Spacious AR app searches for cheap 'haunted' apartments

Hong Kong's outrageous property prices have now led some to look for cheaper 'haunted' houses, and one company decides to ride on the coattails of the growing trend by using Augmented Reality (AR) to help app users search "haunted apartments".In Greater China, when unusual deaths happen in apartments or houses, many tend to believe the residence becomes 'haunted' and cause bad Feng Shui. As a result, the place can be sold or rented for a substantial discount to the market rate.Seeing an increase in searches for discounted houses, the 3-year old real estate app Spacious launched a "ghost-busting" app, which shows cartoon-like ghosts on its AR interface whenever a user is near a potentially haunted house or apartment. The new feature targets property searchers who are less concerned about the apartments' history - mainly younger local professionals and expats.The app also adds "ghosts" around town so users can catch them on their phones if they fancy some exercise.Spacious' CEO & founder Asif Ghafoor commented, "Using our app you can now walk around town find listings overlaid on the real world so you can visualize your new home and see that additional level of insight into what it would be like to live there."He added that the new feature marks the first time AR has been used in conjunction with an apartment search feature.