In 2019, Ascend were appointed as the sole agent for Affinity Living’s new Build to Rent development in Salford, Riverside, which spans across 17 storeys and comprises of 190 one, two and three bedroom apartments. As our team were letting units off-plan prior to build-completion, we utilised virtual reality technology in order to give applicants a feel for what the units had to offer without physically being in the building. After working with the client and drumming up interest for the development, we planned a virtual launch event to invite applicants and enquirers to have their very own virtual tour of the apartments on offer, along with a section of the room displaying the furniture packs and other interactive parts of the event to highlight the fantastic amenity spaces and community feel within the development. The event was extremely popular with applicants and our lettings team there on the night managed to secure a great amount of lets from one evening alone.

To keep the momentum going, we setup a virtual show home within our Deansgate office for anyone that wasn’t able to make it to the launch event. Our lettings team were also able to send the virtual tour via email to applicants and guide them in real time through the apartment tours over the phone, which proved very popular and successful.

Helen White, managing director of Affinity Living:

“Ascend has demonstrated an excellent understanding of our Affinity Living brand, which is about far more than providing incredible apartments.”