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How are Advances in Technology Reinventing the New Build Property Market?

Posted: 6th July 2016 13:13
Have you just begun your hunt for the perfect new build home? Well, spare a thought for the generations of hopeful buyers before you who didn’t have the internet, their smartphones or other useful pieces of technology to help them secure the house of their dreams!
 
Gone are the days where we had to rely on FOR SALE signs to discover a property was available to buy, and driving by a development site every night after to work to check on its progress is (thankfully) a thing of the past. Nowadays, technology has completely reinvented the new build property market and here’s how…
 
Firstly, we’re using new build property portals to find our perfect homes. While it’s still possible to search for properties using generic property portals (listing everything from new builds to commercial lets, flats and farmland), portals designed specifically for the buying of new build properties are particularly useful.
 
For example, WhatHouse is a property portal that allows buyers to filter their search for new homes by specifying a location and the availability of help to buy schemes, among other things.So, you can sign up for alerts to ensure you are notified when a perfect new build property becomes available, and you can even send off speculative messages to lots of developers at once.
 
All of this results in ensuring that determined buyers like you are at the front of the queue when it comes to viewing a stunning modern home!
 
Secondly, we’re using informative websites to help us make sense of the house buying process. Sites such as Money Supermarket, Which? and the Citizens Advice Service do a great job of explaining how buying a new build differs from buying an older house, and also offer detailed explanations of the types of financial schemes that are available.
 
Also, technology is enabling us to visualise things that don’t exist yet. Many new properties are available for purchase before they’ve been completed (in fact, did you know that you can reserve a plot before building work has even begun?), and so developers use 3D modelling of new estates and computer generated imagery to show potential buyers exactly what a home will look like once it’s ready! We can even use technology to model each room, planning the design and decoration to precisely our taste without having to even crack open a tin of paint.
 
Finally, virtual tours and videos are allowing us to view new builds from afar. Of course, it’s a good idea to view a property in person, but it’s certainly helpful to have the option of viewing video footage or a video tour of a house before you travel to see in real life – especially if it’s a long way away. Similarly, some experts think that we’ll be using virtual reality to view homes in the future, which just goes to show that technology really does have the power to reinvent the property market!