Unrealistic pictures of homes up for sale could soon be a thing of the past thanks to an innovative 3D real estate technology developed in Australia.
Software developed by Melbourne-based company Scann3d allows buyers to take a virtual walk through a home so it feels like they are actually standing inside.
Scann3d sets up a 3D camera on a tripod inside the home and rotates it around the room, including the ceiling and floors, to film every detail and measure its exact dimensions.
Images collected by the camera are then pulled together so viewers can "walk" from room to room, look up, down and behind them as if they were standing there.
As a result, buyers gain a more accurate impression of the size of rooms, colours and layout than traditional photos and videos of properties.
"You have the control to actually walk around and look behind the bed and get a sense of space and the layout," Scann3d's Trent Clews-De Castella, who helped develop the software, told AAP.
"You are immersed in it. It gives a powerful sense of environment."
The company is in talks with major real estate websites Domain and Real Estate.com about how they could incorporate the 3D videos into their online property listings.
It is also being trialed with real estate agents in ads for 250 high-end properties, mostly in Melbourne and Sydney.
"We have had a 15 per cent increase in international traffic and doubled the monthly viewership of our clients' sites," Mr Clews-De Castella said.
The software has the potential to benefit both buyers and sellers.
Taking a virtual walk through a property can help buyers narrow down which properties they want to inspect in person, while sellers can attract more interest from interstate and overseas.
Mr Clews-De Castella says the 3D technology is cheaper to produce than traditional video used to advertise homes, and will eventually replace it and traditional photos.
His company hopes to roll out their software for use by museums, art galleries and historic buildings.
Mr Clews-De Castella has spent the past week demonstrating the technology to a group of more than 100 Australian entrepreneurs taking part in a think tank known as The Unstoppables in Antarctica.