Does Virtual Reality Help Property Sales? Empirical Evidence from a Real Estate Platform.

This article examines the impact of nonimmersive virtual reality (VR) technology, specifically VR Tours, on market outcomes in real estate sales using a large dataset from a leading Chinese real estate platform. The study finds that VR significantly reduces properties' time-on-market by 28%–49%, enhancing transaction efficiency, but does not affect the selling price, indicating VR acts as an "efficiency enhancer" rather than a "market value influencer." Mechanism analyses reveal that VR's effectiveness is greater for properties with higher product involvement (more rooms), higher quality (newer properties), and lower real estate agent service quality, highlighting VR's roles in providing richer, credible information and serving as an alternative information source to agents. Additionally, VR positively influences consumers' online decision-making by increasing web visits, attentions, and conversion rates. These findings contribute to literature on VR in high-involvement product marketing and offer practical implications for property sellers, agents, and platforms aiming to improve sales efficiency without altering market value.