It’s never an easy prospect if you’re moving to a new city to study to look for accommodation – especially somewhere decent – with lots of leg work involved viewing potential properties. Which is why Jack Jenkins, Christian Samuel and Daniel Jefferys set up University Cribs, as a way for students to see property in 30 cities across the UK. Now the company has gone one stage further by adding a virtual reality (VR) element to its viewing options.
Having recently secured £450,000 GBP in seed funding, University Cribs has created an end-to-end solution for letting agents and other accommodation providers, to supply 360-degree photography, image stitching and VR tour creation to help better showcase their properties. This has been done because University Cribs conducted research earlier this year that found 71 percent of students are likely to book a physical viewing after they’ve had a virtual tour.
“Our goal, and what drives us here at University Cribs, is to use digital technology to improve and find value in the student housing market. We want to help students find a place they can call home,” said Dan Jefferys, co-founder of University Cribs, BQlive reports. “The use of Virtual Reality in the property industry previously emerged in high-end luxury sales, but we see its real value in student rentals – an international market with multiple parties conducting property searches on a frequent basis.”
Viewing properties can be an exhausting and time consuming endeavour, as students juggle lectures and working part-time. There’s also the amount of work and time lettings agents have to put in, with multiple viewings of one property not exactly being the most efficient.
“The student market is changing for the better, and we are seeing a conscious effort made by landlords to provide accommodation suitable for the work-conscious and ambitious UK student population,” added Christian Samuel, co-founder of University Cribs. “The majority of UK students now pay more than £100 per week in rent, and we hope that the introduction of virtual reality to the market will further drive the trend towards increased quality of student accommodation. There are plenty of great student homes in the UK, and we look forward to the opportunity to highlight and reward Britain’s Best Student Properties.”
To go along with the VR software launch, University Cribs has started a search for Britain’s Best Student Properties. The ten best in the UK will be chosen this month where they’ll be offered free VR filming.
For the latest uses of VR, keep reading VRFocus.
via Mint VR