A Matterport virtual tour is a navigable 3D model of your property. It is not a video. It is not a slideshow of 360-degree photographs. It is a spatial model that a buyer or tenant can walk through, measure, and explore from any angle, on any device, before booking a viewing.
How the scan works
We bring the Matterport Pro camera to your property and scan room by room. The camera captures 360-degree images and precise depth data at each position. Most properties take between 1 and 3 hours to scan on site, depending on size and number of floors.
After the shoot, the data goes to Matterport's processing platform. Within 24 hours you receive a hosted link to the finished tour, ready to share.
What the viewer sees
The viewer enters a first-person walkthrough. They move through the property room by room, looking in any direction. Three views are available inside every tour:
- Walk-through mode: first-person navigation, room by room, as if physically present in the space
- Dollhouse view: a floating 3D model of the whole property, rotatable from any angle, showing how rooms connect
- Floor plan view: a top-down schematic showing how the property divides, generated automatically from the scan data
There is also a measurement tool. A viewer can click any two points in the tour and get an accurate distance reading. Column spacing, room widths, doorway heights: all checkable before anyone sets foot in the building.
Where you can use it
Matterport tours are hosted online and accessed via a link. You can paste it into a Rightmove listing, embed it on your own website, include it in an email pitch, or share it directly with a specific buyer or tenant. Viewers do not need an app. The tour opens in a browser on desktop, tablet, or phone.
What it does to enquiry quality
According to Matterport's research, listings with a virtual tour generate 49% more qualified leads. A viewer who has spent time walking the floor plan and taking measurements before picking up the phone is already more comfortable with the space. They will have seen every nook and cranny and can understand how the floor plate works. Fewer surprises when they get to the viewing.
For more on how that affects viewing conversion rates and wasted viewings, the numbers are covered in detail in the companion post.
For properties where location is part of the pitch, drone photography pairs well with a Matterport tour.