Is That Virtual Tour Really Your Flat? How to See What's Actually Been Built
The demand letter says the tiling on your floor is finished and asks for most of what is left of the price. You read it in Toronto, the floors are closed to buyers until handover, and the virtual tour the sales team sends opens on a furnished living room in evening light with a view across a park. It is lovely, and it tells you nothing about whether tiles are down in the flat you are paying for.
What you want to ask is whether this is your flat or a picture of the design, and it is an awkward question, because the relationship has been friendly and nobody wants to be the difficult buyer. You don't have to ask it that way. Four quite different things are sold as a virtual viewing, and only one of them, a dated 360° walk of your own floor placed on the plan, shows what has been built and when, so the easier request is simply for that.
Why the viewing matters more when you can't visit
Many builders keep buyers off floors that are still being worked on, usually for safety, so a buyer abroad may first stand in the flat at handover, after nearly all of the price has been paid. Every stage-linked demand before that asks you to pay for work you haven't seen, and whatever you are sent is the only evidence you have when you decide.
If the project is in India and registered under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, the promoter has to keep a quarterly up-to-date status of the project on the authority's website for public viewing, and you are entitled to know the stage-wise schedule of completion (sections 11(1)(e) and 19(2) of the Act as published in the Gazette of India). That tells you the project's stage four times a year, and a dated walk can show your own floor in the weeks between.
Four kinds of virtual viewing, and which one shows your flat
The first two show the design, which helps you decide whether you like the flat, and the other two show the building as it stands.
| Kind of viewing | What it is | What it shows you | What it can't tell you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer-generated tour | Made from the drawings, often before work starts | The intended layout, finishes and light | Anything about what has been built |
| Show-flat or sample-flat video | Filmed in a furnished model unit | Finishes and furniture at their best | Your flat, your floor, your view or the date |
| Live video call | Someone from the sales or site team walks with a phone | Whatever is in front of their camera, today | The rooms they don't enter, and anything to watch again later |
| Dated 360° walk of your floor | The real site, captured along a route and placed on the plan | The stage reached on a known date, and the same spot over time | Anything behind finishes, structural strength or waterproofing |
Only the last one leaves you something to check against the next demand, because it carries a date and a place on the plan.
What to ask for in a 360° walk
A 360° photo records the whole room around the camera at once, so you see the corners as well as the view. Four things make a walk worth relying on, and you can ask for all of them in one message:
- A date on every capture, close to the demand you are about to pay.
- A place on the floor plan, ideally with the direction each photo faces, so you can tell your flat from the one next door and see which window looks where.
- Your unit number in the first frame, then every room along the same route each time.
- The previous walk, so you can open the same spot on two dates and see what changed.
With those four in hand, each payment goes out against a floor you have actually seen, on a date you know.
- DatedThe walk carries its capture date, close to the demand you are about to pay.
- Placed on the planThe cone shows which way each photo faces, so you know which window you're looking out of.
- Your own floorThe unit number is on the walk, not a show flat's.
What a 360° walk can't show you
A walk shows surfaces on a date, so it helps to know what it leaves out.
- Anything behind a finished surface, because pipes and conduits disappear under plaster. Ask whether your floor was recorded before the walls were closed, which is the last look inside the walls you will get.
- The strength of the concrete and the steel, which needs an engineer at the key stages.
- Waterproofing, which only shows its quality when water reaches it. In one Maharashtra case, water from an unfinished terrace damaged walls, lifts and flats years after the occupancy certificate, and a structural audit set out the repairs, LiveLaw reported in June 2025.
- Room sizes, because a 360° photo gives you the shape and order of the rooms, while the sizes you are paying for are in the sanctioned plans and the agreement, which you are entitled to see (section 19(1)).
- Noise, smells, the light at other times of day, and the view from a floor that hasn't been built yet.
Plan one visit before handover, by you or an engineer you trust, and use the walks for everything in between.
If you're the developer or agent selling these homes
A buyer who has read this far will ask whether your virtual tour shows their flat or the design, however politely they put it. A render answers the first question a buyer has, whether they like the flat, and a dated walk of their own floor answers the question they have just before they pay, so send both and say which is which. Once the walk sits on the plan with its date, the awkward question never comes up, and how to send construction updates buyers trust sets out the routine.
Where SpatialSense fits
SpatialSense is used by the developer. The site team captures each walk with the Trace app and a 360° camera on a helmet, and the walk uploads with its path drawn on the floor plan and, in Video Mode, a timestamp on every frame. A compass and a viewing cone on the plan show which way each 360° photo faces, so you can tell which window you are looking out of. The developer sends you a link that opens without a login, chooses what it shows and can revoke it, and any two dates open side by side from one locked viewpoint. It is the same kind of virtual site walk that owners and engineers use to check a floor from the office, with every dated 360° walk kept in one project, which is how weekly sign-off without a site visit works for clients far from the site.
If your developer already sends a dated video of your floor along the same route, ask for the unit number in the first frame and you have most of what a walk gives you. A live call with the site engineer is still the best way to ask a question on the spot, and neither replaces an engineer at the key stages.
Capture. Understand. Take Action.
See SpatialSense on your project
If you sell homes to buyers who live abroad, you can run the full platform free for 30 days with no card, upload 360° photos from your own camera in the browser, and send each buyer a dated walk of their floor before the next demand goes out. Support is 24/7 and one to one, from a person at Kodifly.
SpatialSense isn't only for big projects, and you don't need to learn every part of it to use it, because on a custom plan you can take the 360° viewer on its own. Book a demo and we'll go through the details with you.
FAQ
Is a virtual tour of a flat enough to decide?
It is often enough to decide whether you like the layout, although before paying a stage-linked demand you need a dated walk of your own floor.
Is it normal for a builder not to allow site visits during construction?
It is common, often for safety while work goes on. Ask for a dated walk of your floor and a scheduled visit at a quieter stage, and if the project is registered under RERA, check its quarterly status on the authority's website.
What is a virtual viewing of a property?
It is a tour you watch on a screen instead of walking the home: a computer-generated tour, a video, a live call or a 360° capture you move through yourself. For a home under construction, only a dated capture shows the real state of your flat.
Can I buy an under-construction flat without visiting?
Many buyers abroad do, with someone they trust handling the paperwork and a lawyer checking the legal side. Ask for a dated walk of your floor before each demand, and plan one visit, by you or an engineer, before handover.