Champagne Soda: Property Purchase Made Easy with Interactive VR

“A decade ago people switched from newspapers to the internet to trade. In near future, online images and videos won’t suffice as consumers will demand real-time experiences prior to purchase,” remarks Brooke Smith, CEO of Champagne Soda. Considering these trends, Australia-based Champagne Soda attempts to redefine the experience of property purchases and disrupt the real-estate market through a VR (Virtual Reality) – AR (Augmented Reality) integrated platform. In the industry, there is much confusion between 360 photography virtual tours and VR tours. Just because something is shot in 360 degrees, does not constitute it as being virtual reality. VR goes far beyond a 360 image and becomes a fully immersive environment in which the user forms a stronger emotional connection. VR is a more sophisticated technology and is far more responsive for the end user. In VR you control the experience, whereas in 360 you’re simply along for the ride.

Imagine an experience where the buyer Instead of being shown floor plans, basic designs, presentations and colour swatches to envision what a property will look like prior to build, they are immersed into an environment that shows the property fully furnished with spacious rooms, walls painted with elegance, and attractive furniture during their virtual reality tour. As the buyer continues to take the virtual tour, they get a chance to change the wall colors, customize the designs, or add furniture according to their desires. Once fully acquainted and satisfied with the future construction of their property of choice, they go on to strike the perfect deal with the Agent.

Before the advent of VR/AR platforms, accessibility to view a display home was always limited to the physical location of the display home and was only available for a set amount of time. For years such limitations have posed a major challenge to the real estate industry. Champagne Soda has addressed and solved these hurdles with the use of VR & AR technology. Smith proclaims, “With our VR and AR technology, a prospective buyer can take a virtual interactive tour within any property, at any time, from anywhere in the world.”

This opens up enormous possibilities for real-estate businesses to scale up globally. In an industry where properties are traditionally sold post construction, Champagne Soda's solution empowers developers in trading properties ‘even before a brick is laid’ effectively bypassing the need for an on-site display process altogether. This innovative approach has been shown to aid the property dealers in substantially reducing marketing budgets and time delays while increasing revenues by allowing a reallocation of resources to other profitable activities rather than being dependent on time consuming on-site displays.

According to Smith, giving customers access to a custom-design and empowering them with a virtual experience of their purchase prior to its development, allows greater confidence and emotional connection with a property of choice. In the long run, this is going to be beneficial for the developers as engineers will continuously get to monitor the construction performance and design exactly according to the customer’s specifications, effortlessly adjust execution, and respond to any operational problems in real time. Owing to these capabilities, Champagne Soda’s developer clients have experienced high demand surges and a significant increase in pre-sells. The company, utilizing AR/VR in real estate, aims to assist its clients in pre-selling 70-80 percent of any development prior to its construction.

To remain at the forefront of the realty sector, Brooke and Julien continuously incorporate cutting-edge solutions into their platform. In combination with more powerful AR, Champagne Soda is focused on integrating Holographic Imagery Technology that could generate 3D holographic projections right from a building’s construction plan drawn on paper, assisting in better analysis throughout the process’ execution. The company also acknowledges the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the current business landscape and is heavily invested in the process of implementing AI characteristics into their platform. The Champagne Soda team strongly believes that it will assist real estate businesses in better targeting their customers and foster a more personalized buying experience for everyone involved.