Business School alumni have created a new company that uses virtual reality to help sell homes, after coming up with the idea during their studies.

PropertyScape enables prospective buyers to take a virtual tour of properties that have not yet been built, using the models created by architects and designers. 

The idea for PropertyScape came out of a brainstorm by five Imperial College Business School students. One of the founders is Edouard Bessire, who graduated from the MSc Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management programme at the Business School last year. He spoke to Laura Singleton about the concept behind PropertyScape and the team’s plans to develop the business.

How did you get involved with PropertyScape?

It all started during my MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Management. As part of the programme we did an Entrepreneurial Journey module where we were challenged to come up with an idea for a business. I teamed up with four other students, Alex Feyler, Hugo McDonaugh, Yakubu Shawulu and Saad Hasan, with the objective to build something that we could take out of the programme and launch for real in the future.

After brainstorming many ideas, Hugo came up with the idea of using virtual reality technology within the property market from a discussion with his brother and we went with it! We developed a first prototype during the summer using Yakubu’s apartment as the demonstration property.

How has the business evolved?

At the end of the programme, we entered as a team for the Business School’s annual Innovation and Entrepreneurship Start! Challenge competition last October. The competition allows students to pitch their business ideas to a panel of investors in the hope of winning a £10,000 prize. In preparation for the competition we sharpened up our business plan and invested more money to build a new prototype. We made it through to the finals and were delighted to be the runner up.

After the competition, some of us decided to focus on developing the business full-time. After four prototypes and six months of hard work we’ve made some big changes to the business and are finally launching our service this month! We have started pitching our new product to some of the largest property developers and estate agents in the UK and our objective is to generate revenue by the beginning of the summer. And we are working on big plans for the future.

Virtual reality technology has a lot of potential in property and we want to be at the forefront of that.

How do you think PropertyScape can benefit property developers and buyers?

A lot of properties are sold before they are built, especially in London, so it’s often difficult for buyers to get an accurate representation of a property, without physically going there. To overcome this problem, property developers are turning increasingly to technology to help them sell the lifestyle and finish of their projects, so that buyers can get a more accurate sense of what the property looks like instead of just relying on traditional brochures and descriptions.

PropertyScape’s solution allows prospective buyers to view off-plan properties in virtual reality. The technology allows viewers to become immersed in the development of a building, enabling them to view it at their own pace, as if they were actually there.

How does the technology work?

We take the models created by architects and designers and transform them into a virtual reality experience. We then integrate it into our own application to manage the virtual reality viewing. By using an Oculus Rift headset viewers can see inside the different areas of the house by moving their head. The headset is included in a special PropertyScape briefcase which can be used to make virtual reality viewings.

You can see how PropertyScape helps property developers and home buyers in this video.