).
Still photographs are front line, they do the heavy lifting, invest in them first. If your stills are poor no one will get as far as your 360. If your stills have done their job, why put another obstacle in their way … get them in the property.
If you copy and paste
“Rightmove is always looking for innovative new ways to make the process of searching for and buying a house even easier, and this is an interesting avenue we wanted to explore”
into Google translate , use the detect language option (rather than allow it to assume English) and chose “Tech puffery” (after Tamil before Telugu)
it comes back
Rightmove have got a good legacy system that’s getting a bit tired. The novelty is wearing off as an entertainment channel for people who don’t watch BGT, so we’re looking for gimmicks to keep up the visit and time on site stats
Mr May.
I find it hilarious that each day without fail you comment on every article. I appreciate that everyone is entitled to their own opinion on what the property industry may bring but honestly haven’t you got other things to do?
Bit sad really. Now go get back to work on your clunky Rummage 4 project you cynical man.
Much love,
Hel
P.s I’ll stick to Google.
I suppose one could ask why you haven’t got better things to do that read all Robert’s posts. Pot, kettle, black, and all that….
Nobody reads them!
It just funny that he has to voice himself on every single story!
It’s become daily office joke now. People place bets when a new story is released on PIE to see how quickly the Mr Know It All Robert May can comment.
Maybe PIE should start paying him? The amount of hours he must have clocked up typing…
Robert May – you out there? You normally love a good old comment session on this site. Scared are we?
Think you are being a bit harsh on poor old Robert,
Sometimes you do need to read between the lines and unearth the riddles but his comments are relevant and he tries the best for our industry.
In regards to Rummage, he has not abused the system on here like others promoting websites, portals, products, review sites, or this very thread regarding 360 degree tours.
In fact i cannot ever remember Robert plugging Rummage. I would however from the snippets i have seen, heard like Eye to run a story on it and explain how it can help agents.
Robert has good ideas and has the industries best interests at heart but sometimes in my opinion unable to convey them in a manner the public can understand.
To be honest i probably post more than him, i know i am not every bodies cup of tea. But EYE do pay me for the privilege 😉
I get paid to monitor and post on here, that is one of my jobs, a bit like the Tweeters and Facebook staff paid to monitor social media. My job is to detect and protect agents and agency from wrong doing, bad products and false claims. The perceived negativity comes from the requirement to be honest.
We haven’t been working on Rummage4 for a while now, the public free bit is simply an interface that powers the detection system that identified 140,000 corruptions of land registry data and is now detecting cases which are being referred to NTSEAT, CMA, ASA, Rightmove Zoopla and the police.
Invariably the people that don’t like what I post are people who will be affected by what I do, there is a satisfaction in knowing what I do is effective.
Purely for clarification, Robert is not paid by EYE to monitor and post on here. Nor is anyone else.
She has made a very good case Nick and although trying her best to insult me (despite being easily traceable, Windows M click on username to reveal email address) does acknowledge how much effort I put into supporting your site and driving comments.
What works best for you? payment based on reads, comments, likes or dislikes
NEWS FLASH!!!
That’s hilarious and quite shocking.
This is now proof for all the PIE readers out there that we can’t trust what Robert May says. Potentially an article in this scandal…
Your days of trolling and contributing useless negative comments are over Mr May. If your comments were constructive it would be a different story but they’re not, so goodbye.
Kind regards,
The PIE Community
As part of the PIE community, please exclude me from wishing Robert goodbye.
Yes exclude me too. There are plenty of people on this site that don’t share my opinion, or mine theirs, but one thing I do accept is they have a right to voice them.
It was actually your comments I found distasteful Helena. In fact, what you posted was one of the worst examples of cyber bullying I have read on here to date and I genuinely hope the moderators remove you from the site.
Me too SP. PIE would not be the same without Mr May and his constructive points.
Sorry Helena should have said, windows M only works if you are using Edge or Gecko as a browser otherwise it just minimises and you can’t click anything. Try it in Geko (I thought modern yoof knew that stuff)
I love how you’re obsessed with tracing people. What’s the big deal you can get an email address – great.
Have mine – drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you. See below and we’ll speak soon.
Or I could just come to Barnstaple and we meet for a coffee Robert? What work’s better for you?
E: helenajones111@gmail.com
I would be careful printing your email.
Petrified.
With respect since Adobe had 159,000,000 accounts hacked I get offers like yours all the time from girls, blokes etc mainly in Asia and Russia so please don’t be offended if I decline your kind offer.
I’m not obsessed with tracing people , I just look to see who they are and try to understand what I have said or done to cause offence. When I find no historical or connected link I dismiss their insults as instability of mind or character.
I only have one beef with what you said; I admit I post too much, have strong opinions and I won’t back down from a fight especially when insulted or previously insulted. but I do object to your rubbish maths . I post on 20% of stories – not every story.
We’ve been providing 360 Degree Virtual Tours and also 360 Degree Video Tours for the past 6 months now at Andrew Young Estate Agents – Sutton Coldfield, offering them to ALL our clients and at NO ADDITIONAL COST so it’s not just an “expensive gimmick”, as mentioned in the article we believe it helps cut down on the number of potentially uneccessary viewings. Although VR is still an emerging technology we believe it’s an ideal technology to be incorporated into what we do as Estate Agents, but it won’t ever take over from actual viewings whereby viewers can physically walk round the property for themselves.
If you want to view our 360 Video Tours they are available on our YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewyoungestateagentsUk
Oh and for anyone that sees the videos in a stretched out format, this is because maybe you don’t have the latest version of the YouTube app on your smartphone, or if your viewing on an iPhone the videos won’t be 360 unless Safari opens the video in the YouTube app.
What equipment and software do you use to create these? I found it quite impressive.
Buy a Ricoh Theta S – about £300. Very simple to use and far easier and cheaper than a rig of go-pros.
With immoviewer you can use your smartphone and their app to create a tour. Or get a package that includes the Ricoh Theta.
Using a smart phone …….. Can always double up to take pictures for the website and glossy details, great idea! Can bin all the expensive SLR’s and lenses now #TopTip
Immoviewer is expensive and IMO doesn’t add much. The software comes with the camera anyhow.
The skill of a technician is reveal as much as you can and remove the need to know more . The skill of a sales person is to reveal just enough, but create a desire and need for more.
In my humble opinion anyway.
Very well said.
If we are still doing comment of the week this wins for me!
Spot on…
Remember the Motorola ‘Brick’ mobile phone? … life moves on! Augmented reality (+ Artificial Intelligence) is all poised to come together to offer a truly immersive experience (where we will get a sense of presence and dialogue as if we were there.)
The ‘brave new world’ is likely to be about virtual 360 degree ESCORTED viewings (as the technology evolves / waits to catch up with developers desire and the appetite / time constraints of consumers) … and no, it won’t replace physical viewings, but a lot of the bump & grind will disappear.
At F8 (The Facebook Developers Conference) CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook intends to dramatically increase the amount of 360-degree video on its platform … and he launched ‘Surround 360’ (which uses 14 wide-angle cameras, plus one fish-eye camera on top and two more on the bottom, which allows the device to capture the surroundings without showing the pole holding up the camera.) Through ‘Surround 360’ the results are crisp and seamless, with no flaws visible in the footage. On the other hand, viewed through Samsung Gear VR the results are currently a tad grainy / sub-optimal way to view. Yes, it’s all here today, but just wait & see what is around the corner … and it won’t be very long coming!
Speaking of escorted views… check out immoviewer . They combine 360° tours and with fully interactive web conferencing – and virtual reality compatible. As close as you can get to actually being there.
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Hardly revolutionary, 360 degree virtual tours like this have been around for years. I don’t see how sitting in an office with a cardboard headset on makes this any different?
If you think of the old virtual tour as like a cylinder picture, this is a spherical picture that you can choose where you want to look and not just wait for it to move round.
We have been leading in this field for the past 14 years – virtual tours NOT virtual porn! Whatever your views, straight-forward vt’s DO help the online presentation and therefore get you instructions and keep your vendors happy. Very cost-effective – £120 for unlimited vt’s, all equipment supplied.
With respect takes more than a virtual tour to keep a vendor happy, its a gimmick (and not a cheap one).
Great idea on paper. But is not of any valued use … you won’t like that but unless the vendors home is a show house and I have yet to find one in 30 years, has limited use and extremely dangerous as it will put more buyers off and cost agents and vendors otherwise good sales. If only you understood estate agency! It is nothing new 360 tours have been out for nearly 2 decades and failed miserably and they couldn’t see passed the end of their IT noses. Good try but not wanted, does more harm than good.
That looks SO rubbish, everything is curved.
Watch it on a smartphone or tablet. Won’t work on a desktop. Best to open it on the youtube app. If you do it with a VR headset it is surreal and feels like you are actually there. If you are standing you will feel a temptation to walk around.