Impact of Virtual Property Tours and Technology on Home-Buying Decisions

Purpose – This paper examines the impact of virtual property tours and allied digital technologies — including 3D/360-degree walkthroughs, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI)-based recommendation engines and digital mortgage integration — on home-buying decisions. It explores how these technologies are reshaping buyer search behaviour, trust formation, engagement and speed of decision-making, with specific reference to an internship undertaken at House of Real Estate. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts an exploratory-descriptive design carried out in two phases, a structure informed by the bibliometric-cum-qualitative approach used in prior beauty-influencer marketing research (Shukla and Jha, 2026). Phase I consists of a secondary literature and industry-data review covering global and Indian PropTech adoption trends. Phase II proposes a primary, survey-based investigation to be administered among prospective home buyers and site-visit leads generated by House of Real Estate, structured around the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Findings – The secondary evidence indicates that virtual tours and immersive technologies increase listing engagement, shorten time-on-market, encourage remote and out-of-town buyers to shortlist properties faster, and support (but do not replace) the final in-person evaluation before purchase. Adoption is strongest among younger, digitally native buyers and in metro markets, while tier-II/III markets continue to show gaps in digital trust and literacy. Research limitations/implications – The paper is primarily literature- and internship-observation based; the proposed primary survey instrument (Appendix A) requires field administration to generate statistically validated, House of Real Estate-specific results. Findings should therefore be read as a conceptual and directional foundation rather than a conclusive empirical outcome. Originality/value – The paper extends the growing PropTech literature by explicitly linking virtual-tour adoption to the stages of the buyer decision journey, and by translating this into actionable recommendations for a real estate brand's marketing and sales strategy. Keywords – Virtual property tours, PropTech, home-buying decisions, virtual reality, augmented reality, technology adoption, real estate marketing, consumer behaviour.