How the Pandemic Launched A Proptech Revolution

PropTech company DisplaySweet has combined industry-leading technology with the consumer experience of a luxury real estate brand to help Australia’s biggest developers launch new projects worth more than $3.5 billion in the last quarter of 2020.

After just six years in business DisplaySweet has become the most-trusted new development presentation tool, helping developers to market and sell billions of dollars worth of new residential property across Australia, despite Covid restrictions and border closures.

The platform provides buyers with a personalised and superior sales experience when purchasing off-plan, whether it’s a new house and land in a masterplanned community, luxury townhouse, or apartment, and it is used by leading developers including Mirvac, MAB, Fridcorp, Doma Group and Frasers Property.

National developer Mirvac was an early adopter, integrating DisplaySweet technology across multiple award-winning house and land estates, including the 187-hectare masterplanned community, Olivine in Melbourne’s northern growth corridor.

Developers in south-east Queensland, Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth were using DisplaySweet’s platform and interactive services including sophisticated 3D masterplans, touchscreens and cinema-style immersion rooms when the pandemic hit in March 2020.

As the country grappled with the impact of the health crisis and its effect on the economy and housing market, uncertainty engulfed the residential development industry.

“Health and safety was our primary concern and as a business we also had a responsibility to support and help our customers navigate through this difficult and uncertain period,” DisplaySweet co-CEO and founder John Paige said.

Paige said while events of March 2020 had rocked the industry it also exposed an urgent and very real demand for a new off-plan technology-based sales platform that would cater for domestic users.

“With in-person inspections and sales galleries shut down we were forced to pivot and expand our offering to include a platform that could be accessed from home anywhere in the world,” he says.

“We launched OpenPlans earlier than planned because it was critical our clients maintained an online presence, remaining open and active.”

“For the first time agents can extend the buyer experience beyond the display suite. Buyers can access a VIP site and explore a project from the comfort of their own home at their leisure, while sales teams can present remotely. This expands the sales flow, which has been traditionally designed around the sales journey solely within the display suite.”

Supporting multiple languages and unlimited users, OpenPlans has the capacity to showcase sales and marketing content including interactive 3D models while allowing buyers to reserve properties from home.

Crown Resorts integrated DisplaySweet technology into its luxury One Barangaroo display to showcase the incredible views from the ultra-exclusive site on Sydney Harbour, selling more than $870 million worth of apartments in two years.

The developer added OpenPlans immediately following the closure of the borders and social distancing restrictions, allowing the sales team to continue communications and transactions with international buyers.

Industry stalwart Meriton has used DisplaySweet for its past seven projects and added the OpenPlans platform in mid-2020. Using OpenPlans, Meriton successfully launched Eminence, a 254-apartment Sydney project, during the pandemic.

Crown Group also used the online platform to sell stock to overseas investors, who continued to show strong interest in the luxury apartment project Mastery even at the height of the pandemic.

Demand for the company’s original platform and interactive showroom products spiked in the second half of last year as confidence returned and more than 20 off-plan projects were launched to market in the last quarter of 2020 alone.

However, the decision to bring a wholly digitised product to market earlier than anticipated has paid off with more than 20 per cent of DisplaySweet’s clients adopting OpenPlans in conjunction with the existing sales platform.

The offering has become an essential tool, Paige says, predicting clients will continue to leverage the online strategy in a post-coronavirus environment.

“We saw a surge in seasoned developers lifting their game in terms of how they approach marketing and they all began looking for how best to attract a buyer with a strategy that would match the quality of what they are selling,” Paige says.

“Australia’s new development market continues to evolve and move forward. Given the volume of projects that came online at the end of 2020 and knowing what’s in the pipeline for 2021, we can see developers are confident there is strong buyer demand for Australian real estate.”

“We continue to improve DisplaySweet and OpenPlans in response to client and customer demands. We’ve made the buying process easier and more accessible and by offering a real-time end-to-end solution, our ultimate goal is to help thousands of buyers find the perfect place to live anywhere in the world.”

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