Byron Bay tech startup helps first-time home buyers

BYRON BAY BASED TECHNOLOGY STARTUP “REALAR™” HAS CREATED AN AUGMENTED REALITY APP DESIGNED TO HELP FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS BETTER VISUALISE AND EXPERIENCE OFF-THE-PLAN HOMES. 

Two months ago Apple released its Augmented Reality technology ARKit onto half a billion iPhones around the world. With the iPhoneX launching a week ago, Realar is currently working with Apple Australia to update and build the app to take advantage of the new flagship's advanced capabilities. “Australia is a perfect market to build and launch the Realar App”, says Realar’s CEO and Co-founder Dr Dan Swan, “not only do we have a really high adoption of [Apple] iOS users nationally, but we also know that the Real Estate sector here loves using Apple products for business”. 

Realar is partnered with Gold Coast based 3D modelling and illustration company Reality3D who currently works with the likes of Metricon, Coral Homes and AV Jennings. Together the team has created mobile-made Augmented Reality experiences for home buyers to reimagine where they live. “Buyers often baulk when they try to visualise their dream home on the empty block of dirt which may not match a physical Display Home”, explains Reality3D CEO James Vidgen, “for affordable homes it’s worse, buying off the plan often involves only catalogue-style 2D imagery”.

Realar has been working with local home builders in a region where sales tools designed for first time buyers are high in demand. Along with proximity to South East Queensland, NSW’s fastest-growing regional market is Ballina with house prices jumping 7.1 per cent in the last quarter. Realar however plans to go global fast. “Being able to go to home builders directly and demonstrate [their] 3D models being used as an augmented reality display home has been a huge advantage”, says Dr Swan, “US and UK are certain markets, but then we look at the US$7bn Knowledge Economic City being built in Saudi Arabia and see exciting opportunities for growth and scale around the world”.

Co-founded by serial tech-entrepreneurs Dan Swan and Keith Ahern, Realar is a product “incubated” through Byron Bay’s Coworking and Innovation Hub, StartInno Ventures Pty Ltd. 

Realar™ is free to download from the Apple App Store. 

For more information go to Realar.com