Extended reality (XR)—which encompasses both augmented reality and virtual reality—is no longer futuristic. It’s here, revolutionizing the way buyers tour homes and the way agents showcase them. As XR continues to improve in quality, availability and adoption, real estate professionals are finding new opportunities to leverage these immersive tools in their real estate business for boosting engagement, efficiency and profitability.
In 2025, AR and VR are better than ever because development is easier than ever. The number of development companies continues to expand every year, with countless app development companies offering a spectrum of services to the real estate industry. This means that app design is more accessible and cost effective. There also have been massive improvements in the hardware used in AR/VR applications. Right now, this trend is producing more powerful, affordable and comfortable wearables—think headsets, glasses and VR gloves. And developers are offering more AR/VR-tailored services, which allow real estate agents and brokers to improve the customer experience and access the full potential of these products for their listings.
About 1.4 million agents and brokers are expected to use these technologies by the end of 2025, according to a study by Goldman-Sachs: Virtual Reality for Real Estate in 2025 — The Essentials. Then, add the power of artificial intelligence and spatial computing—and things are going to get even more interesting.
AI Meets AR/VR: Redefining the Future of Digital Experiences
The future of AR and VR is using spatial computing to push the ways humans interact with technology even further. Spatial computing enables digital landscapes that will expand what’s possible in the virtual world. Real estate clients are increasingly ready for it. Even now, immersive experiences are influencing decision-making in real estate, with recent data indicating that 77% of clients have a strong preference for viewing virtual tours before visiting a property.
Think of spatial computing as the next frontier in technology rather than a specific tool. Spatial computing can merge the digital and real worlds by supercharging AR and VR to create mixed reality (MR). MR overlays virtual objects into real environments, which means digital objects can interact with actual physical spaces. Spatial computing uses sophisticated digital hardware such as depth-sensing cameras and inertial measurement units to create experiences in which users see 3D digital objects superimposed in the real world or holograms created from virtual objects for innovative immersive experiences.
One of the significant advantages of MR in real estate will be enhanced collaboration as it simulates living in a space, remodeled home interiors, walking through virtual new construction or furnishing an empty property digitally. MR will become an exceptional tool for visualizing real estate in ways that were not previously possible. It will have a significant impact on how real estate professionals connect buyers and properties in an interconnected virtual world.
And while we hurtle toward AR and VR converging with spatial computing, AI has its foot on the accelerator. AI algorithms can improve AR/VR worlds by creating more hyper-realistic virtual environments. AI can also analyze user behaviors and preferences to personalize immersive digital environments to suit individual users. AI-enabled spatial computing will transform virtual experiences by creating and customizing intuitive virtual environments. For real estate professionals, that means creating dynamic, realistic, responsive, individual buying and selling experiences for clients.
6 Ways to Leverage AI-Powered AR/VR to Grow Your Real Estate Business
The potential benefits of these technologies in real estate are enormous. They allow you to offer innovations that improve how you market and show listings and how your clients experience those properties.
The value of AI integrated AR/VR goes well beyond visuals. Here are some ways they can help reshape buying or selling real estate and your business:
- Hyper-realistic immersive experiences: AI-enabled AR can create multisensory experiences using haptic feedback, which is the use of touch to communicate with users—think of your smartphone vibrating with notifications—spatial audio, and scent technology. VR tours can create the feel, sound and smell of a property, meaning your virtual showing can smell of fresh baked cookies while your client touches the marble countertops and hears the birds chirping near the secluded backyard patio. Immersive proptech tools can also design virtual tours that cater to individual preferences, such as adjusted lighting, furniture placement and personalized design options. Buyers can see and experience what they want in a potential new home without being there.
- Simplified logistics and cost savings to agents and brokers: Showing properties virtually means fewer trips to actual properties. You can market and sell properties from anywhere in the world, streamlining workflows and lowering travel costs. Potential buyers can tour properties from anywhere at any time with no scheduling conflicts and maximum flexibility. Tours can be given in multiple languages to accommodate international buyers and sellers. Though there may be an upfront investment in immersive technologies, the return on investment is real. For example, no more expensive printed marketing materials or physical 3D models. Web- or cloud-based VR tours can be accessed from any internet-connected device with limited storage and distribution costs. And unlike video tours, VR tours can be instantly updated to reflect property upgrades or changes in decor. Essentially, immersive technologies mean fewer limits on what you can accomplish.
- Creating emotional connections: It’s a given that many prospective buyers need to see themselves in a new home. By interacting with a 3D, 360-degree immersive experience, potential buyers can literally see themselves in your listing and feel like they’re home well before they explore the actual property. Avatars can be used to guide clients through properties, customizing their communication, personalities and tours to individual buyers’ needs and preferences. And AI can gauge buyer interest by analyzing facial expressions and physiological responses during an immersive tour, providing valuable feedback about emotional connections to properties.
- AI integration: Artificial intelligence combined with AR/VR tools will merge the physical and virtual worlds, allowing clients to better visualize properties in real-world locations. It allows for staging a virtual home on an empty lot or exploring nearby neighborhood amenities such as schools, parks and shopping districts. Your buyers will gain a full understanding of a property’s location and the surrounding area.
- Data-driven decision making: Relevant data can be overlaid in VR tours to arm potential buyers with critical facts. VR and MR tours can include information right before your client’s eyes, like neighborhood statistics, school district ratings and local crime rates. Data can also include side-by-side property comparisons based on user-defined criteria. And by partnering with financial institutions, VR tours can include simulated mortgage scenarios that allow potential buyers to visualize the financial commitments and budget realities related to a specific property.
- Streamlined transactions: VR technologies can be merged with e-commerce platforms. Secure transactions within virtual environments are fast, easy and convenient. Payment gateways can be integrated into VR platforms for seamless sales and purchases while enhancing the buying and selling experience.
Stay Ahead of the XR Curve
Tech-savvy consumers are open to innovative real estate solutions—and they may even now expect it. Real estate professionals who learn, adopt, and grow with these immersive technologies will futureproof their businesses and gain tremendous competitive advantages.
But it starts with understanding what’s happening today and exploring ways to leverage proptech in your business so you don’t fall behind in the speed of innovation occurring in this realm. What today’s XR trends signal is that the possibilities immersive technologies bring will be incredibly useful, profitable, exciting and revolutionary for real estate and beyond.
Author
Sharon Love-Bates
Sharon Love-Bates is Director, Emerging Technology within the Strategic Business, Innovation & Technology group at the National Association of REALTORS®.
References
Chanda, D.; “VR in Real Estate–Benefits and Use Cases,” Idea Usher
Prabhu, S.; “AR/VR Trends and Predictions For 2025 & Beyond,” Ciklum, 15 July 2025
Program-Ace, “Top 5 Virtual Reality Trends of 2025: The Future of VR,” Program-Ace, 11 December 2024
Program-Ace, , “Virtual Reality for Real Estate: The Essentials,” Program-Ace, 20 February 2025
Sáez Martínez, P. J.; “What Is Spatial Computing: A Revolution for Industries and Everyday Life,” Onirix, 20 March 2024
Singh, P.; “Wearable devices: The Future of Immersive Apps,” Deftsoft, 3 April 2025
Willige, A.; “What Is Spatial Computing, and How Will Mixed Reality Blur the Lines Between the Physical and the Digital Realms?” World Economic Forum, 20 June 2024
Zoting, Shivani; “AR and VR Headsets Market Size, Share, and Trends 2025 to 2034,” Precedence Research
