PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the potentials of virtual reality (VR) for residential real estate marketing to influence house purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachBased on the relevant literature in consumer behaviour, this study hypothesised the relationships between atmosphere with pleasure and arousal emotions and the subsequent influence of emotions towards house purchase intention in a virtual environment. A within-subjects experimental design was conducted with 60 real potential homebuyers to test the hypotheses. Data were analysed using paired samples t-test and partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).FindingsResults revealed that there is a significant difference in the atmosphere and house purchase intention between real and virtual environments. On the other hand, pleasure and arousal emotions evoked in real and virtual environments showed no significant difference. The results show that the atmosphere significantly affects pleasure and arousal, where pleasure, in turn, has a significant effect on purchase intention, and arousal showed an insignificant effect on purchase intention in the virtual environment.Research limitations/implicationsDue to budget limitation, this study was constrained to the use of HTC Vive as the VR equipment and evaluation of only one type of housing design.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to facilitating the revitalisation of real estate marketing with the integration of VR by providing notable empirical results and recommendations based on the research findings.Originality/valueThis study extends the current knowledge from the stimulus-organism-response framework for a smart real estate marketing strategy using VR.
Purpose: This paper investigates how the residential real estate sector could take advantage of the virtual world envisioned by the concept of metaverse – a world of interconnected digital spaces through virtual reality that will incorporate businesses, commerce, entertainment, and social networking.
Methods: This study conducted an experiment with 65 potential homebuyers to evaluate responses in the physical and virtual environment. The hypothesized relationships were tested using PLS-SEM statistical analysis method.
Results: Results indicate that the atmosphere, satisfaction, perceived enjoyment and purchase intention is statistically different (p < 0.05) in the physical and the virtual environment. This study found that the atmosphere in virtual environment positively effect satisfaction and perceived enjoyment, which subsequently positively effect purchase intention.
Conclusion: The results presented in this paper supports the future of metaverse with virtual reality in the real estate sector for enhancing human-computer interactions in terms of consumer experience.
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