The Unconditional Blog

Too much information.. invasion of privacy… big brother watching us. Those are the emotive headlines at the news that Google is out in force capturing ground level images around NZ with camera mounted cars driving down your street.

Twenty years ago it was a very real concern as to the degree with which our privacy was being impacted by advancements in technology. Those Orwellian visions have materialised in a very different form from that envisaged at the time, far from being restricted and controlled, I would judge that in today’s world we are more empowered and enlightened than ever to make better decisions.

The ubiquity and pervasive power of the internet has transformed our lives – where would we be without its ability to answer our every question and provide us with a communication tool which has truly destroyed the tyranny of distance and brought NZ to the shop window of the world (or probably brought the world to the NZ shop window).

So given we should not fear this new level of information, lets look at what “Street View” can do for real estate online.

To start with let’s not forget what the current service offers as mapping has really only been available on real estate website for just over a year – street layout and satellite images to all areas of the country (satellite image resolution is variable, however with time the coverage and definition will only improve). This facility enables a very intuitive ability to search for property for sale based on where you want to live.

As an example let’s say you fancied buying a bach on the Coromandel and you fancied checking out Matarangi – the Google mapping on the site clearly shows where all the properties are located along the beach front and allows a clear understanding of which ones are real “beach front”. The standard view can be enhanced to show the satellite perspective as well – all photographed on a perfect summers day from 183 km above us.

Now the new capability of Google Street View will provide images taken from 1 metre from the ground rather than 183kms. This will provide the opportunity to not only see the house you are interested from the front gate of the property so you can see the true perspective of the house, you will then be able to spin round and look in more detail at the neighbourhood – what the adjoining properties look like, and also what’s at the end of the street!

All of these enhancements and developments will provide a richer and more valuable experience for real estate search – for both the buyer and the seller enabling a more informed buyer to better evaluate prospective properties. Bring it on! – greater openness and access to information empowers the future.