Property District has won the prestigious DCU Ryan Academy Competition by Using Augmented Reality to Speed up Delivery of New Homes
Award-winning PLACEengage.com, created by the Property District team, is a ‘Virtual Town Hall’ that tackles delays caused by objections to planning.
A part of the DCU entrepreneurial eco-system, the Ryan Academy was founded by the late Tony Ryan (founder of Ryanair) and its signature programme ‘High Fliers’ is an Enterprise Ireland-backed accelerator for Ireland’s best early stage innovations.
The Property District team behind this game-changing placemaking platform are using immersive technologies to transform public consultation and overcome planning objections that are slowing down the delivery of vital construction projects right now. These delays, which can be anywhere between 9 and 24 months, add an average of €11,500 to the cost of a home. Worst case scenario, the proposed development never gets built as it is simply no longer viable. These planning objections kill the supply of badly-needed new homes.
Explaining the need for this placemaking solution, Carol Tallon said “The property market in Ireland is broken. People don’t trust developers, developers don’t trust the planners, and few trust the state to fix this. Mistakes were made by all side in the past, but this idea we have that property developers and the community cannot work together towards a common goal is nonsense. Collaboration is the only way to deliver the half a million new homes needed under Project 2040“.
PLACEengage is a virtual town hall, designed to inform people and encourage community engagement. This is achieved by allowing people to ‘experience’ the proposed development through immersive technologies like Augmented Reality. People can stand on the site of a proposed development and through their smart device see exactly what is planned, then log onto the platform and share their views, concerns and questions.
“We know that when people are given the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way, they are much less likely to lodge a blanket objection to the entire development. And the reality is that public consultation for property developments has changed – Communities and local businesses are already using social media to discuss proposed developments – but they don’t always have the right information! Planners and developers need to understand this and create strategies to fully inform and really listen to what communities are saying. We need to hear new voices in the planning debate”
Public consultation is already a statutory requirement for property developers, PLACEengage.com is simply giving them a better way to do this. This team has been at the forefront in property communications for a decade and a half. Together with their online community of over 40,000 followers, they are determined to speed up the delivery of new homes while giving a greater voice to the community.
