FLOORPLANS
‘Explaining the mezzanine’ by Rescom Media
agents to include them. The Digital Property Group also
produced research showing that over 85 percent of consumers consider floorplans ‘useful or essential’, with the majority placing them in the ‘essential’ category, and many believe floorplans are more important than detailed room descriptions. So the message for those few agents who
are not yet using floorplans seems to be unambiguous, start using them now, or risk losing sales.
The evangelisT’s view For those agents who are already using floorplans, it will be just as important to keep up with new developments. Brian Farrell is positively evangelical when he talks about his vision of how the floorplan could develop. For instance, a 3D model can be integrated into Google Earth, so viewers can see the house in its environment, even tracking the path that the children would take to school, or perhaps, the commute to a city centre office, on the map. At the same time, the interactivity
resistant to stating the square footage of properties. Metropix can produce an automated square footage measurement from the floorplan, but doesn’t often get asked to do so, except in London. He believes one reason we don’t much use it is that there’s no standard methodology, some agents use external gross space, other internal gross or internal net, and consumers therefore don’t really understand what they’re getting. Besides, a floorplan gives far more data than total floorspace dimensions, because the viewer can easily see how the space is divided up. Marc Blomfield says, “From a marketing
point of view, the floorplan gives potential purchasers a better understanding of the layout of the property.” One area where the importance of
floorplans is understood is in leasehold properties that tend to have common areas. Since 2003 it has been a legal requirement to provide a registration compliant Lease Plan to Land Registry for terms over 7 years or existing leases sold or assigned with 7 years left to run. Photoplan specialises in this area and
offers an on site visit to carry out a dimensional survey. The property is accurately plotted on an Ordnance Survey location map having been drawn professionally in CAD. All areas are then
34 SEPTEMBER 2010 PROPERTYdrum
‘From a marketing point of view, the floorplan gives potential
purchasers a much better understanding of the layout of the property.’ marc blomfield naTional ePc comPany
colour coded with a key to highlight any access ways, common areas and the demised premises. The Lease plan can then be provided in any number of formats from PDF to printed paper documents. Paul Jaszynski says, “We provide a first
class service on floorplans for leaseholds and all other property types; they are vital to meet Land Registry requirements on leaseholds but also one of the best sales tools you can have”. So agents need to convince sellers, not a
problem says James Davis. “Home sellers love floorplans, already they are viewed as the second most important feature of a property description, after photos.” There’s a wealth of survey data to back him up. A Rightmove survey 18 months ago suggests that floorplans increase buyer interest by 30 per cent, a big motivator for
included in the online floorplan could allow viewers to take pictures of their own furniture and fit it into the rooms of a property they were considering, to see how it fits. Or home decoration software from Ikea or John Lewis could be integrated into the floorplan so that viewers could see how the property would look once refurnished, and even order the new kitchen and bathroom before they move, all online. “It’s all about the sizzle that can be added
to the online aspect,” he says, “integrating it on to a PC screen so it’s all presented in a way that delivers value. The floorplan is the building block and allows the glue, the interior design services, and the furnishing services, and the building renovation services can all be added on top.” Is that a sci-fi fantasy? Not at all, he says,
“It’s coming on in leaps and bounds.” It’s not the technology that is the limit now, it’s whether estate agents have the imagination to use it to the full.”
www.metropix.co.uk www.dowlingjonesdesign.com www.themobileagent.co.uk www.nepcco.co.uk www.datography.com www.photoplan.co.uk www.rescommedia.com
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