SA property gets reality app

Pam Golding Properties has become the first estate agents in South Africa to use augmented reality to market properties, with their own AR app.

House-hunters can now use augmented reality to view prospective properties advertised in print publications, with the release of PGP Reality, a custom-made property-viewing app, by Pam Golding Properties.

‚”In today’s competitive world of real estate, forward-thinking companies are always looking to reinvent innovative methods of marketing their products and attracting new business,‚” says Dr Andrew Golding, CE of the Pam Golding Property group.

‚”While it’s true that digital marketing has changed the face of real estate forever, we acknowledge the important role the print media continues to play in advertising properties for sale, and in attracting buyers and sellers. It is certainly not a case of digital versus print media we believe there is synergy between the two, and that the use of innovative technology can further enhance our advertising in print media.

‚”As a result, we have introduced a technological innovation which will add value to the property experience for our clients, called PGP Reality. This augmented reality technology allows us to deposit concealed digital content on our print advertising, thereby enabling readers access to additional, useful information which will add further appeal to their visual experience of our property portfolios. This can include a video of the property, 3D models, links to the property listings, agent details, share and tweet buttons and more.‚”

To view the enhanced visuals of an AR marked page or image, download the free PGP Reality application to your mobile device via either the Google Play Store for compatible android devices, or via the Apple iStore for an iPhone or iPad. Once you’ve downloaded and opened the app, position the entire page within the camera view on your device and the enhanced content will be displayed via your internet connection.

While other international brands such as Reebok, VW, National Geographic and Hilton Hotels are already utilising augmented reality, in South Africa PGP is the first real estate company to introduce this groundbreaking technology.

Adds Dr Golding: ‚”This is a key marketing tool to rapidly deliver more content to today’s fast moving and tech-savvy consumers. PGP Reality will be used in our selected weekend newspaper advertising, printed marketing material and billboards. As the name indicates, the new technology really brings properties ‚’to life’, particularly as videos or virtual tours of homes can be made full screen by double-tapping your screen.‚”

Asked why the app was not available for BlackBerry, given it is the most popular smartphone brand in South Africa, a PGP spokesperson advised Gadget: ‚”It is something that the developers are looking into, from a global perspective, but note that Blackberrys don’t have the processor power necessary to run the complex image recognition algorithms. We’re also aware that particularly in South Africa, while the RIM OS represents a large portion of our mobile market share, these are still predominantly previous-generation devices which unfortunately don’t have the capabilities mentioned.‚”

* For further information contact Pam Golding Properties on 021 7101700 or email headoffice@pamgolding.co.za.

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @GadgetZA

Above is the PGP Reality icon which will appear on PGP print media,

Indicating a page is encoded with augmented reality technology and enabling

readers to gain additional information and visuals regarding properties on the

market.