According to Goldman Sachs Research, the VR/AR industry will eventually become an $80 billion dollar marketplace by 2025, with a lot of that amount geared towards real estate purposes. Deloitte's 2019 survey also found that 45% of surveyed commercial real estate investors felt AR and VR should be a priority for commercial real estate companies.

“Before long, we will all use tablets or goggle-type eyewear to “walk through” office space—whether down the street or around the world,” Stella says. “We will use view interactive images that make it easy to understand and visualize any physical space — without actually needing to be there. Developers and landlords now build in the 3D modeling universe and sell the space to brokers/clients so they won't have to drive around and tour numerous buildings.”

Looking ahead, the continued growth of AR and VR technology will deliver higher quality and more realistic graphics, all-in-one project management tools that allows architects and tenants to fully design office space, and virtual environments integrated with databases which will enable an individual to virtually approach a building, receive pop-up data about available properties and details and even virtually walk through a downtown area.

“There are tools out now that will take a SketchUp model and translate it into a virtual reality model. I can load that model on a tablet, ship it off to a client across the country, and they can view and give me feedback on the space in real-time as I manipulate it and make changes,” Stella says. “They can even move the model around themselves and view different parts of it. This technology engages the user at a much more intimate level, and it will continue to become easier, smarter, and more affordable. I can see it becoming ubiquitous.”