Virtual Viewings Offer Hope to Realty Market

Strict lockdown measures have halted real-life property viewings and sent the real estate sector into a tailspin. Instead, virtual viewings, which until now have been a useful but frivolous add-on to most online property listings, are now taking center stage. Germany's largest property portal, Immobilienscout24, currently has 16,000 property listings that feature virtual tours. Its British equivalent, Rightmove, has more than 100,000 properties with the online tour option. During these unprecedented economic times, real estate agents are now advising sellers to go one step further, by creating 3D walkthroughs of their property using technology from startups like Matterport. The US firm has created a digital spatial data platform that it says can digitize all the world's physical assets and create a virtual twin.