Every new-build development commissions a render pack from a visualisation studio. Exterior views of the building, interior images of the key spaces, floor plan drawings. The cost varies, but a comprehensive render pack for a medium-sized residential scheme typically runs from £15,000 to £60,000.
Most developers use those images in a PDF brochure and on their website as static images. That's the end of it.
An interactive property viewer uses the same images — but turns them into something buyers can explore, rather than scroll past.
What CGI renders give you
CGI renders are photorealistic images of your development produced by a visualisation studio. At their best, they're indistinguishable from photographs of a completed building. They're essential — no other medium communicates how a development will look as effectively as a high-quality render.
What they don't do on their own:
- They don't let buyers choose where to look
- They don't show which units are available
- They don't let buyers click into a specific unit and see its floor plan
- They don't capture buyer data when someone is interested
- They don't update when a unit gets reserved
A PDF of renders is a passive experience. Buyers look at what you've chosen to show them, in the order you've chosen to show it.
What an interactive property viewer gives you
An interactive viewer built from your render pack turns that passive experience into an active one. Buyers control:
- The angle they view the building from (orbiting 360° around the exterior)
- Which unit they want to explore (clicking directly on the building to drill into a specific flat or house)
- Which floor plan they view
- Which interior spaces they walk through (if interior panoramas are provided)
Critically, they also see live availability. The viewer shows which units are available, reserved, and sold — updated in real time by your sales team. A buyer who sees only three units left in their preferred type is significantly more likely to act quickly.
The same images. Fundamentally different experience.
This is the key point: you don't need a new render brief to build an interactive viewer. The exterior spin sequence your visualisation studio produces as standard — the series of renders at consistent angles around the building — is the source material for the 360° exterior experience.
The interior panoramas (equirectangular images that can be looked around in all directions) are something your studio can add to any render brief. Most studios produce them on request, and they add relatively little to the overall render cost.
What changes is not the images — it's what you do with them.
| Static renders | Interactive viewer | |
| Buyer experience | Passive — see what you're shown | Active — explore what they want to see |
| Availability | Not shown | Live — updated by your team |
| Engagement time | 30–60 seconds on a PDF | 4–8 minutes average session |
| Enquiry capture | Contact form or phone call | In-viewer enquiry linked to specific unit |
| Works 24/7 | PDF can be downloaded | Yes — accessible anytime, any device |
| Updates | New PDF required | Instant — availability updates in real time |
When to brief your studio for interactive-ready assets
The best time to brief your visualisation studio for interactive-ready assets is before they start production — not after.
The key brief additions:
- Exterior spin sequence: 24–36 renders at equal angular intervals around the building, consistent lighting, minimum 1920px wide
- Interior panoramas: Equirectangular format (the file type that can be viewed in all directions), one per key room per unit type, minimum 4000px wide
If your studio has already delivered a standard render pack, it's usually possible to produce the spin sequence from the original 3D model as a relatively straightforward addition.
Which is right for your development?
Both. CGI renders are essential regardless — they're the raw material for everything. The interactive viewer is built on top of them.
The question isn't CGI renders or interactive viewer. It's: what are you doing with your renders once you have them?
A static PDF and a folder of images on your website leaves significant sales potential unrealised. An interactive viewer built from the same files captures that potential — and starts generating leads from the moment you go live.