The impact of virtual reality technology in portuguese real estate

Abstract

This research aims to understand and analyze the impact that Virtual Reality can have, and is having in real estate. It aims to study how virtual reality can be impactful to the consumer’s buying process, brand relationship, and its effectiveness to the businesses that employ the technology. Virtual reality is a technology that creates an artificial environment generated with a computer with the goal of simulating a real environment and present it to the user as such. It can be of the immersive or non-immersive type, depending on the additional hardware required, although the real estate companies that use it nowadays opt for the non-immersive type. The use of this technology has become increasingly popular, being common in industries like the gaming industry, and real estate to a lesser extent. This research gathered data that evidences that consumers are generally positive towards virtual reality, and show a high level of acceptation to including virtual reality in the process of searching for a house to buy, indicating that the technology is ready to become widespread and relevant. Furthermore, the study helps understand that from the business perspective, virtual reality in its current state lacks cost effectiveness to be worthy of widespread implementation in real estate businesses. Nonetheless, the data suggest that the subject matter of this research holds relevance for the consumer and may become important in the near future.

Date of Award	13 Oct 2020
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Gonçalo de Oliveira Vieira Dinis Saraiva (Supervisor)