Made Snappy: Rightmove virtual tours increased by 179% over six months

Between mid-April and mid-May, listings incorporating virtual tours rose by 44%, and 63% for those with videos.

Made Snappy: Rightmove virtual tours increased by 179% over six months

The number of lettings adverts that include virtual tours and videos listed on real estate portal Rightmove has increased by 179% since November 2019, according to analysis by virtual tour technology business Made Snappy.

The number of lettings listed with videos increased by 280% during the same period.

Between mid-April, when lockdown measures were in place, and mid-May, as market activity started to resume, the number of listings incorporating virtual tours rose by 44%, and 63% for those with videos.

On the sales side, listings with virtual tours increased by 77% between mid-November and mid-may, while those with videos increased by 50% over the same period.

Over the last few weeks, the number of sales adverts with virtual tours increased by 19%, while those with videos rose by 26%.

Mark McCorrie, software director at Made Snappy, said:"The lockdown has understandably forced more agents to embrace virtual tours, particularly on the lettings side.

"Our analysis also reflects the quicker restart of the lettings market compared to sales, which will be much slower to get started."

He added: "With the market now up and running, we expect the number of portal listings with virtual tours to increase even further as more agents will be operating at full capacity over the coming weeks.

"Over the next period, agents and consumers will be more cautious about attending physical viewings, so virtual tours will continue to be absolutely crucial in the property search process.

"We predict a 75% reduction in physical lettings viewings while social distance measures remain in place.

"We know of letting agents who have used virtual tours to filter down applicants, subsequently achieving a 100% success rate on the physical viewings - we expect this trend to become the norm.

"When you look at what it costs an agent to do a viewing in terms of mileage, wages, etc, being more efficient by reducing the number of fruitless viewings they carry out could save them thousands of pounds a year."