Why People Are Still Doing Virtual Property Viewings In Phase 2 When Physical Viewings Are Allowed

What did you buy online during the circuit breaker? Clothes, workout equipment, a new TV? Or a resale flat that cost over $800,000? Some folks in Singapore did exactly that. While property viewings were not allowed during the circuit breaker and Phase 1, the industry got creative and introduced virtual home tours to showcase the properties on the market.

And even as Covid-19 measures have been loosened during Phase 2 (in-person property viewings have resumed with not more than five people allowed per group), there are still virtual viewings happening, as property agent Kenji Wong, 35, tells 8Days.sg.

The 35-year-old ERA agent was involved in three property transactions during the circuit breaker and Phase 1 — he sold two resale flats and represented a client who bought a resale condo unit — all through virtual tours held via Zoom. Prior to Phase 2, he’d done about 50 virtual viewings, sometimes up to eight to nine viewings a day.

However, even though buyers can now physically view properties, some are choosing not to. In fact, virtual tours of showflats are still available to facilitate the first round of shortlisting for consumers. “About 20 per cent of my clients are still slightly fearful of the backlash in Phase 2, or another wave of the virus, and are still keeping their distance from crowds and show flats,” he explains.

“I won’t say things have gone back to what it was like pre-Covid-19 times, but the surge of activity since the reopening in Phase 2 has been intense. The vibe is generally positive in Phase 2 for both agents and customers,” he quips.

While there naturally has been an uptick of physical viewings in Phase 2, Kenji thinks that “virtual tours seem to be a trend to stay”. Since Phase 2 commenced, he has conducted five viewings online, albeit for foreigners. Some local buyers are also requesting for virtual tours as a means of shortlisting their choices.

Kenji took us on a virtual tour of a four-room flat at Dawson Road, which was one of the three transactions he handled during CB. And let's just say that it was way more high-tech that we expected. You first get a bird’s eye view of the flat and its layout at a glance. After that, you go through a 360-degree 3-D walk-through of the flat, where you can view the rooms from various angles.

The circles indicate the different vantage points from which you can check out various parts of the flat.

You can even look out the windows to check out actual views from the unit, which was one of the selling points for the eventual buyers.

Fancy. But even as we marvelled at how slick all this seems, at the back of our minds were still some niggling thoughts. Like, who would shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a house that they’ve not seen in real life?

8 DAYS: We expected a virtual house tour to be a pre-recorded video at most.

KENJI WONG: There are agents who use videos, but depending on where they record it from, it’s very hard to understand the space just by viewing a video. I didn’t do this type of virtual tour for every property. During CB and Phase 1, you were only allowed to do virtual tours if no one is staying in the unit. The other two units I transacted during CB and Phase 1 had people staying in them, so we used pictures and videos taken by the owners.

Who are the people buying properties online?

Typically these people have already viewed properties and have been on the sidelines watching [the market]. They know exactly what they want and are just waiting for something that fits their requirement and budget.

One of my clients who bought a unit had already sold his house, and he needed another place to stay. He’d viewed many units in the condo development and knew exactly what stack he wanted and that he wanted it above the 20th floor. Prior to CB, we’d seen everything available but there wasn’t one that suited his criteria. So when something came up during CB that was within his price range, I told him about it and he bought it without seeing the place, or even pictures of the unit.

What about the Dawson unit you took me through?

The buyers were a young couple who’ve seen everything there is to see at Dawson, about 15 units, prior to CB. They contacted me and I sent them the floor plan, videos and photos, and took them through the same virtual tour. For them, besides the price, views were very important and they could see it via the virtual tour. They already knew the neighbourhood well, as one of them has family staying in the area, so they were just waiting for a new listing to come up.

Were any of the buyers hesitant at all about buying something they haven’t seen before in real life?

There were some concerns. But the trick to overcoming this is to set disclaimers. And as an agent, no matter how much you want to sell the unit and just talk about the good things, you have to be open about things that are not that great, so that they know what to expect. For buyers, it’s really a big gamble when they cannot feel the furnishings or step on the floor to understand what material it is. That’s the biggest thing people have to overcome, but that’s what the agents are here for.

What type of questions should buyers ask at a virtual viewing?

Typical questions are whether the owner is the first owner of the house, which walls can be hacked, and what the orientation of the flat is, whether it’s north-south facing. Majority of people are concerned [if the sun will shine directly into the unit at certain times of the day]. At virtual viewings, I use an app called Sun Calculator, where you input details and it tells you at what time of the day you can expect the sun at which corner of the house.

People also do ask about neighbours and the surroundings outside the unit at virtual viewings. They often ask about the neighbours, how many small children they have, and whether it’s cluttered outside the house. At a normal viewing, they don’t ask that ’cos they can see it for themselves.

What about fengshui? Has any fengshui master sat in a virtual viewing with you before?

I have never ever, and I hope to never encounter that (laughs). But in face-to-face viewings, I’ve definitely encountered fengshui masters of all sorts. Fengshui is one thing that no agent will have anything to counter. I’ve had people checking on the unit number, but that’s pretty straightforward.