Selling an un-built development in a fairly dense metropolitan space in Toronto comes with many different challenges, including strong competition and limited space to build sales centers and model homes on the same plot of land. Reaching Toronto’s house-savvy market can be difficult as well, since most residents are on the hunt for finding the perfect home that offers something unique. But without many of the resources you can use in more sparsely-developed areas, showing and proving your development is unique can be no small task.
The Development: St. Leslieville Church Lofts
These challenges were at the forefront of the St. Leslieville Church Lofts in Toronto. Located on Jones Ave., the project was short on space but offered many unique benefits, including the lowest condo fees with amenities in the area, the opportunity to live in a converted heritage church building with soaring 19th century windows, and beautiful, picturesque surroundings. Being Toronto, however, communicating the development’s many benefits to prospective buyers required ingenuity and innovation, especially since the condos were more expensive per square foot than surrounding developments.
St. Leslieville Church Lofts, built by de Cartier Development Corporation, were sold without a physical model suite. The project incorporated a beautiful gothic cathedral into its design, including soaring gothic windows and timeless architecture. Since the project began with an already existing building, the space was unable to house a full sales centre and physical model suite. In response, the sales team started out by using traditional renderings to sell the project to prospective buyers about one year before Invent Dev became involved in the project. Despite the amazing spaces they were creating, the developers were met with a tepid response: in the first ten months, only two units had sold. The rest remained unsold.
3D Walkthroughs that Show Off the Space
In April of 2016, de Cartier Development contacted Invent Dev about solutions to their slow sales process. The traditional renderings were ineffective, in part due to their limited ability to allow people to understand the layout and allure of the floorplans. Essentially, the space and layouts of the suites were unconventional because of the church and so the simple pictures were not capturing the full scope of each of the spaces. Plus, the developers could not build a physical model suite. They needed a new approach, one that didn’t simply suggest that the spaces were unique and beautiful, but demonstrated and allowed buyers to actually experience living in it.
Working directly with the builder, Invent Dev created 3D virtual model homes of multiple spaces, not just the large, fixed floorplans that were selling at a higher price point. Invent Dev created 3D immersive walkthroughs of several floorplan options in which potential buyers could fully explore the space through the development’s website. Now, instead of being presented with fixed stills of the available suites, buyers could head to the site and look around in a 3D environment. Many of the features, like the high vaulted windows, and the ability to overlook the 2nd floor from the 3rd level, were now immediately apparent, showing off many of the features and benefits the original renderings simply could not communicate. The 3D walkthroughs also provided more choice for buyers and, more importantly, targeted different buying preferences. These 3D walkthroughs, however, were just the beginning.
Virtual Model Suites that Provide More Choice, and More Interaction
Invent Dev also created virtual model suites that could be experienced in virtual reality (VR) and on interactive touchscreens inside the church. The virtual reality (VR) tours, which use the latest in immersive VR tech, let people walk into an exact digital replica of the suite, not just a video or still. While in VR, potential buyers could also swap out many of the options and finishes available.
The interative touchscreen used many of the features present in the VR walkthough, including the ability to swap out finishes and options in all of the virtual suites. Potential buyers could also walk around the unit at their own pace, looking at the entire suite from multiple and different perspectives. With a real sense of the space, potential buyers were much more confident in the development, which led to an increase in sales that allowed the developer to secure the financing they required to finish the project.
Many of those sales, interestingly enough, happened the very day Invent Dev launched the new set of marketing tools and applications. A relaunch event was scheduled for early July, just three months after de Cartier Development contacted Invent Dev about possible solutions. The relaunch event, which showcased the VR tech, brought in scores of people eager to try out something new and see a brand new development. In that one day, four units sold, double the number that had sold in the past year, and within two weeks of the Invent Dev launch, 75% of units were sold allowing our client to secure financing for the project.
Conclusion: Invent Dev’s Solutions Rapidly Sold Units, Saved Money, and Increased Exposure
Invent Dev’s solutions let buyers to visualize and experience multiple floorplans, and the high quality finishes and designs available at St. Leslieville Church Lofts. While the units were more expensive than those in the surrounding area, the features and benefits they afforded were pushed to the front of the sales approach, which brought in many more interested buyers who better understood the development’s vision.
Despite the lack of physical model suites, St. Leslieville Church Lofts managed to keep its costs low and sell slow-moving units through the power of Invent Dev’s immersive marketing solutions.
