Looking for your new home? ZipMatch will let you view it in virtual reality

Dropping by a property developer’s broker accreditation event in Manila to catch up with ZipMatch co-founder Chow Paredes, I wasn’t surprised to find her company’s booth crowded. The real estate portal just launched its 360 virtual reality service as a new way to showcase homes. I wanted to experience it for myself, so I joined a bunch of excited and eager brokers trying it out.

A ZipMatch employee strapped a pair of VR goggles around my head and voila, it was as if I were inside a two-bedroom unit. The goggles function like the Samsung Gear VR – you stick your smartphone in it with the ZipMatch Pro app installed.

It was easy to navigate: if I wanted to go to another area of the house, say, a room, I just turned my head to point the crosshairs to that area, waited a few seconds, and then I was right inside it. I could see the details of the house – from floor to ceiling – and could imagine what other furniture would look good in it.

ZipMatch offers the service to real estate sellers who yearn for the ability to show buyers what homes actually look like instead of looking at a brochure – but without the need to make the physical trip.

The company is the first to do so in Southeast Asia on a large scale, Chow says.

“We’re the first in the region to have a big database of content in VR. We’ve collated over 300 property projects in Metro Manila, and the provinces of Cebu, Davao, and Bacolod – and it’s growing,” she tells me during our chat. “I’ve heard that some competitors in Indonesia and Singapore are experimenting with it, but nobody has done it on a massive scale.”

ZipMatch, which is backed by investors like 500 Startups and Monk’s Hill Ventures, is offering the service first in the Philippines and soon to other Southeast Asian countries as part of its regional expansion.

Making the buying process efficient

The benefits of the new service are obvious. VR viewing cuts the time for house hunting. In Manila, for example, it takes days to visit several houses because of horrendous traffic, which is a lot of time to take off work. The technology also allows buyers to visualize a property that’s still under construction or in the pre-selling stage, or even purchase a home from overseas.

On the seller side, it allows brokers to filter a ton of inquiries to just those with legitimate interest to buy, or quickly turn an inquiry into a purchase because they can engage the home seeker then and there. It’s also a way for brokers to up their game and look more professional to their clients.

This is not to say, however, that VR viewing will replace physical trips. Most buyers would still want to see in person if a house they’d pour a chunk of their savings into is worth it. What VR does is make the buying process more efficient. Say, instead of visiting 10 properties in how many days, VR viewing will help you narrow down your choices and cut your list to two or three houses.

What’s more, it’s cheap