Aerial and drone renders for property developments

A development needs an aerial render when the setting or the layout is part of what buyers are paying for, and a street-level view cannot show it. These are the situations where Render Works has used aerials:

• The landscape sells the location. The Rocks on Holloway aerials show each home against the Kawarau River and the hills behind Cromwell.
• The site is bigger than one street frontage. The Kōroto aerial masterplan renders show the lots, the lake, the boat house and the clubhouse together.
• The section is steep or unusual. The Lanes Road aerial shows a home anchored into a rock outcrop above Alexandra.
• Buyers will judge the neighbourhood. Ludlow Terrace sits among Tōtara Vale streets, and Soleil among the Redhead rooftops.

A 3D aerial renders the whole view, while a drone photomontage places rendered homes into a real photograph of the site. Both show the development from above. They differ in what surrounds the homes and how much freedom you have with the camera.

The two Molyneux aerials are photomontages. The finished homes were composited into drone photographs of the Cromwell site, so a buyer sees the real Cromwell basin, the real neighbouring properties and the real hills behind. The Molyneux case study explains how the renders were matched to the photography.

Buyers use an aerial render to understand where a home is before they look at what it is like inside. That is why aerials usually lead a campaign. On Rocks on Holloway the aerials establish the place, the exteriors show form and materials, and the interiors show how the homes feel to live in.

Four of the aerial projects on this page are in Otago, where buyers are choosing between many new developments and the lake, river or hills around each one are a large part of the appeal. On a project website, the aerial is often the masterplan view: the Kōroto site uses its aerial renders that way. In a video, the aerial is the opening that carries the buyer from the setting into the homes. Read more in our guide to the property development marketing toolkit and on the cinematic walkthrough video service.

An aerial render needs more site information than a street view. Supply these where you have them:

• A site plan or masterplan with lot boundaries, roads and shared spaces
• Architectural plans for each home type on the site
• Landscape and civil drawings for planting, paving and driveways
• Drone photographs of the site, if you want a photomontage
• A note on what the view has to show, such as the lake, the river or the neighbouring streets

For Molyneux, the drone photography was supplied early in the project, which let the camera angles, light and composition of the renders be matched to it. The guide to what to provide for a 3D render project covers the drawings in more detail.

An aerial render is accurate when the homes sit in their true positions, at the right scale, inside surroundings that match the real site. Buyers use aerials to judge outlook and neighbours, so a flattering but wrong context misleads them.

• Real context. Soleil's aerial composites the homes among the actual Redhead rooftops, and the Molyneux photomontages use drone photographs of the Cromwell site.
• Matched camera and light. The Molyneux renders were matched to the photography's angle, light and composition so the homes sit convincingly in the frame.
• True positions and outlook. The Kōroto aerials show each home in its position on the site, with its outlook to the water.

The same care helps outside marketing. Aerial and streetscape views can explain siting and bulk in a consent application, which we cover in the guide to 3D renders for resource consent in NZ. Aerials are part of our 3D architectural render service.