Virtual tour for residential complexes: remote sales of apartments during construction

A virtual tour for residential complexes has ceased to be a beautiful option - now it is a working tool for the sales department, especially when the house is still in the pit. At 360° Space we film finished showrooms with a Matterport camera and assemble interactive 3D models of future apartments using a BIM project. A buyer from Tyumen opens a link on WhatsApp and in a couple of minutes understands whether a two-room apartment with windows facing south is suitable for him. Below is how it works, what the deadlines are and why developers are returning for the second and third buildings.

Why does a developer need a 3D tour: five dry numbers

We collected statistics on projects for 2024–2025 together with client sales departments. Here's what really affects revenue:

• Reduce empty impressions by 40–60%. A client from Kazan, a developer of a low-rise building, said: before the tour, we visited the site 3-4 times a day, after the tour, there were only hot showings, when the person had already decided on the layout.
• Sales to other regions without the buyer traveling. At the Moscow business class residential complex, 18% of transactions for the last quarter were made through a 3D tour: people from Vladivostok, Surgut, Astana booked online after a virtual visit.
• Accelerate the purchase decision by 30%. The average transaction cycle at the pit stage is 21 days, with a tour it drops to 14. People are quicker to believe in what they see with their hands, rather than in a static render.
• Sales department work 24/7. The tour is built into the layout card on the website and into the VKontakte mini-application - applications fall at night and on weekends, when the office is already closed.
• Savings on physical showroom. One completed showroom with fine finishing costs the developer 3–5 million rubles per building. The virtual option is several times cheaper and moves along with the apartment to another residential complex in one archive.

How we film and assemble a tour

It all depends on what is already on site. I will analyze two typical scenarios.

Scenario 1: ready-made showroom or rented apartment. We arrive with a Matterport Pro3 camera and shoot an apartment of 60–120 m² in one day. After 2-3 days, we deliver the finished tour: measurements with a tape measure directly in the browser, dollhouse mode on top, VR version for Oculus. When filming a residential complex in Yekaterinburg for 8 apartments, we completed the project in two trips of six hours each - at the same time, the electricians were tightening up the sockets, and we were working in other rooms.

Scenario 2: not home yet. We take a BIM model or measured plans, a finishing design project and assemble a photorealistic 3D scene. Here the terms are longer - from 10 to 20 working days per apartment, depending on the number of scenes (day/night, two variations of decoration). A regional developer from Perm asked to collect 12 layouts at once for three finishing options: white, light, dark. They completed it in a month, these scenes have been running on their website for a year and a half.

We deliver the finished tour in one of three accommodation formats:

• 360° Space cloud - our high-speed servers, technical support, view analytics;
• developer server - if you have your own IT circuit and security requirements;
• offline - standalone build for a manager’s PC in a sales office or a separate build for a VR headset for an exhibition. Works without the Internet - relevant for stands at Arch Moscow or regional real estate forums.

The client chooses formats to suit his scenario, and is not tied to one option.

Гостиница

Electrovodnaya

Cinema Galaxy in Vladivostok

High Life Residential Complex

Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Prospekt, 77

Chudnovskogo 5

Laser scanning for architects on Frunze Street

Laser scanning for architects on 1st Rabochaya St.

How much does a virtual tour cost for a residential complex?

The price tag varies depending on the area, number of apartments and whether there is a real object or we are working from BIM.

Price guidelines:

• shooting of a finished Matterport apartment - from RUB 25,000 per object up to 80 m²;
• business class showroom tour with website integration - from 60,000 ₽;
• 3D assembly of an apartment according to BIM (one layout, one finish) - from 90,000 ₽;
• a complex for the entire residential complex with several buildings and a “journey” between layouts - on request, usually from 400,000 ₽.

For an accurate estimate, it is more convenient to go through the calculator - a couple of questions about the area and the number of stages, and you will get a guide to the numbers and timing. Or write to us the area and number of layouts - we will advise you during the working day.

One more detail from practice. If the residential complex is large and the buildings are rented out in queues, we usually make a framework agreement: first a pilot for 2-3 apartments, measure the conversion in the sales department, then roll it out to the entire pool of layouts. This approach removes the question of “what if it doesn’t work” even before the main budget.