Innovative Marketing: Virtual live tours in Mallorca

An interview with Julia Klahre and Peter von Eicken

Julia Klahre is the Director of Development Services Mallorca Southwest and Peter von Eicken is the Manager of Development Services Mallorca Southwest. Despite the hurdles and difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic have caused on the island, the team of Development Services Mallorca Southwest has found innovative and cutting edge solutions to market new development projects to prospective international buyers. First and foremost, virtual live tours have demonstrated that purchase decisions can in fact be made even at early stages of construction, thereby paving the way for faster sales processes and more buyer engagement right from the start. In addition to these innovative marketing tools, Julia Klahre and Peter von Eicken make sure to offer the highest quality services to developers and customers alike, ensuring the successful completion of new development projects. In their video and interview below, Julia Klahre and Peter von Eicken speak about their exceptional new development project Amber Village, their experiences with innovative marketing and the versatile ways in which they and their team support developers throughout all stages of property development.

Virtual live tours as well as high-quality 3D renderings and drone shots are precisely in line with the zeitgeist of digitalization. For your Amber Village project, you used exactly these innovative tools. Could you tell us more about the Amber Village project? 

Amber Village is a new development project, which we are exclusively marketing. Located above the popular coastal town of Port Andratx, 24 modern Mediterranean-style houses are being built with great views of the foothills of the Tramuntana mountains, the valley and the port of Port Andratx. The southeast-facing houses extend over 4 floors: on the first floor there are three bedrooms and 2 or 3 bathrooms each, as well as a private garden. On the upper floor, the inviting living and dining area with a high-quality open kitchen by Poliform and a large panoramic window as well as an adjoining terrace offer space for the whole family. The roof terrace features a small pool, a chill-out area as well as a summer kitchen, inviting you to enjoy the pleasant island climate to the fullest all year round. Each house also offers space for two cars in the underground level. The great thing about Amber Village is that all floors are accessible by a private elevator. Not only do the underfloor heating and air conditioning ensure a pleasant living climate all year round, but also an efficient and sustainable construction method. An infinity community pool with great views, as well as the communal green areas with native plants complete the offer.

How exactly does a virtual live house tour work? 

The process is very simple! After making an appointment, the prospective client and their Engel & Völkers real estate agent conveniently connect via smartphone, tablet or computer from anywhere in the world via video conference with the Live Virtual Tours presenter, who is located in a TV studio with a green screen. From there, the presenter greets the clients and gives them an initial overview of the entire project and the exact location before projecting them into a virtual 3D model showing the completed project using software from the video game industry. This allows the presenter to show clients the project in a live setting and speak with them, answering all their questions about the project while standing by the community pool at the development, for example, or in the middle of the property itself. In doing so, the presenter is able to enter every room of the house and show the prospective clients every nook and cranny and all the details. This is, of course, a very innovative and exciting way to conduct a virtual tour and a very different experience than clicking through a property yourself.

Mallorca is a popular tourist destination and therefore has many foreign buyers looking for properties. What role do you think virtual home tours and other digital marketing tools will play in the marketing of new development projects after Covid-19?

Covid-19 brought with it advances in technology in almost every industry and much of the population has had to get used to videoconferencing et cetera. Of course, this has also made people appreciate the advantages that these digital communication tools bring. So people will certainly want to continue to use video conferencing exchanges and live video viewings, as well as other digital viewing tools such as Matterport, for example. Although these do not replace the personal visit on site on the island for most interested parties, we notice that our customers like to make a specific pre-selection in advance via these channels and thus decide which properties and projects they would like to focus on further, or are also prepared to make a binding reservation for a property. Especially in the case of new development projects, there is often not much to see on site in the early stages of construction and most people can't get a good idea of what the finished project will look like when they just visit the construction site, so they often prefer to wait until construction has progressed further. The better and more comprehensive the digital marketing material is (good videos, digital brochures and virtual tours), the more likely it is that most customers can make a purchase decision with a good feeling even at an early stage of construction. We have noticed this and so have developers, which is why they are now investing more and more in digital marketing material.

As Director and Manager of Engel & Völkers Development Services Mallorca, you both have a very special insight into how your team works and how you work with developers. How do your services for developers differ from those of your competitors?

To our knowledge, we are the only real estate company in Mallorca that has its own department for new development projects. At other agencies, property developers and project developers are taken care of by real estate agents, who are also the contact persons for home owners and search clients. Of course, these agents cannot provide the same level of support to a property developer as we can, since we are able to concentrate fully on the property development. We are also able to offer our support to developers well before a project starts the sales process and are happy to advise them on issues such as apartment mix, floor plan design and target group analysis. In an ideal case, we also find the building plot for the developer and accompany them right from the start, from the planning of the new building project to the handover of the completed apartments to the buyers. As soon as the building licence is available and we start with the marketing, we take care of creating an appealing online presentation of the project and, together with our marketing department, develop target group-oriented marketing strategies and coordinate all marketing activities during the entire term of the project. In addition, we organise site visits for all sales consultants and ensure that our sales teams always have all the latest sales documents at their disposal and are briefed in the best possible way by us, such that they can inform the potential buyers professionally and comprehensively about the respective project. Of course, we are always at their disposal for any questions or in the case of complicated purchase transactions.