Virtual staging or home staging: which sells the apartment?
Home staging furnishes the real apartment with rented furniture for viewings; virtual staging furnishes the photographs for the listing. Virtual staging is ten to twenty times cheaper and ready in days; home staging still matters when buyers visit an empty apartment in person. Most listings today use virtual staging, and premium properties combine both.
Cost
Home staging for a 3.5-room apartment in Switzerland runs into the thousands of francs for setup and a monthly rental for as long as the property is on the market. Virtual staging of the same apartment — six to eight photos — is a few hundred francs, once. For a developer with twenty units, the difference is the difference between staging one show unit and staging every unit type.
Effect on the listing and the viewing
The listing is where virtual staging wins: the first image decides the click, and a furnished room photographs as larger, brighter and more expensive than an empty one. The viewing is where home staging wins: a buyer standing in an empty room has to imagine, and some cannot. A labelled virtually staged photo plus the empty original lets the buyer do both before visiting.
When to use which
Virtual staging for every listing of an empty property, for rentals, for renovation projects where the finished state must be shown, and for new builds whose show apartment is not yet built. Home staging for premium properties where viewings decide the price and the budget allows both. For a new development, virtual staging of the renderings is replaced by the renderings themselves — they are furnished from the start.
Related questions
Do buyers feel deceived by virtual staging?
Not when it is declared and the original photo is shown alongside. Buyers understand that the furniture is a suggestion; what they object to is a hidden change to the room itself.
Can both be combined?
Yes, and for high-value properties that is the usual approach: virtual staging for the portals, physical staging of the key rooms for the viewing.
How fast is virtual staging?
Two to three working days for an apartment of six to eight photos; single photos within 24 hours on request.