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The Challenge Of Buying Off The Plan
Buying property off the plan has come a long way since it’s introduction way back in the 70’s on the Gold Coast.
Gone are the days when you would drown in reams of confusing paper work. Back then, it was more about hope than anything else. But with the advent of the internet, and sophisticated display centres, buying off the plan has become a “virtual reality”, except when it comes to space.
Even with the help of display suites / homes built to scale, and 3 dimensional diagrams, visualising space is difficult to sense. How many times have you heard buyers saying things like, “It doesn’t seem as large as I thought it would be” or “ this room is so dark” ? and what if the diagrams are inaccurate?
According to Merriam – Webster, space is an unbounded or unbroken set of mathematical points – distance, area and volume which define the location of any particular co-ordinate. Space is commonly referred to as 3 dimensional because it contains three distant dimensions. That part we understand, it is reality we struggle with because space changes.
There is no doubt that seeing space is a serious challenge.
The problem with buying off the plan is that plans are two dimensional, and even with the help of tools such as the internet ( virtual reality ) and display suites or homes built to scale , most buyers find it impossible to perceive space, other than what they can see. The interesting part is, when we draw upon our own personal experiences, we can visualise those experiences in a 3 dimensional sense, but for whatever reason, when it comes to viewing a set of plans, most buyers struggle to conjure space.
Maybe, the answer is because buying off the plan is not something we do very often. A more logical answer is that space changes depending upon what points you are looking at. For example, if you look through a window, the space you see will vary depending upon what you can see. If you removed the window, and replaced it with a wall, the sense of space changes yet again. The same applies to light and the solstice which is constantly changing depending upon what time of the day it is. So, it is no wonder most buyers find it difficult to visualise what they are buying. Despite the fact that buying off the plan has come a long way, and has never been easier, some things never change, buyer beware.