Due to the lockdown in the UK and estate agency offices being shut down nationwide, the number of viewings in the UK are expected to significantly drop over the next few weeks, if not months.
In response, OneDome Group, owner of onedome.com and nethouseprices.com have introduced a new functionality, which enables prospective home buyers and tenants to request a virtual viewing for properties on onedome.com.
Consumers now have an option to request a virtual viewing from an agent via mainstream video conferencing solutions like zoom.us, Bluejeans or Skype. OneDome will then contact the estate agent and consumer via email to arrange the virtual viewing if the agent has a facility to do it.
The service is completely free of charge for agents and was built to help agents keep their businesses going during this unprecedented lockdown.
OneDome is also offering all estate agents who partner with Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality firms to link their virtual tours to their listings on OneDome’s free-to-list portal, giving consumers the ability to view the properties from distance or have an assisted viewing.
Any agents who are interested in using the functionality via OneDome.com or on their own website, can contact OneDome’s team for further information at hello@onedome.com and read its blog post on getting started with virtual viewings here.
Babek Ismayil, Founder and CEO of OneDome said, “We are going through unprecedented times. It is very hard to predict how long the current crisis will last but we would like to help as much as we can. In response to the lockdown, we have built a solution that allows consumers to request virtual viewings.”
“This solution is currently available on any listing on OneDome.com and we would be happy to offer the same solution to agents’ websites completely free of charge to help them to manage their business from distance.”
The latest advice from Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick is that “homebuyers and renters should, where possible, delay moving to a new house while measures are in place to fight coronavirus.”