CGI and 3D visualization: Redefining proptech marketing

The proptech (property technology) marketplace is seeing a great technological upheaval.

Agents and developers are no longer solely relying on floor plans and photos. Instead, the use of real-time 3D visualization tools, such as VR and AR, and computer-generated imagery (CGI) has become a crucial marketing resource that impresses buyers and closes deals quickly.

Statistics support this trend. GoPropTech found that high-end projects that apply advanced visualization tools sell 20% faster and have prices 3–7% greater than those that use conventional media.

This trend is also reflected in proptech investment patterns. Recent reports demonstrate that VR/AR and real-time visualization sit at the top of proptech companies’ agendas. As one such report, Vista Point Advisors’ Q4 2024 Real Estate & PropTech Market Update, indicates, proptech investors aim to focus on AI, data analytics, and VR/AR, identifying a "shift toward efficiency and smarter decision-making" in property.

Similarly, commentators note that VR and AR facilitate immersive experiences in property, ranging from virtual property checks to digital showrooms.

In the midst of all this change, marketing leaders are responding by using CGI and live 3D to fulfill growing buyer demands for the wow factor and convenience.

In short, immersive CGI and interactive 3D presentations are turning into more than "nice-to-have" gee-whiz tools, becoming strategic resources that boost pre-construction selling and increase brand appeal.

The power of CGI

CGI provides hyper-realistic images and animation that was unthinkable a generation ago.

Today’s AI-powered rendering engines can produce photo-quality visuals of yet-to-be-built interiors, exteriors, landscapes, and entire environments. These lifelike scenes enable marketers to showcase developments before construction begins, helping to pre-sell properties and generate early buyer excitement.

An effective CGI of a luxury high-rise, say, allows prospects "to walk through" the penthouse, enjoy ocean views or cityscapes, and even preview daytime/nighttime brightness – all in virtual reality.

The visual richness of CGI goes well beyond static imagery, allowing buyers to connect with a development on a deeper emotional level. Today’s luxury buyers expect digital experiences that reflect their lifestyle and aspirations, and developers have adapted by focusing on selling not just properties, but experiences, emotions, and above all, confidence.

Let’s explore more of the wide-reaching benefits of CGI advertising…

1. Improved visual impression

Quality renders incorporate light, texture, and detail well beyond hand sketches or run-of-the-mill photos. Buyers are presented with a project in the absolute best light (literally), increasing first impressions.

Precise CGI goes a step further through walkthroughs with interactive elements (moving sunlight, animated pools, swinging doors), engaging customers yet another way.

2. Easier design communication

CGI turns abstract concepts into tangible visions. By presenting complex designs or large-scale plans in 3D, developers make it easier for stakeholders to understand spatial layouts, materials, and finishes. The clarity these visuals provide not only eliminates costly misinterpretations but also streamlines approvals and accelerates project timelines.

3. Customization and flexibility

Because CGI is digital, an image can be modified or customized with ease. Marketers can instantly swap out content (floor colours, carpets, furniture layout) within a scene to illustrate the purchaser's choice.

For example, an off-plan purchaser might select a kitchen design or balcony glass color in real time. Such flexibility allows one to customize presentations to a particular prospect's taste without expensive re-shooting.

4. Economically efficient staging

Virtual staging (superimposing furniture and decor into a CGI) does away with model home rentals and furnishings. Home staging can cost $2-4K a month, but virtual staging with CGI costs a fraction of that.

Likewise, CGI prevents waste on physical mockups and photo shoots but produces infinitely scalable marketing collateral.

5. Immersive interaction

When combined with VR/AR, CGI is interactive. An agent may give a buyer a VR headset to experience a yet-to-be-completed flat. An AR application may then allow them to superimpose 3D furniture into their current living room. These immersive demos keep prospects engaged and intrigued. Research indicates that interactive 3D tours command attention significantly longer than flat images, leading to increased inquiries and leads.

These benefits account for why many developers now see CGI as just as necessary as a video or location brochure. As one marketing specialist explained, "We're no longer selling promises and floor plans – we're selling experiences."

Premier visualization studios such as DBOX have taken a page from this playbook, viewing every project as a branded storytelling exercise instead of a mere rendering project. Their cinematic CGI for such landmarks as New York's 270 Park Avenue has created buzz and sell-out traction several years prior to construction.

The emergence of real-time 3D visualization

Alongside pre-rendered CGI, real-time 3D visualization – powered by game engines such as Unity and Unreal – is revolutionizing proptech advertising. These platforms enable users to interact with 3D environments dynamically: rotate buildings, swap materials, or explore virtual spaces as intuitively as playing a game.

These interactive experiences are accessible across devices – from in-office tablets to web browsers and VR headsets– making immersive engagement possible anywhere.

One of the companies at the forefront of these limits is Lunas, a global collective of passionate professionals who are defining tomorrow's visual directions. For over a decade, it has harmoniously blended aesthetics with the latest technologies to produce effective 3D visuals for e-commerce and real estate clients.

Besides leveraging Unreal Engine, Lunas employs numerous tools to work with a variety of content, deploy text overlays dynamically, and minimize human error with artistic intent.

This balance of speed, quality, and scale ensures that every visual asset remains intelligent, sophisticated, and performance-ready, thus enabling business enterprises to boost revenue, drive engagement, and strengthen emotional attachments to their properties.

By some measures, real-time software has largely gone mainstream across the built environment. In a 2023 industry survey among 2,000 architects and designers, 75% were found to use real-time rendering software weekly or several times weekly, not only to produce final images but as part of their design workflow.

In short, the same real-time models designers use to make adjustments to a project are being created directly to be pitched.

Such a strategy saves development time: a marketing team can take a BIM or CAD model, drop it into a real-time platform, and instantly create a navigable 3D experience. Enscape is one such leading real-time rendering plugin that enthusiastically promotes its own enhancements as having "transformed BIM and CAD models into immersive 3D experiences faster, easier and more dynamic".

Real-time visualization in proptech can be applied to a range of applications:

Interactive sales centers

Touchscreen kiosks and VR pods are becoming standard features – even in luxury condo sales centers and large-scale masterplans.

Prospective buyers can slip on a headset and explore a development before it’s built, walking through a fully furnished apartment, riding the elevator to the rooftop deck, or wandering through the surrounding neighborhood. These tours are highly interactive, allowing users to change wall colors, swap floor plans or finishes, and see the results instantly.

Virtual tours and 360 tours

Even without VR gear, real-time engines can render 360° panoramas or WebGL scenes viewable on a website. In practice, a developer might embed a fully explorable 3D apartment tour in their marketing site. Prospects can pan around rooms, zoom in on appliances, or view the structure from any angle – all in real time.

AR apps

On the mobile phone side, AR apps allow you to insert CGI elements into real spaces. For example, a buyer might hold a phone to an empty lot and see a scaled CGI version of the proposed building take shape on-screen. Or they might see to-scale 3D furniture and finishes within an empty model home.

This "digital twin" superimposition allows clients to better visualise the end product in place, blurring lines between physical and digital. As Matterport observes, virtual replicas of projects allow brokers to showcase how clients would navigate a space via wheelchair or evaluate a building's accessibility information, which can be hard to illustrate with blueprints.

The business effect of real-time software is profound. By delivering potential customers a high-fidelity, interactive experience, these solutions engender confidence and quick decision-making. SmartPixel, a startup real-time visualization specialist, reports that its digital twin solution has become integral to sales.

In one example, SmartPixel created a Unity-driven 3D demonstration of a beachfront skyscraper, enabling the sales teams to walk buyers through the pool deck, gardens, floor plans, and spectacular views even pre-construction.

The developer noted that the sales teams used the tool "on a daily basis" and considered it "highly informative and useful." By streamlining updates and integrating inventory data, the platform keeps information on unit availability current – ensuring marketing and sales teams remain fully aligned throughout the campaign.

Of equal importance is the low cost of entry of real-time software. As visualizations shift from custom CGI studios to software solutions, even small teams can embrace these technologies. Tools like Enscape, for example, offer one-click asset placement and real-time ray-traced lighting, allowing designers to adjust scenes instantly during meetings.

These software tools save both time and effort by allowing a 3D view adjustment on the fly, without reloading the design application. In practice, this represents a marketing or design lead not outsourcing static render; the team can generate new images and/or tours from their model in a couple of minutes.

Business benefits and market impact

Real-time viz and CGI are not just flashy tech – they deliver measurable ROI in marketing. Immersive proptech marketing translates to deeper engagement, acceleration of the sales cycle, and even higher prices.

Faster sales and price premiums

As I mentioned earlier, properties with advanced visualizations have 3–7% higher prices and 20% quicker sales on average. By reducing buyer uncertainty, these tools make prospects more willing to commit early. For large developments, accelerating pre-sales by a few weeks can save millions in financing costs (one analysis estimated carrying costs of $1M+ per month on a 500-unit tower).

Higher lead conversion

Case studies document remarkable increases in leads and sales. A MoldStud report, for instance, discovered that a condo builder using VR tours experienced a 35% increase in qualified leads and a 15% rise in sales over six months.

The US real estate marketing firm HomeVisit introduced Matterport 3D tours for its customers and achieved 25% year-over-year growth, with customer sales increasing 20%. These statistics indicate that persuasive visual content is consistently improving business metrics.

Buyer satisfaction and engagement

Buyer surveys show that buyers want immersive viewing experiences. One survey found that 77% of homebuyers found AR and VR tours appealing. So, it’s no surprise that agents note that listings produced using 3D tours garner significantly more inquiries than non-3D listings.

VR-capable listings, according to one source, garner 95% more inquiries and facilitate buyer decision-making up to 30% sooner than marketing through photos alone. Increased engagement equates to shorter sales cycles; the MoldStud analysis discovered listings empowered by AR/VR sold about 20% faster than listings of similar houses featuring only photos.

Efficiency and differentiation

Offering CGI and VR services has become a key differentiator for proptech agencies and startups. HomeVisit, for example, gained a first-mover advantage in its market by integrating 3D tours, a step that not only secured market leadership but also delivered a 10% revenue increase across new verticals.

Industry consultants note that adopting real-time visualization tools in-house – rather than outsourcing renders – helps align design and marketing teams, reduce silos, and accelerate campaign timelines.

Overall, CGI and real-time visualization are transforming proptech marketing through the stimulation of engagement, acceleration of decision-making, and global accessibility.

Virtual tours allow overseas investors to walk around properties remotely, 24/7. Interactive demos allow brokers to respond live to questions like “What if we increase the glass rail height?" by merely tweaking the model. In a competitive market, such capabilities are fast becoming table stakes among leading developers and brands.

Integrating advanced visualization into your strategy

To tap into these trends, proptech marketers need to apply both creative vision and IT expertise. Key best practices include the following:

Invest in the right tools

Leading platforms such as Unity and Unreal Engine enable high-quality, real-time 3D visualization across multiple devices. Specialized solutions – like SmartPixel for digital twins or Enscape for CAD integration – can further streamline deployment.

For CGI renders, teams should either partner with experienced studios or build in-house expertise to create photorealistic imagery and animation.

Incorporate visualization into workflows

Ensure your visual assets connect directly to sales and inventory systems. For instance, you could link a digital twin to the company’s database so unit availability updates automatically within the app. Work from BIM or CAD files wherever possible to avoid duplication – many teams now import architectural models straight into real-time engines with minimal extra effort.

Provide immersive displays

Blend multiple forms of media to create a seamless experience. Pair high-quality CGI brochures with interactive 3D tours for every listing, and offer AR demos or VR headsets in sales centers.

Convenience is essential – virtual tours should be embedded directly on websites, easily shareable via links, and optimized for mobile use. Prioritize user experience with intuitive navigation and customizable features such as hotspots and toggles to make the technology feel effortless.

Point out the benefits to clients

Train sales reps to explain these features. Not all buyers expect CGI or VR, so it’s essential to frame it appropriately.

Emphasize the time savings of exploring properties from home and the convenience of viewing at their own pace. Support these points with compelling data – for example, buyers spend up to 68% of their viewing time within 3D tours – demonstrating the impact on engagement and productivity.

Conclusion

To proptech businesses and marketing leaders, CGI and real-time visualization are no longer science fiction prototypes; they're levers of disruption. By creating immersive experiences in real estate, they deepen buyer engagement, accelerate decision-making, and enable businesses to tell stronger narratives.

It’s an unmistakable shift: cinematic CGI and interactive 3D are fast becoming as essential to real estate marketing as a website or brochure. Forward-thinking companies that embrace these tools are setting new benchmarks for engagement and differentiation.

According to industry experts, those investing in immersive visualization today are not just following a trend – they’re shaping future market expectations and leaving outdated practices behind.

How CGI and real-time visualization are reshaping proptech marketing