Norway’s largest property portal, FINN.no, has announced a partnership with Roomvo — the North American virtual renovation platform — that will allow buyers to digitally redecorate any listed property before scheduling a viewing. The feature, which is available to all FINN users from today, represents one of the most significant product additions to any European portal in the past two years.
The integration works by applying Roomvo’s machine-learning models to each property’s listing photos. Buyers can select from over 4,000 flooring, paint, and tile options, and see a photorealistic preview rendered in under three seconds. There is no additional charge to either agents or buyers to
access the feature.
Why This Matters for the Market
The announcement raises an obvious question: why has it taken so long for a major portal to make this move? The technology has existed in some form since at least 2019, when Houzz and several US-based brokerages began experimenting with augmented reality staging tools. The answer, according to FINN’s Head of Product, is data.
“Our buyers don’t just want to see what a property looks like. They want to know whether it could look the way they imagine it. We’re giving them that answer before they even book a viewing.”
— Kari Haugen, Head of Product, FINN.no
The implication for listing quality is significant. FINN’s internal data, which it shared exclusively with Online Marketplaces, suggests that listings with virtual staging features receive 34% more saves and 28% more viewing requests than equivalent listings without them. If those numbers hold at scale, agents will face growing pressure to ensure their listings are compatible with the tool — which in practice means higher-quality photography and more detailed room dimensions.
Competitive Implications
The deal puts immediate pressure on Rightmove, Zoopla, SeLoger, and Immoscout24, each of which has its own virtual tour infrastructure but none of which offers buyer-facing customisation at the point of browsing. Several of these portals have been in early conversations with Roomvo and competing platforms, according to sources familiar with those discussions, but none has moved to a full integration.
The strategic timing is notable. FINN has been operating under increasing competitive pressure from regional upstarts across Scandinavia. This product move gives the portal a feature that is genuinely difficult to replicate quickly — Roomvo’s model accuracy degrades significantly on lower-resolution photography, creating a natural moat that favours portals with higher baseline listing quality standards.
What Agents Are Saying
Reaction from the Norwegian agency market has been broadly positive, though not uniformly so. Several larger agencies expressed concern that buyers might make assumptions about renovation costs based on the tool’s previews. FINN has addressed this by adding a disclaimer that all virtual options are indicative only and do not include contractor pricing.
For now, FINN has a clear lead. How long that lead holds will depend on how quickly its European counterparts are willing to move — and whether Roomvo has the capacity to execute multiple simultaneous integrations at scale.