Buying a house is a major investment and a huge life goal for most, so getting it right is imperative when parting with such large sums of money. Whilst previously prospective buyers have had to rely on brochures of former developments, CAD images and show homes, a construction group in Scotland has developed what is said to be a unique selling tool for housebuilders – 3D visualisation software that offers virtual walk-throughs of a house.
The software is the innovative idea of Euan Gibson-Smith, who originally joined Fife-based timber and construction supplier, Donaldson Group as an intern. His task, then, was a project to investigate the potential of virtual reality (VR) across the group’s 17 businesses. Now he’s the managing director of Donaldson’s Spec3D.
Gibson-Smith said: “While show homes, samples, plans, and photos of existing developments have their place, some people struggle to see the full picture. This software lets homebuyers really see what their new home will looks like, and all from the comfort of their own home.
“The reaction so far has been fantastic. Customers are finding that it dramatically decreases sales consultation times; reduces errors with a more streamlined management system; increases average upgrade order values and provides a more enjoyable house buying experience for all. Crucially, it allows housebuilders and developers to showcase all their new homes – and sell them – before they’ve even been built.”
The fully walkable virtual home selection software, Spec3D is said to provide everything needed to digitalise entire show homes and manage and sell upgrades in full 3D.
Using cutting-edge technology, the platform gives housebuilders the power to let customers select key elements – such as kitchen units, bathroom tiles and bedroom enhancements – put them together and explore a realistic 3D version of their new home, from any device, at any time.
The tool prices items as they’re added, and it has a customer management system that helps sales staff sell their homes easier.
According to Donaldson, the tool has seen immediate success, and within just nine months, the Spec3D team has signed deals with a number of housebuilders, including construction company, Easy Living Developments for a site in Fife, as well as securing two clients to supply website visualisers for their brands.
The software creation is the result of an intern initiative with Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Saltire Scholars programme.
As an intern, after developing a visual selector tool for the group’s kitchen retailer business, Kitchens International, Gibson-Smith recognised that the technology could be effective for all parts of a house.
On completion of his internship, he was given a full-time permanent position and began work on extending the technology to include full house visualisation, which led to the creation of Spec3D.
Jacqueline Hutchison, sales liaison at Easy Living Developments said: “I couldn’t believe Euan hadn’t been in one of our houses when he sent the initial models over – it looked exactly like our house types. The attention to detail was incredible, and it really feels like you are in the home when using the software.
“This software is going to completely transform how we sell homes and allow customers to easily customise their selections. We can’t wait to fully integrate it with our clients and see the impact and I can already tell it’s going to dramatically enhance the customer experience.”
Sources: Build In Digital, Spec3D