Proptech startup Build Buddy launches world’s first online display village
Proptech startup Build Buddy is transforming the home buying experience by introducing Australia’s first online display village – Build Buddy World. It allows people to tour a residential home village from the comfort of their own home on any device, with over 40 virtual homes and an additional 134 floorplans to discover. This innovative platform addresses the evolving needs and preferences of today’s consumers, offering a far more convenient, sustainable, and immersive way to explore and compare home designs, without having to spend hours driving around to builder display villages.
Build Buddy World leverages cutting-edge web-based rendering technology that transforms floorplans into immersive and interactive 3D experiences. The platform offers full freedom of movement, allowing users to self-navigate and examine every detail of the homes within Build Buddy World’s virtual environment, creating an experience that replicates the sensation of being there in person. From the front door of any home, viewers can embark on a virtual tour of existing display homes or explore unique new designs curated by Build Buddy World, allowing people to gain a comprehensive understanding of the home while virtually standing in a space.
Danny Assabgy is the Founder and CEO of Build Buddy, the collaborative construction app designed to empower everyday Australians to design and build their own home, without needing a builder. He recognised that in the past five years, there has been a substantial shift in how people approach display village visits. Gone are the days when families dedicated entire days to touring every display home in a village. Today, buyers prefer to conduct extensive online research and then visit one or two specific builders on their day off.
He said, “The traditional model of residential home display villages is no longer sustainable as it is not meeting the needs of today’s home buyers. They have extremely high costs, and these costs are later passed onto the customer. I started talking with the team as to how we could create an online display village that would provide the same experience that they can access from anywhere. One that allows customers to explore a wide range of home designs from the comfort of their own homes, without the hassle of travel or time constraints.”
Build Buddy World’s online display village offers several advantages over traditional physical display homes:
- Sustainability: By eliminating the need for fully powered and maintained display homes, Build Buddy World reduces the environmental impact and costs associated with physical displays.
- Convenience: Customers can access the online display village 24/7, explore homes at their own pace, and make informed decisions without the pressure of in-person sales tactics.
- Comprehensive Selection: The platform features a vast collection of home designs, catering to diverse preferences and needs.
- Cost-Effective: Showcasing designs without the significant upfront costs and ongoing maintenance expenses of physical display homes, which traditionally gets passed onto customers.
Assabgy is also CEO of Hudson Homes, so he is in the unique position of understanding the sheer amount of time, capital and human resources that are required to pull together a traditional display village. “The costs for builders are truly astronomical, in the millions, and while we once experienced hundreds of people coming through the doors every weekend, today’s prospective homeowners just don’t shop in this way anymore. When your market changes how they interact with your product, you need to be able to respond to the market. And this is exactly what we’ve done with the creation of Build Buddy World.”
Elise Middleton, Build Buddy’s CMO, stated “It is incredible that modern technology enables anyone to immerse themselves in a virtual space, as if they are witnessing it with their own eyes. With Build Buddy World, we wanted to take out the confusion that people often experience at display villages, which is mostly related to talking to dozens of different builders and receiving often conflicting information when trying to make comparisons. We also know that people no longer want to spend their weekends driving around for hours to different display homes. Instead, we have been able to provide them with a unique solution – one that allows for a large range of home options to explore, anytime, 24/7 and at their own pace. We have a mission to provide transparency in an industry that has been too confusing for buyers for far too long.”
Build Buddy World provides two prices with each floorplan – one that tells you approximately how much it would cost to build with a traditional building company, and one that tells you how much it would cost to build the exact same home but through the Build Buddy app instead. With cost savings of as much as 20% or more, Build Buddy breaks down every step throughout designing and building a new home. It tells users what they need to do, when they need to do it, how they’re going to do it and then connects them directly to the people who are going to do it (a curated marketplace of verified consultants, contractors and suppliers).
