'They've proved incredibly popular': Virtual tools allow buyers to design their new house from home

Sales of new homes have dipped, but volume home builders say virtual tools are helping them through the coronavirus crisis.

While some aspiring home buyers are putting their plans on hold amid the pandemic, the construction of new homes is continuing around Australia. And large builders, who typically rely on people falling in love with their homes at display villages, are finding new ways to engage with customers.

Like most property companies, Japanese-owned builder and developer Sekisui House is opening its display suites for private inspections and directing potential customers to its online home tours.

“Australians love property and we’re being able to facilitate that through private one-on-one inspections and our newly implemented 3D virtual tours, which have proved incredibly popular,” said Tara Roser, Sekisui House sales and customer relations manager.

“The success of tools such as these 3D tours has given buyers renewed confidence and, no doubt, these innovations will change the way new homes are marketed into the future.”

Sydney-based Rawson Group said new inquiries had fallen by 60 per cent, but web traffic had surged. Sales and marketing general manager Doug Phillips attributed this to the company’s website tools and to people having more time to research.

“Fortunately we had invested heavily in digital technology over the past few years, so we are able to bring many of the important elements of home buying to clients from the comfort of their own home, for example 3D online tours of the homes and selection centres,” he said.

“We have moved all our traditional face-to-face appointments to virtual, through the help of technology. You can now complete the whole process virtually from selecting your floor plan, tender presentation, all the way to selection of your fixtures and fittings.”

Sales had slowed in the past month for Melbourne property group Burbank, but leads revived when the company launched its 3D visualisation tool MyPlace, said managing director Jarrod Sanfilippo.

The interactive platform allows customers to mix and match home designs, floor plans and finishes themselves online.

“Customer inquiries have increased almost three-fold,” he said. “It has been very popular with customers who aren’t able to visit our display homes, but still want to keep their home building journey progressing.

“MyPlace technology took two years to build and we had no idea when we started what the world would be like now, but it is certainly proving very useful for customers in this time of social distancing and lockdown.”

Social media is proving to be a worthwhile channel for Clarendon Homes, which has experienced a promising uptick in web traffic recently.

“We are pushing more customer engagement through our social media channels via Instagram Lives and community management strategies,” said marketing executive Tiffany Nash.

“In the past month, we saw a dip in display centre traffic and website traffic, but it is starting to pick back up quite quickly. Our display centre traffic isn’t anywhere near it was before, but it seems to be a solid number each week and these people are strong leads.”

And despite the slump in sales being felt across the industry, the chief executive of Australia’s largest builder Metricon said he was optimistic about the future.

“In recent weeks our new sales and web inquiries, managed through our national contact centre, have been very promising,” said Mario Biasin.

“The level of inquiry over Easter in particular was very strong. Although this is not translating into immediate sales, we know that people are still very interested in new home builds and we are taking this level of inquiry as a strong sign that when COVID-19 passes, we will see our sales volumes increase again once people feel more certain about their employment.”