Apartment hunting closed a chapter this year. The tool most renters used to picture a unit before booking a showing — the 3D walkthrough — is no longer a differentiator between listing sites. It's table stakes, and the company that owns the underlying camera and software technology now also owns two of the largest rental marketplaces in the country. That single deal has quietly reshaped which platform is worth a renter's, landlord's, or agent's time in 2026.
Key takeaways
- CoStar Group completed its $1.6 billion acquisition of Matterport on February 28, 2025, putting the leading 3D-tour engine behind Apartments.com, Homes.com, and ForRent.com under one roof.
- Listings with a 3D tour draw up to 60% more page views and are saved up to 79% more often than listings with static photos alone.
- 62% of renters and buyers say they want more listings to offer immersive 3D tours, according to Zillow's Consumer Housing Trends research.
- The U.S. rental housing market is valued at roughly $1.91 trillion in 2026, on pace to reach $2.41 trillion by 2034.
- Roughly 79% of U.S. workers now operate fully remote or hybrid — a structural reason virtual-first leasing keeps growing rather than reverting to pre-2020 norms.
In this article
- The 2026 market shift: one acquisition changed the landscape
- Why 3D tours move the leasing needle
- Platform comparison at a glance
- The 10 platforms, ranked and reviewed
- Rental market forecast: what's next
- Checklist: getting the most out of a virtual tour
- Advisory for renters, landlords, agents & investors
- Frequently asked questions
The 2026 market shift: one acquisition changed the landscape
For years, "3D tour" meant Matterport on one side of the market and Zillow's in-house 3D Home tool on the other, with everyone else licensing or aggregating whichever one a landlord had already paid for. That separation ended when CoStar Group — parent of Apartments.com, Homes.com, LoopNet, and ForRent.com — closed its purchase of Matterport on February 28, 2025, roughly a month ahead of schedule. The all-stock-and-cash deal, worth about $1.6 billion at announcement and roughly $1.9 billion in final purchase consideration, handed CoStar the largest library of measured spatial data in real estate: more than 14 million digitized spaces across 177 countries.
The practical effect for renters in 2026 is that Apartments.com and ForRent.com now run the same underlying capture technology and Cortex AI processing that used to be Matterport's independent product — plus tighter integration with CoStar's leasing and analytics tools. Zillow, meanwhile, remains the one major holdout with its own proprietary engine, and it responded by opening its 3D Home tours to Realtor.com listings in late 2024, a cross-syndication move that widened its reach rather than narrowing the field.
Why 3D tours move the leasing needle
The engagement gap between listings with an immersive tour and listings without one has widened, not narrowed, as the tooling matured. This is the data landlords and platforms are now building their entire marketing pitch around:
*Share of renters who say a 3D tour makes them more likely to rent without an in-person visit. Sources: Zillow 3D Home engagement data (Oct 2024–Oct 2025); Design Lenz market analysis (2026); Zumper renter survey via PlanOmatic.
Platform comparison at a glance
| Platform | Core tour technology | 2026 standout development | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zillow | Zillow 3D Home (proprietary) | Cross-syndicates tours with Realtor.com; ~9.6B annual visits | Scale + neighborhood data |
| Apartments.com | Matterport (CoStar-owned) | Now runs on CoStar's in-house Matterport/Cortex AI stack | Multifamily depth |
| Zumper | Matterport + partner 3D | "Zoe" AI assistant matches units to lifestyle/budget | AI-personalized search |
| 3D Apartment | Dedicated 3D-only capture | End-to-end virtual leasing: tour, chat, apply, sign | Fully remote renters |
| Trulia | Zillow 3D Home | Deepest "neighborhood fit" data layer of the Zillow family | Lifestyle & safety research |
| Redfin Rentals | 3D + video tours | Ties tours directly to live market-pricing tools | Data-driven pricing |
| Rent.com | Professional video/3D | $100 scam-protection guarantee on verified reports | Safety-conscious renters |
| ForRent.com | Matterport (CoStar-owned) | Same CoStar/Matterport backbone as Apartments.com | Large managed communities |
| PadMapper | Aggregated 3D/tour filters | 1M+ aggregated listings with tour-only filtering | Fast area comparison |
| HotPads | Zillow 3D Home | Commute/school filters layered on 3D tours | Urban families & commuters |
The 10 platforms, ranked and reviewed
Zillow — zillow.com/rent
Zillow remains the widest net any renter can cast, and it's the only top-tier platform still running an independent tour engine rather than licensed Matterport technology. Its 3D Home format pairs room-by-room walkthroughs with a dollhouse overview, and every listing sits inside a data layer of Walk Scores, school ratings, and crime statistics. The late-2024 syndication deal with Realtor.com means a Zillow-captured tour now shows up in more places without the landlord doing extra work.
Trade-off: tour quality still depends on what the individual landlord uploaded — plenty of listings remain photo-only.
Apartments.com — apartments.com
Owned by CoStar Group, Apartments.com is the platform that benefited most directly from the Matterport acquisition — the capture technology, the Cortex AI processing, and the professional photographer network are now internal assets rather than a vendor relationship. That shows up as tighter integration between the 3D tour, the verified floor plan, and the live availability calendar, which matters most for large, professionally managed communities with dozens of near-identical floor plans to differentiate.
Trade-off: thinner on single-family homes and individually owned condos compared with Zillow.
Zumper — zumper.com
Zumper's edge is matching, not just mapping. Its AI assistant narrows a search by lifestyle and budget signals before a renter ever opens a 3D tour, and live chat lets a leasing agent walk a prospect through a unit in real time. Coverage spans the U.S. and Canada, including furnished and short-term inventory that competitors handle less consistently.
3D Apartment — 3dapartment.com
The only major platform built exclusively around a virtual-first process: search, guided live tour with friends or family invited in, digital application, and lease signing, all without a required in-person step. It's a smaller catalog than the general marketplaces, but for a renter who genuinely does not plan to visit before signing, it removes friction the bigger sites still carry.
Trulia — trulia.com
Trulia runs on the same Zillow 3D Home tours but leans harder into the "what's it like to live here" question — crowdsourced neighborhood reviews, crime maps, and school ratings sit alongside the walkthrough rather than in a separate tab.
Redfin Rentals — redfin.com/rentals
Redfin's rental arm inherits its sale-side reputation for showing its work: real-time market-trend pricing sits next to the 3D and video tours, so a renter can gauge whether a unit is actually priced fairly before touring it at all.
Rent.com — rent.com
Rent.com's differentiator isn't tour technology, it's trust: a $100 scam-protection guarantee for verified reports, paired with professionally produced video and moving-day resources for renters relocating sight-unseen.
ForRent.com — forrent.com
Part of the same CoStar/Apartments.com network, ForRent.com applies the shared Matterport backbone to full-property amenity tours — pools, gyms, clubhouses — rather than unit interiors alone.
PadMapper — padmapper.com
A map-first aggregator with over a million listings pulled from other sources, plus filters for tour availability. Tour quality varies because PadMapper doesn't produce the content itself, but the side-by-side map view is unmatched for scanning a neighborhood quickly.
HotPads — hotpads.com
Another Zillow-family property, HotPads pairs 3D Home tours with commute-time and school-zone filtering built for city renters and families optimizing around a daily route rather than square footage alone.
Rental market forecast: what's next
The technology story sits on top of a rental market that's still expanding in dollar terms even as rent growth cools. The U.S. rental housing market was valued at roughly $1.85 trillion in 2025 and is estimated at $1.91 trillion in 2026, with analysts projecting a climb to $2.41 trillion by 2034 — a roughly 3% compound annual growth rate driven by urbanization, institutional ownership, and the shift toward professionally managed, tech-enabled leasing.
Source: Market Data Forecast, U.S. Rental Housing Market Size, Share & Growth report, 2034 projection (~3% CAGR from 2026).
Two structural forces explain why virtual leasing is a permanent fixture rather than a pandemic-era holdover:
Sources: SmartScreen 2026 Rental Trends report (remote/hybrid workforce, lease renewal); Zillow Consumer Housing Trends report (3D tour demand, agent hiring).
With roughly 36 million U.S. workers now fully remote or hybrid — a 417% increase over pre-pandemic levels — home-office viability and reliable connectivity have become as central to a virtual tour as room dimensions. At the same time, new construction is slowing: annual unit deliveries are projected to fall from about 591,700 in 2024 to roughly 414,000 in 2026, which tends to firm up occupancy and gives platforms with strong lead-conversion tools — meaning fast, high-quality 3D tours — a widening advantage over listings that still rely on flat photography.
Checklist: getting the most out of a virtual tour
- Filter by "3D Tour," "Matterport," or "Virtual Tour Only" first — it eliminates listings that are photos dressed up as a tour.
- Favor tours built on Matterport or Zillow 3D Home specifically; both include a dollhouse view and measured, annotated floor plans rather than a simple video walk-through.
- Check the capture date. A tour from a prior tenancy may not reflect current paint, flooring, or renovations.
- Pair the tour with a live video call through the platform's chat tool before applying — it catches things a static 3D scan won't, like street noise or odors.
- Cross-check the same unit on a second platform; pricing and availability data can lag on aggregators like PadMapper.
- Use a desktop or tablet for the first pass — the dollhouse view and measurement tools are harder to manipulate on a small phone screen.
Advisory for stakeholders
Renters: Treat the 3D tour as a pre-screen, not a substitute for due diligence. Combine it with a live video walkthrough and, where possible, a third-party inspection clause before signing sight-unseen — especially for a lease signed entirely from out of state.
Landlords & independent property managers: The engagement data is no longer close — a 3D tour is now close to a baseline expectation rather than a premium add-on. Zillow's free 3D Home app and Matterport's iPhone LiDAR workflow have both lowered the cost of entry to little more than 20–30 minutes of capture time per unit, which removes most of the budget argument for skipping it.
Agents & brokerages: Because Apartments.com, Homes.com, and ForRent.com now share Matterport's backend, a single capture can be repurposed across CoStar's network with minimal extra work. Prioritize getting a measured, annotated tour rather than a bare 360° video — annotated floor plans are what drive the higher save and share rates.
PropTech investors & vendors: Consolidation, not fragmentation, is now the dominant trend. Watch for further bundling around CoStar's Matterport stack and Zillow's continued syndication strategy; independent tour-capture vendors are increasingly competing on service quality and turnaround speed rather than on unique technology.
Frequently asked questions
Is Matterport still an independent company in 2026?
No. CoStar Group completed its acquisition of Matterport on February 28, 2025, for roughly $1.6 billion. Matterport now operates as a wholly owned CoStar subsidiary and no longer trades on Nasdaq.
Which platform has the largest rental inventory?
Zillow has the broadest overall reach, drawing an estimated 9.6 billion visits a year across its network, though Apartments.com leads specifically in professionally managed multifamily communities.
Can I actually sign a lease without an in-person visit?
Yes, on several platforms, including 3D Apartment and increasingly Apartments.com and Zillow. It's most advisable for professionally managed communities with verified listings and a clear cancellation or inspection window.
Are 3D tours free for landlords to add?
Zillow's 3D Home app is free to use with a supported iPhone or 360° camera. Matterport-powered tours through Apartments.com or a third-party photographer typically involve a per-listing capture fee, though costs have fallen as iPhone LiDAR capture has matured.
Core Insights Review contributors publish research-based analysis and editorial insights on commercial real estate, PropTech, smart infrastructure, sustainable construction, industrial real estate, and emerging technologies shaping the future of the built environment.
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