Returning the Initiative in Choosing a Home to the Consumer
A branding project that redesigned the home-buying process around online experiences, enabling people to actively choose a lifestyle that fits who they are.
JIBUN HOUSE was created as a new type of housing brand that allows people to compare and explore homes online using smartphones and VR technology.
At the time, the housing industry in Japan mainly relied on physical housing exhibition centers, where customers spent long hours meeting sales representatives and discussing home plans in person. However, because of the overwhelming amount of information and the gap in professional knowledge, choosing a home had become a complicated and emotionally demanding experience for many consumers.
The industry itself also faced structural challenges, including long working hours and sales models heavily dependent on individual sales staff.
Rather than simply “selling houses,” this project aimed to create an environment where people could actively choose a lifestyle that suited them. To achieve this, the entire home-buying process was redesigned around an online-first experience.
This project also became the foundation for later initiatives such as the virtual housing platform “MY HOME MARKET,” helping shape a broader vision for online housing experiences.
Challenges
Home-buying decisions had become complex and inaccessible
Buying a home is one of the most important decisions in a person’s life. However, at the time, the housing industry did not provide an environment where consumers could easily make decisions on their own terms.
People were expected to visit multiple housing exhibition centers and spend significant time comparing different housing companies. Collecting information required a great deal of effort, and many people felt psychological pressure when interacting with sales representatives, even when they were only in the early stages of research.
In addition, every housing company presented information differently, making it difficult for consumers to compare homes fairly and understand which option best matched their lifestyle.
Originally, choosing a home should have been about deciding how people want to live, not simply choosing a building. In reality, however, the process had become focused on sorting through excessive information and comparing specifications, making it harder for people to clearly imagine their ideal lifestyle.
The traditional sales structure also placed a heavy burden on housing providers themselves, increasing the need for new forms of customer communication and engagement across the industry.
Solutions
From “comparing houses” to “imagining a lifestyle”
This project redefined home-buying not as “searching for a house,” but as a process of discovering and organizing the lifestyle people truly want.
By using smartphones and VR technology, the platform enabled users to compare and experience homes online, allowing them to explore housing options freely, without being restricted by time or location.
The project also focused not only on housing specifications and equipment details, but on helping users imagine the kind of life they could live in each home — the atmosphere, daily experiences, and lifestyle each space could support.
In addition, the project simplified the complicated decision-making process around home-buying. By reducing unnecessary complexity and information overload, it created a brand experience that allowed consumers to make decisions more intuitively and confidently.
The project also considered the challenges faced by people working within the housing industry itself. Rather than building “a system for selling houses,” the brand was designed as “a system that supports better home selection experiences.”
Results
From “buying a house” to “choosing a lifestyle”
As a result of these efforts, JIBUN HOUSE evolved beyond a simple online housing brand and became a new model for how people experience home selection itself.
Users were able to evaluate homes not only based on price or performance, but also by considering how they wanted to live. This helped restore a sense of ownership and independence in the home-buying decision-making process.
The online-first housing experience also created entirely new customer touchpoints, different from traditional housing exhibition center models, changing the relationship between consumers and housing brands.
Furthermore, the ideas and experience design developed through this project later expanded into larger housing platform initiatives such as “MY HOME MARKET.”
Ultimately, this project was not simply about creating a housing brand. It became an initiative that questioned who should control the home-buying experience and proposed a new direction for the future of residential decision-making.
This project was built on the idea that the goal is not simply to sell homes efficiently, but to create an environment where people can choose the lifestyle that fits them through their own decisions.
It became an initiative that redefined home selection as a more open, flexible, and self-directed decision-making experience.
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