Surrounded by crisp white snow and adorned with festive lights and mistletoe, Santa’s North Pole cabin isn’t on the market, but you can take a tour, courtesy of some Artificial Intelligence magic.
Since 2016, Mr and Mrs Clause have listed their charming log cabin home on Zillow each Christmas, allowing all the well behaved little boys and girls a sneak peek into what life is like for the jolly man in the red suit.
But this year, Santa has added a lot more high-tech fun, with additional photos, a virtual 3D tour of the two-bedroom, two-bathroom cabin and a virtual treasure hunt, where visitors can search for 17 traditional Christmas items hidden inside the home.
From Santa’s cosy living room, with its stone fireplace, to the rustic timber kitchen, complete with cookies baking in the oven, property lovers can tour every corner of the home.
You can see inside the mail room with its pitched, timber-lined ceiling, see Santa’s private gift wrapping suite and take in the deliciously warming hot cocoa station.
The home also includes a custom elf door through to the toy shop and you can even see where Santa rests his head once Christmas Eve is over.
“Rest assured, Santa is not selling his beloved home,” Zillow’s home trends expert Amanda Pendleton said.
“The Clauses wanted to spread joy this holiday season by adding new photos and virtual experiences to their home details page on Zillow.
“This immersive technology makes it easy to imagine the spicy, sugary scent of gingerbread fresh out of Santa’s cookie-baking oven, the nostalgic sounds of classic Christmas carols crackling on the record player and the comfort of sliding into a pair of well-worn slippers warmed by the fire.”
But, should the Clauses decide to put their home on the market, it’s estimated to be worth $1.18 million, which is two per cent up on last Christmas.
The interactive version of Santa’s house was created with Listing Showcase, from Zillow’s ShowingTime+SM brand.
It’s the same technology agents and vendors can use to highlight a property’s best features and make it stand out on the listing portal.
Listing Showcase, which will be available in the US next year, uses AI to select scrolling images based on what home shoppers want to see.
AI then organises and matches the photos to their corresponding rooms and embeds the images into a clickable floor plan so buyers know exactly where each photo was taken.
