CommonFloor launches virtual reality experience for home buyers

At a time when internet-based companies looking to leverage technology for attracting consumers, online real estate platform CommonFloor on Tuesday launched a virtual reality innovation called 'CommonFloor Retina', where a consumer can take a 360-degree tour of a property through a mobile-application and a headgear.

The company believes that this device would help consumers to significantly cut down the time and effort spent on buying a house. According to CommonFloor, a family spends an average 720 man hours and travels an average 300 kms in the process of buying a property.

To use the device, a consumers needs to download the CommonFloor Retina mobile application, launch it and insert the phone inside the headgear. The application is currently available only on Andriod operating system, and can be used only on high-end mobile devices.

"As a new-age realty player, technology and innovation are part of our core DNA. Property buying demands huge time and financial investment by the buyer and it is our constant endeavor to create tools and technology that makes property search easy for the consumers," Sumit Jain, co-founder and chief executive officer of CommonFloor said.

The headgear, which has is so far being manufactured by CommonFloor, will be sold for Rs 1,000 and will be available only on Flipkart by end of this week. The company is looking to tie up with vendors for manufacturing of the headgear, and will make it available across brick-and-mortar retailers in a few months.

The company so far has around 20 projects that can be experienced through CommonFloor Retina, and it plans to take this number to at least 1,000 be December 2015. The company charges developers between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5,00,000 per project for preparing the three-dimensional content needed for the application.

Besides domestic home buyers, the company is targeting non-resident Indians through this innovation.

CommonFloor currently works with nearly 90 per cent of the developers in Bengaluru, has close to 1,20,000 projects across 200 cities listed on the website and gets around seven million visitors per month. Backed by Tiger Global and Accel Partners, the company had recently raised an undisclosed amount from Google Capital. According to sources, Google's late-stage growth equity fund had invested between $10 million and $12 million in the startup.