While others around them began to panic at the start of the pandemic, one real estate agent - who specializes in letting rentals and serviced apartments - quickly made the decision to add virtual property tours to its suite of marketing assets.
Concept Apartments knew demand for its services and individual properties would continue, despite restrictions on travel and moving home. “During the Covid crisis, there was still a lot of demand for people moving, often due to the pandemic itself,” comments Concept Apartment’s Aaron Kazab. “Matterport has single handedly saved our business from having to shut down during the crisis. We were able to operate from home like normal and close over 100 lets during the pandemic’s first 8 weeks - a period that saw a lot of our competitors temporarily disappear from the market.”
Many of Concept Apartments’ enquiries were from key workers who lived with vulnerable people, people splitting up with partners due to the stress of the situation and people living in house shares. “A lot of these people could not physically go out and take the risk of viewing a property even if they were allowed. Matterport’s virtual tours have allowed us to offer as close to a real life viewing as possible, without anyone being there in person,” adds Aaron Kazab.
While introducing Matterport virtual tours provided Concept Apartments with an immediate solution to social distancing and travel restriction issues, the 3D walkthroughs also helped this agent achieve an exceptional set of online results. Concept Apartments started implementing Matterport scans at the end of March 2020 until the end of May 2020. It found that its properties attracted more attention online, leading to more details being viewed and offers made ‘sight unseen’.
These 3D virtual tours have also allowed Aaron’s team to gain extra capacity: “Typically in a month without a pandemic, we would have the ability to do between 100-150 viewings per month, at a conversion rate of about 50%. With Matterport virtual tours, we averaged over 2,500 unique tours in a two-month period. In addition, our conversion rate on physical viewings - where the tenant has already taken a Matterport virtual tour - is up to 75%. This increased conversion rate has freed our agents’ time to focus on housing more applicants,” says Aaron Kazab.
Concept Apartments has also found that Matterport virtual tours have added an extra layer of authenticity to its listings - a crucial aspect when you consider a large part of this real estate agent’s business is international.
“We have been able to place a number of applicants relocating to London from overseas during the crisis. Most could not find temporary accommodation so they needed their housing sorted on the day of their arrival. Due to photoshopping and unfavourable elements added to online listings, applicants are often wary of relying exclusively on photos. Our applicants were a lot more comfortable with Matterport virtual tours as it gives a far more realistic impression of the property. Our clients also find the in-tour measurement tool invaluable, especially those who are relocating with lots of furniture.”
About Concept Apartments
Handpicking neglected buildings in some of the capital’s most prestigious areas, Concept Studio Apartments restores faded residences back to their former glory. Concept’s restoration team work carefully and sympathetically on the buildings themselves, breathing life back into them through an infusion of style and luxury.
And luxury is what makes Concept properties unique. Designed to offer our guests the experience of a luxury hotel, yet within their own, totally private space, each and every Concept Studio Apartment is fitted and furnished to the very highest of standards
Industry
Residential Real Estate
Property Management
Company Size
Small Business
Location
UK
Solution
Matterport Professional Plan
Ricoh Z1
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