Open-house viewings in Dublin have long been quite the hobby for Saturday rubberneckers unable to resist the attraction of snooping around someone else's house – even if they had no intention by buying. But now there's an app for that – Virtual View.

Conrad Jones' Dublin-based graphic design consultancy, whose client list includes several estate agencies and property developers, came across the UK-designed app through contacts made at The Irish Times-sponsored Augmented Reality conference in Dublin in March.

Househunters, who have downloaded the free app, tap or scan an icon which advertisers can incorporate into their press advertisements or even their "For Sale" signs boards. This opens directly into a web page delivering information about that property, from floor plans and photos to tours around the house. Whatever the advertiser wants to upload onto the app can be done – it's not hard to envisage homeowners making Grand Designs-type videos and having them uploaded. For an extra fee advertisers can have a 3D model of their home created by Jones to give viewers an even better idea of size and layout.

Savills and Sherry FitzGerald have already bought into Jones's new service which represents the first change in property marketing for quite some time.