While house-hunters may have been seriously affected by the closure of sales and marketing offices across the UK, technology has been stepping up to keep their search going.
Developer Avanton has announced that an NHS doctor has recently reserved a property at its Coda building in Battersea after an electronic tour of the show apartment. The ‘virtual viewing’ is run in partnership with First Viewings and allows the potential buyer to run the simple-to-use system on devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops or desktop PCs. In the case of Coda, there’s a fully electronic tour of the £820,000, two-bedroom show home.
Coda
The doctor, who works at St Thomas’s in London Bridge, has purchased a 425-sq-ft studio, which was on sale for £510,000. The virtual tour was followed with offsite negotiations with the sales team, who were all confirming to ‘lockdown’ by working from home. A deal was done within 48 hours of the viewing, with Avanton delighted to recognise its customer’s continuous help with the nation’s coronavirus crisis by providing a large discount on price in addition to a gift, including Uber credits to get to and from the hospital safely.
Online property viewings have increased by 80% since the COVID-19 outbreak began. David Ronson, sales and marketing director at Coda commented: “As highlighted by the recent reservation carried out via our virtual viewing, demand for London property will undoubtedly remain and the use of virtual tours allows our potential buyers to view the Coda show apartment in a safe way adhering to the government’s advice.”
Because there’s no existing occupier, buying a brand new home can carry on as normal beyond exchanging contracts to complete while observing ‘lockdown’ and working remotely, as per the guideline from the Ministry of Housing and The Law Society.
Prices at Coda for a one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment start from £575,000, £750,000 and £1.375m respectively. London Help to Buy is available on prices up to £600,000. Find out more online.
Another example of increasing the number of virtual viewings is a partnership between Galliard Homes and on-line tech firm Reevo 360. They have launched innovative guided virtual viewings for buyers across the developer’s whole London portfolio of homes for sale. Technology means that the home-working sales agents are able to market properties via virtual viewings technology and remote telephone/video calls, and lead to offers made and accepted.
Baltimore Tower (Galliard Homes)
Reevo 360 has spent some 18 months distilling the virtual viewing technology and visited Galliard apartments and houses across the capital and using its bespoke IT and camera rig to produce 360° interior and exterior views of the homes, alongside RICS floorplans and still photos.
Potential buyers are sent a digital link for the property they are interested in viewing, along with a unique access code which connects the buyer’s screen to that of the sales agent. This enables the agent to speak to and interact with the buyer and take them on a professionally guided virtual viewing of the home for sale, with the sales person conversing and outline all the features and benefits of the property, and answering any buyer questions during the virtual viewing.
Like a physical viewing, the virtual version could be ten minutes to more than an hour, as the potential buyer needs. This system works on a full range of devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop and desktop PC) across the world and it is encrypted and secure and is unique to the buyer. In addition, at the invitation of the potential purchaser, up to 50 other people, such as partners, members of the family and advisers, can have connected screens with the sales agent and join the virtual viewing.
Galliard now has a team of 25 dedicated agents who are able to provide buyers with virtual tours across its London development collection. Based on physical tours data, the company calculates that they could receive requests for up to 120 virtual tours per month, if not more over the coming two quarters of 2020.
David Galman, sales director at Galliard Homes, says: “Over the past month we have continued to have 20 sales per week across our London portfolio, double last year during the Brexit stagnation. Our buyers want to view properties, yet stay safe from Coronavirus; so this roll-out of virtual viewings is an innovative solution to help meet this demand.”
2 Royalty Mews (Beauchamp Estates)
Reevo 360 is also working with ultra-prime estate agent Beauchamp Estates for virtual viewings of its luxury London portfolio of homes for sale or letting. Among the new build homes it is currently inviting house-hunters to tour virtually are four apartments at 2 Royalty Mews in Soho, each with private patios/balcony/terrace, and starting from £3.9million; Islington Square, with newly completed apartments priced from £815,000; Elsworthy Rise, a collection of three-/four-bedroom townhouses; priced at £10,000,000; and 158 Old Brompton Road, where two one-bedroom apartments and a two-bedroom duplex penthouse start from £849,500.
Jeremy Gee, managing director of Beauchamp Estates said: “Our virtual viewings offer clients a truly interactive 360 degree tour of a property where a member of our team actually guides the applicant remotely through the home, talking through its features with them and answering questions, just as they do in the real world.”