Augmented Realty

We've seen the ability to include house price data on maps with an iPhone (see article from May), but now Dutch property portal Funda has helped to develop a mobile phone browser for Google's Android phone platform which uses augmented reality as a method of displaying property information.

The browser is called Layar and it overlays data onto objects that are visible through the camera on a mobile phone enabling the user to establish the price of a property and see further details about it just by pointing the phone at it.

Whether house hunters will embrace the idea of holding their phones up in the middle of the street to check house prices remains to be seen, but like the iPhone app for maps you can see how this technology could prove useful for establishing prices and specifications of comparable properties near ones that you have just viewed, especially if data from the Land Registry or the likes of Zoopla is available on it.

It could be that this tech simply helps applicants to identify which house they are going to view with augmented reality For Sale boards. With an increasing number of vendors feeling apprehensive about (and council's preventing) having a real board outside a property, the virtual version could prove more unobtrusive.

What is clear is that the technological advances in mobile applications is changing rapidly and house hunters will have a range of powerful tools in their pocket to assist them in finding, reviewing and even negotiating on properties very soon.