WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Apartments.com, powered by CoStar, and Matterport, a leader in computer vision technology and immersive media, today announced that as a result of their ongoing partnership, Apartments.com has amassed 30,765 3D virtual apartment tours – more than any other rental-listing website.
The two companies initiated a partnership in March 2015, shortly after the launch of the new Apartments.com. Since then, Matterport has provided Apartments.com with over 1,000 3D floor plans and apartment tours per week, a pace that both companies plan to sustain.
"Property tours are one of the most time-consuming, yet critical, elements of the apartment-hunting process," said Andrew Florance, Founder and CEO of CoStar Group. "By providing renters with thousands of virtual property tours right at their fingertips, Apartments.com is once again providing an easier, more convenient and more transparent apartment search experience."
To create the floor plans and virtual tours, Apartments.com utilizes Matterport's end-to-end 3D imaging platform, consisting of the Matterport Pro Camera, 3D Showcase and cloud services. This provides prospective renters with a quick and easy immersive walk-through of Apartments.com properties on a PC, mobile or virtual reality device. The prospective renter gets a sense of what it feels like to be in a particular space by walking through an apartment unit virtually, as well as experiencing the building's amenities and facilities, such as the lobby, fitness facility and other areas of interest.
"The world is moving from 2D image galleries to immersive media that enables consumers to experience any place at any time from anywhere – Apartments.com and Matterport are leading the charge," said Bill Brown, CEO of Matterport. "Apartments.com is the clear thought leader in the apartment rental market, and we're excited to work with them on a large scale to leverage the simplicity, cost efficiency and outstanding visual experience of Matterport's fully-immersive 3D content to make the rental experience even better."
The innovative site feature has significant implications for property managers as well. Properties within Apartments.com's top three advertising tiers have the option to add 3D floor plans and apartment models to their listings. By providing an in-depth layer of insight to an apartment, the virtual tours are expected to dramatically increase the volume of qualified leads that reach site advertisers.
CWS Apartment Homes, a property management firm with apartment buildings throughout the U.S., added the 3D tour feature to its Apartments.com listings in early 2015. According to the firm's Director of Marketing, Matt Baker, the feature has become an invaluable tool for attracting new renters.
"In the past, the consumer experience was limited to a few community specifics, high resolution images and an occasional video," said Baker. "With the 3D tour feature, our residents now have the ability to tour any CWS community from anywhere in the world. Being able to provide this type of convenience to prospective renters is priceless."
In the few months since CWS Apartment Homes began offering 3D tours of its properties, Baker said he's seen a significant uptick in the volume of leads sourced from Apartments.com.
"In the Atlanta region alone, we've experienced an increase of double and in some cases triple the number of overall impressions and qualified leads generated by Apartments.com," said Baker. "Based on these results and the positive feedback from our associates, I'd say we made the right decision to leverage this feature."
To date, the virtual tours on Apartments.com have collectively garnered over 4.8 million views. In addition, on average, site users spend three-times more time engaging with property listings that offer the 3D tour feature, than those without virtual tours. According to Matterport, Apartments.com's investment in 3D content is having a transformative impact on the apartment industry.
About Matterport
Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, Matterport develops technology to create, modify, navigate and share 3D spaces. Matterport's 3D Showcase, released last year, has provided an unprecedented ability for anyone to easily move through 3D models created from real-world properties. To learn more please visit www.matterport.com.
About Apartments.com
Apartments.com is the leading online apartment listing website offering renters access to information on more than 500,000 available units for rent. Powered by CoStar, Apartments.com is supported by the industry's largest professional research team. Apartments.com researchers have visited and photographed over 400,000 properties nationwide, and make over 1 million calls each month to apartment owners and property managers to collect and verify current availabilities, rental rates, pet policies, fees, leasing incentives, concessions, and more. Apartments.com offers more apartments than other apartments websites, and innovative features to help renters refine their searches, including map searches, a PolygonTM tool to draw their own search area on a map, and a "Plan Commute" feature that lets them search for rentals in proximity to a specific address. Apartments.com creates easy access to its listings through a responsive website and iOS and Android apps, and provides unmatched exposure for its advertisers through an intuitive name, strategic search engine placements and innovative emerging media. Apartments.com reaches millions of renters nationwide, driving both qualified traffic and highly engaged renters to leasing offices nationwide. Apartments.com is a subsidiary of CoStar Group, Inc. (http://www.costargroup.com), the commercial real estate industry's leading provider of information, analytics and online marketplaces. CoStar maintains the largest database of commercial properties in North America and the U.K., including over 459,000 U.S. apartment communities and 20 million units. The Apartments.com network of apartment rental websites also includes Apartment Home Living (http://www.apartmenthomeliving.com), a leading social media apartment website distinguished by a "live for fun" community experience, proprietary lifestyle matching and local living guides to help renters find their perfect place to live.
About CoStar Group
CoStar Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSGP) is the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. Founded in 1987, CoStar conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information. Our suite of online services enables clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on commercial property values, market conditions and current availabilities. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked commercial real estate marketplace online with more than 9.8 million registered members. Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com and ApartmentHomeLiving.com form the premier online apartment resource for renters seeking great apartment homes and provide property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. CoStar Group operates websites with over 23.6 million unique monthly visitors in aggregate as of June 2015. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar maintains offices throughout the U.S. and in Europe and Toronto with a staff of approximately 2,900 worldwide, including the industry's largest professional research organization. For more information, visit http://www.costargroup.com.
This news release includes "forward-looking statements" including, without limitation, statements regarding Apartments.com's and CoStar's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These statements are based upon current beliefs and are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that Matterport and Apartments.com are unable to continue to produce 3D floor plans at the current pace as expected; and the risk that the virtual tours do not produce the expected results, including dramatic increases in qualified leads. More information about potential factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those stated in CoStar's filings from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in CoStar's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014, and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2015, each of which is filed with the SEC, including in the "Risk Factors" section of the filing, as well as the company's other filings with the SEC available at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). All forward-looking statements are based on information available to CoStar on the date hereof, and CoStar assumes no obligation to update such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.