Virtual Staging for Australian Real Estate

How virtual staging works from your listing photos

You send the photographs. We do not photograph the property, and we do not need access to it. Your agent, photographer or the operator's own team shoots each room, and we work on those files. That keeps the job quick and means the staged image shares its frame, lens and window light with the unstaged one.

For each room we read the camera position and the floor plane, pick furniture that suits the floor area and the price bracket, and place it at a believable scale against doors, windows and skirting. Shadows are matched to where the light in your photograph falls, and lamps and pendants are lit to suit. You get a draft to react to, then revisions from your mark-ups: swap the sofa, lighten the rug, remove the plant. Up to four revision rounds are included.

Delivery is 24–48 hours, against 5–7 business days for full renders, because the room already exists and only the contents are new. If a campaign date is tight, send the photographs as soon as they are shot and approve styling for the whole set in one go.

Who virtual staging suits

The strongest case is a vacant property. An empty room photographs smaller than it is and gives a buyer nothing to judge scale against. Staging also suits a property that is occupied but dated, where the agent wants the room to read cleanly without asking the vendor to move out their belongings.

Build-to-rent and apartment leasing teams use it differently. In a block of near-identical units, each unit is photographed and staged in the same agreed style. Where one staged image is shown for several units of the same layout, label it as a representative unit. Property stylists use staging to show a client a direction before committing to hire. Selling agents use it to test whether a vendor's weakest rooms are worth styling for real.

It is not the right tool when the property does not exist yet. For off-the-plan sales there is no photograph to start from, and the answer is interior renders built from the drawings.

What is included in each staged image

Each image is one photograph of one room, delivered at the resolution you supplied. Staging is priced per image, so the cost does not depend on how many pieces of furniture are in the room.

• Furniture sized and placed for the room: sofa, dining set, bed, desk or whatever the room's purpose calls for
• Rugs, soft furnishings, cushions, throws and bed linen
• Decor such as plants, books, bowls and benchtop styling
• Lamps and pendants, lit to match the light already in the photograph
• A draft for feedback, then up to four rounds of revisions from your mark-ups

What costs more

The A$95 price is for adding to a room. Some work is a different job and is quoted from your photographs, not priced here.

Removing existing furniture or clutter so the room can be staged from bare is retouching work, and it varies with how much is in frame and what sits behind it. Renovation previews, such as new flooring, a repainted wall colour or a refreshed kitchen finish, change the building itself and are quoted per image. Twilight conversion of an exterior photograph is also quoted. Ask for these before you shoot, because a photograph taken with the clutter cleared away and the blinds open is cheaper to stage than one that needs rescuing.

If you are staging a whole listing or a leasing release, send all the photographs together and ask for a batch quote. Sets of five images or more are priced as a package.

Style options and how many photos to stage

Styles are chosen to suit the property and its likely buyer, not applied from a menu. Contemporary and Scandinavian suit most apartments and newer homes. Coastal, Hamptons-style and warm timber palettes suit family homes and beach suburbs. Industrial and luxe palettes suit warehouse conversions and high-end apartments. Send two or three listings or images you like and we will match the direction, or tell us the buyer and we will propose one.

Stage the rooms that sell the home. For most listings that means the living and dining area, the main bedroom, and any room whose purpose is unclear, such as a study nook or a second living room. Kitchens and bathrooms are usually already furnished by their fixtures, so staging there is limited to benchtop styling, towels and plants. Bathrooms and laundries need little staging. Three to five images is a workable starting set for a listing, and a single hero room is a sensible place to start if you are testing the approach.

Be honest about staged images

A staged image shows furniture the buyer will not receive. Label it. Add a plain line to each staged image, or to the listing text beside it, such as "virtually staged", and keep the unstaged photograph available. That protects you as the agent and keeps the listing credible.

Do not use staging to hide anything. Marks, cracks, damp, worn floors and views that are less than the listing implies must stay visible, and staging should never change the size, layout, windows or fixtures of a room. If a defect is in the photograph it should still be in the staged version. Agents who list in Australia are bound by misleading-conduct rules, and the rules and the portals' own policies differ, so check your state's fair trading and agent-licensing guidance before you publish.

Staged images work best when they are paired with accurate information. Show the unstaged photograph in the gallery, say plainly what is included in the sale, and let the staged image do what it is good at, which is helping a buyer judge scale and use.

Virtual staging, furnished floor plans and interior renders

Virtual staging starts from a photograph, so it needs a finished room. Interior renders start from drawings, so they work for rooms that are not built. If the building is under construction or off the plan, interior renders are the right product, and we build them from your plans and finishes schedule.

A middle step also exists. Furnished 3D floor plans show layout and furniture arrangement across the whole home at a glance, and portals and brochures use them beside photographs. A completed listing can reasonably use all three: the staged photographs for look and feel, the plan for layout.

Our own examples are narrow. The build-to-rent apartment project shows three photographs of a part-furnished rental dressed with rugs, a set table, linen, plants and lamps around the furniture already there. The other two projects on this page are full interior renders, not staging, and they are shown so you can see what the alternative looks like for a room that is yet to be built.