1.1 Introduction
Virtual reality real estate application is a technology that creates a sense of immersion, which blurs the line between the physical, virtual and simulated worlds (Lee et al. 2013). Real estate can be defined as an area or amount of land or property. Estate management is quite a broad term for a number of areas that include property management, surveying, business and finance and the built environment. Closer ties are beginning to emerge between estate and property management and business and financial practices, and essentially the subject is primarily concerned with the valuation and management of land and buildings in the public and private sector. Virtual Reality could be used by marketers to deliver more interactive advertisements and enhance consumer experience via the immersive technology (Scholz and Smith, 2016). The vividness of simulation in VR would enable consumers to envisage their emotions and feelings if they were to own or purchase a certain product. VR was found to elicit positive attitudes towards the product and stimulate consumers’ purchase intentions (Van Kerrebroeck et al., 2017).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
In the traditional media advertising era, most consumers will think that the media broadcast on the product has no problem. Often the advertising goods and brands equivalent to advertising companies, so when the consumers need to buy advertising goods, they will get information from the ads. But with the advent of the era of smart media, countless commodity ads broadcast on a variety of media has entered the era of ubiquitous advertising, especially the price reduction of electronic display products, the cost of advertising media is getting lower and lower, and the consumers began to change the past existing advertising viewing habits, from the begin- ning of passive acceptance of advertising to take the initiative to understand advertising and thus better able to search for the goods they need through the use of smart media VR. The use of intelligent media VR equipment forms of a sense of immersion in the real world.
The concept of real estate property eventually comes to encompass effectively all forms of tangible fixed capital. With the rise of extractive industries, real property comes to encompass natural capital. With the rise of tourism and leisure, real property comes to include scenic and other amenity values. Starting in the 1960s, as part of the emerging field of law and economics, economists and legal scholars began to study the property rights enjoyed by tenants under the various estates, and the economic benefits and costs of the various estates, Epstein (2007). This resulted in a much improved understanding of the Property rights enjoyed by tenants under the various estates.
The potentials of digital visualization for marketing research have also spanned across the residential real estate industry. Leading residential real estate companies in the United States, Real estate marketing using virtual reality such as Redfin and Sotheby’s, have been utilising the VR technology for virtual tours, which allow users to be immersed in the simulated space and experience the house via 3D virtual walkthroughs (Sihi, 2018). Recent study has shown that VR and AR have a positive impact on the home buying process, where it has been shown to provide both the homebuyers and the realtor’s great convenience in time, for example, by allowing homebuyers to experience homes in different geographical locations conveniently (Sihi, 2018). VR also facilitates visualization of houses in development or under construction, especially for houses sold off-plan through the sell-then-build concept (Juan et al., 2018; Sihi, 2018).
The real estate context, there are limited studies that investigate whether pleasure and arousal emotions evoked in a virtual environment could influence the house purchase intention, for Virtual Reality to become an effective tool for representing the real environment in residential real estate marketing. Virtual Reality (VR) could be used by marketers to deliver more interactive advertisements and enhance consumer experience via the immersive technology (Scholz and Smith, 2016). The vividness of simulation in VR would enable consumers to envisage their emotions and feelings if they were to own or purchase a certain product. VR was found to elicit positive attitudes towards the product and stimulate consumers’ purchase intentions (Van Kerrebroeck et al., 2017).
1.3 Statement of Problem
Investigation revealed that housing is a basic need for all. Over the years, increase in population and income has led to an equivalent increase in housing demand. Managing these demands manually will pose great challenges and difficulties; hence there is a need to automate the management process. Keeping record in an estate concerning lands, buildings and their owners has been a great task to the government and the governed.
Access to estate information proves difficult that most times people are defrauded due to lack of property information. Illegal sales of lands and houses without the consent of the owner are very common. Valuation of estate for the purpose of paying tax to government is not achieved, hence the need for computerization of estate management system.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this research work is to design and implement a Virtual Reality Advertisement System for Real Estate. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application that will:
- Keep information on land size, land location and land owners in an estate
- Handle details for rent and sale of property from clients.
- Advertise the available regional real estate properties using virtual reality platform.
- Produce financial and customer reports with detailed statistical analysis.
- Handle staff’s details and their different transactions with clients.
- Provide security to the client’s data.
1.5 Significance of Study
This research work is of great importance in that it seeks to provide innovative services relating to estate advertisement management such as providing information on land use as quickly as possible. Other significances it offers are found in the following areas;
- Updating and modification of information concerning land parcels, buildings, social amenities in a country or area.
- Faster and easier retrieval of estate information for instantaneous use of recipient such as government agencies, demographers, tourists and individuals.
- Identification of the amenities in the Estate so as to know which other ones are needed.
- Keep a database of all the lands and buildings in an estate
- Guide buyers on how to buy property and who to meet
- Educate buyers on the type of land to build in an area for proper estate planning.
- It will also aid in urban and regional planning.
1.6 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Design and Implementation of a Virtual Reality Advertisement System for Real Estate. The proposed project would cover the development of software to effectively manage real estate adverts and implementation of the application software on a computer system.
1.7 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.8 Definition of Terms
Real Estate: Property consisting of land or buildings.
Investment: An investment is a monetary asset purchased with the idea that the asset will provide income in the future or appreciate and be sold at a higher price.