09 March 2016 - 02:43 By ©The Daily Telegraph Would you buy your next house wearing a virtual reality headset? What about using software that tracks your internet use to predict your dream home? A new report by The Future Laboratory suggests that, by 2025, we will be taking full advantage of big data and drones to buy a house.Rob Ellice from easyProperty said: "This 'Uber' moment is fast approaching, a newly emerging prop-tech sector is driving innovation at an astounding rate in a market that has been, until now, slow to innovate."House hunters of the future will have access to highly specific, personalised search engines.These will scoop up big data, including social media interactions and web history, to form a "psychographic" profile of the buyer's lifestyle to present their dream home. A buyer's expressed desires which would have been revealed on the internet will go towards their requirements for a home.Douglas McCabe of Enders Analysis said: "Whereas today an online property system might filter by budget and number of bedrooms, consumers in the 2020s will expect it to plug in to their personal data and know that they want a house with a south-facing garden, close to a railway station that serves their office, a school specialising in music for their daughter and a jazz bar that serves great craft beer."Technology will provide more ways to view properties, the report said."As drone technology becomes more affordable, we imagine potential house-hunters will cotton on to its use for conducting those vital pre-purchase searches," said Rob Ellice of easyProperty.Instead of For Sale signs outside properties, a series of beacons will broadcast details of a property that is for sale to anyone wearing wearable technology or using a smartphone. Smart homes may even allow sellers to remotely unlock their house, with buyers guided on a tour of the house using a '3D video presence' technology.
New research from The Future Laboratory suggests that by 2025 big data, drones and Virtual Reality (VR) will help prospective homebuyers to select and purchase property in a much more personalised manner. According to the research, conducted with Professor David Anderson of the University of Sheffield, it is possible for home owners to use their smartphones or tablets as an agent to find out about properties they are interested in. As drone and wearable technologies become more affordable and mainstream, the newly-emerging proptech sector is expected to drive rapid innovation to keep pace with consumer demand over the next decade.