From Paper Plans to Walkable Pre-Sales: How HIWAY Turns Unbuilt Apartments Into Certainty
Yael Gal was finishing a high-end project in Manhattan when her sister called from Beersheba in tears. She was about to sign on a NIS 1.5M apartment but only had a 2D floor plan. No context. No feel. No real sense of what she was buying.
Gal built her a full 3D model with options and a walkthrough. The tears stopped. She signed with confidence, moved in, then sold months later for a significant gain. That single call became HIWAY, an AI-driven real estate platform that lets buyers walk unbuilt apartments, edit layouts and finishes in real time, and commit with eyes open.
What HIWAY Does (In Plain Terms)
Buyers put on a VR headset and step into a full-scale, photorealistic version of the apartment. They can walk room to room, test sightlines, and feel proportions. Then they can tweak: move a wall, swap flooring, change kitchen finishes - with instant rendering.
HIWAY ships headsets to remote buyers, so a couple in Manhattan can "live" in a Jerusalem apartment before they even book a flight. Off-plan sales stop being abstract. They become experiential and clear.
Under the hood, it borrows from gaming engines and film production - the same tech used to build worlds now applied to pre-sales. See also: real-time engines for architectural visualization.
Why It Matters to Developers, Brokers, and Builders
- Pre-sales velocity: Walking the actual scale and light removes guesswork and shortens decision cycles.
- Fewer cancellations: Clear expectations reduce remorse and post-signature reversals.
- Change-order reduction: Buyers resolve layout and finish choices before construction, not during MEP rough-in.
- Finish upsell, done honestly: Real-time swaps show the impact of higher-spec choices without pressure.
- Design feedback loop: Aggregate what buyers select to guide future unit mixes and spec packages.
- Diaspora sales with certainty: Remote walkthroughs turn "sight unseen" purchases into informed commitments.
How Teams Put This to Work
- Start with data you have: IFC/Revit/CAD files, floor plans, finish schedules, and verified dimensions.
- Curate finish libraries: Offer budget, mid, and premium options with live pricing deltas tied to each swap.
- Set clarity rules: Disclaimers on materials, color variance, and LOD; lock structural elements; version-control buyer selections.
- Integrate sales ops: Embed booking, lead capture, and CRM tagging; gate advanced options for qualified buyers.
- Build remote kits: Ship VR headsets with a 10-minute onboarding and a guided scene; support tablet/desktop viewer as a fallback.
- Use it in showrooms: Add a VR room to the sales gallery so walk-ins leave with a finished selection set.
- Close the loop with build teams: Export selected specs to procurement, carpentry, and MEP coordination to prevent drift.
Risk and Expectation Management
- Visual ≠ as-built: Commit to tolerance ranges, sample boards, and in-sunlight mockups for key finishes.
- Lighting and color: Calibrate headsets and provide a quick guide on perceived color shifts.
- Motion comfort: Offer teleport movement and seated modes; keep frame rates high.
- Accessibility: Provide non-VR web viewers and printed spec packs for sign-off.
- Privacy & data: Treat sessions and selections as PII; store and share on a need-to-know basis.
The Founder's Edge: Built by Builders
Gal spent years crafting luxury spaces for clients who never asked "how much." Then she turned that expertise toward first-time buyers. She built HIWAY with her two daughters - third-generation architects with deep roots in Israeli construction, plus training in law and marketing.
Early meetings with local developers weren't always friendly. Some dismissed her confidence. Then units started moving in a stalled market. Attitudes changed. As one developer realized, results don't care about bias.
From Beersheba to Global Pre-Sales
Gal's model is simple: make elite visualization accessible, like a fashion house that brings top design to everyday shoppers. The Diaspora market benefits most. Buyers abroad can test layouts, finishes, and views before boarding a plane.
Her stance is blunt: "Nobody will buy an apartment without seeing it in VR." Whether you agree or not, buyer behavior is drifting that way. Once people experience clarity, they don't go back to paper.
What to Measure on Your First Pilot
- Time from first demo to signed contract
- Cancellation rate pre/post VR introduction
- Number of change orders per unit
- Average finish package value
- Lead-to-tour conversion for remote buyers
- RFI volume tied to layouts and finishes
A Note on Leadership
Gal credits a Beersheba childhood shaped by a mother who built a salon into a thriving business, leading with warmth and belief instead of intimidation. That blueprint carried forward. "I hung my ego in the closet," Gal says. Then she bet her savings and went all in with her daughters.
Three generations of women built something new for real estate - not by being louder, but by being useful. The product isn't just the headset or the render. The product is the feeling buyers get: certainty instead of anxiety.
Next Steps and Resources
- Study practical use cases and tools: AI for Real Estate & Construction
- If your pipeline leans on off-plan sales or Diaspora buyers, run a 60-day pilot on one building and track the six metrics above.
Gal says the market is catching up to what buyers already want: to see it, to feel it, and to sign without guesswork. That's not hype. That's basic respect for the biggest purchase most people ever make.
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