Letting potential condo owners see the future
Virtual reality could help home buyers make decision before unit is built
Condo builder Concord Adex is using virtual reality to help home buyers make the leap of faith required to pour hard-saved housing dollars into a floor plan or architectural rendering.
The developer says that VR demystifies the home-buying experience by letting the customer experience the scale, finishes and flow of a unit that hasn’t yet been built. The full experience is available at the Concord sales centre at Spadina Ave., where consumers can try on goggles tethered to a gaming computer and tour the suites at the LakeFront and LakeShore towers, which are being built at the foot of Bathurst St.
“A rendering is a static perspective. It only allows you to show one angle or one specific perspective,” said Matt Grant of Vancouver’s LNG Studios, which has provided architectural images to Concord for about a decade.
VR “is a much more immersive experience because you’re actually able to walk and move and, the graphics are rendered in real time,” he said.
There’s also a mobile version that runs off the Concord360.com website. Grant likens it to Google Streetview, where the viewer sees a 360degree spherical photograph. Concord is distributing 6,000 VR goggles that are built to clip onto a mobile phone, said Grant.
But, he said, companies such as Apple and Samsung are developing VR equipment that will very soon be within reach for the average consumer.
In addition to experiencing the scale and layout of the condo, the VR experience allows the viewer to see it in different lighting conditions and from different height perspectives.
Grant helped a woman in a wheelchair tour an apartment at the debut of its new sales tool in Vancouver recently.
“She was noticing things like, ‘My wheelchair would fit here, I can get around the kitchen island, I can spin around in a circle here and I can open the fridge and not get stuck in a corner.’ It was really practical for her,” he said.
About 500 people have tried the Concord VR presentation in Toronto and Vancouver. “This is the future of how things are done,” said Grant.