property Archives - AfricaBusiness.com

23Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Increased competition and bond switching set to shake up the SA property market

As interest rates remain stable against the backdrop of a challenging economic climate, banks are being pushed to innovate and offer more competitive home loan terms to attract customers. This environment has given rise to a practice widely adopted in the UK but is yet to reach a tipping point in South Africa: bond switching. Clive Bredenkamp, IT Executive at Proptech specialist e4, explains the potential shifts: “The property market is inherently sensitive to interest rate changes. While the rates are currently only marginally higher than in 2019, the market’s response to the current interest rate has been disproportionately severe due to the very low rates we experienced during the pandemic. However, with new players entering the market and offering up to a 1% discount on interest rates...

25Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News

Proptech trends on the horizon

Proptech is reshaping the real estate industry, with technological innovation continuously improving value creation for all stakeholders, generating efficiencies, improving transparency, and further refining the user experience. As in any industry, it’s essential for businesses and consumers to understand and utilise these shifts to guide their decisions and movements going forward. Andrea Carr, Head (R&D) at leading proptech company e4, says these are the trends that will influence the industry in 2024 and beyond: Smart contracts: The real estate industry has long been plagued by inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and high transaction costs, says Carr, but blockchain technology is changing this. “Blockchain technology and smart contract development is revolutionising the way th...

14Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Real Estate

Get Smarter about Connecting Buyers & Sellers in Online Marketplaces

Key Insights from GOM Conference 2023 By Gil Sperling, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Flow Connecting buyers and sellers in more effective, efficient and content-rich ways is a key focus in the online space at the moment, no matter the industry. Making use of rich data, retargeting audiences and working smarter to deliver a better user experience are the keys to success, across verticals. As a tech platform that's already connecting buyers and sellers on social media, Flow is creating seamless solutions for this transformation. We recently visited the Global Online Marketplaces Conference 2023 in Miami to talk about off-site social ads for portals, why they need it and how it unlocks more revenue for them. The Global Online Marketplace Summit (GOM) brings together C-Level leaders from online ...

23Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate

Could you sell your next home on TikTok?

While tech continues to revolutionise the property industry and change the way people find their homes – now via social media – the industry also needs to follow social media trends to capitalise on the global shot in the arm that proptech has given it. More and more property practitioners are turning to short-form video content - the current trend leader in the social media space, according to GWI’s flagship report on the latest trends in social media – as a marketing tool to meet potential customers on the social media platforms where they spend hours every day. Good, Better, Video GWI’s report shows that short videos are quick to create and tend toward the less polished, more spontaneous content people are after. Consumers on channels like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and ...

Ken Sharpe Gives 10 Things to Expect in 2023 in the Property Development Sector in Africa | Expert Forecast

26Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, Zimbabwe News

Ken Sharpe Gives 10 Things to Expect in 2023 in the Property Development Sector in Africa | Expert Forecast

Operating a property development business has always been associated with some sort of risk and the mood among most real estate investors since the COVID19 era is cautious optimism with the global economy recovery being slowed down by the Russia-Ukraine war as well as the growing number of middle-class consumers caused by rapid urbanisation; all these affecting the trends in the property development sector. Property developer and CEO of West Properties Zimbabwe, Kenneth Sharpe, who is one of the real estate tycoons in Africa gives us some insights on what to expect in 2023 across Africa in the property development industry. “Being a real estate investor, I have witnessed a lot of events and trends in the property sector but I can surely tell you that post-pandemic trends have been the mo...

South African proptech leaders Flow secure $4.5 million in funding to enable the global property industry

19Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News

South African proptech leaders Flow secure $4.5 million in funding to enable the global property industry

South African proptech innovators Flow have secured $4.5million (+-R78 million) in funding at the conclusion of their pre-Series A investment round - the single largest investment in the country’s proptech sector at that stage and amongst the highest in African proptech funding history. The investment will see co-founders and co-CEOs Gil Sperling and Daniel Levy drive the business’s B2B growth strategy, integrating the power of the astute Flow social media-driven real estate marketing platform into existing international property portals and CRM platforms. Levy and Sperling previously founded adtech and performance marketing company Popimedia, the largest buyer of Facebook media inventory in Africa for some of the world’s biggest brands. Popimedia was acquired by global communications gro...

Flow Brings Billboard Advertising into the Digital World for Estate Agents

24Aug

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News

Flow Brings Billboard Advertising into the Digital World for Estate Agents

Nowhere in the world has an SMME been able to access major billboards in prominent locations before - but local proptech innovators Flow have handed estate agencies and individual agents the opportunity to mix with major global FMCG brands in the Digital Out of Home (DOOH) space, at a fraction of the cost. Having embarked on a mission to revolutionise the real estate industry by harnessing the power of social media to match agents, buyers and sellers, Flow’s next step allows agents to own space in hotspots across South Africa to promote their brands and individual properties to millions of commuters, every day. “Traditional billboards are booked months in advance, require creative teams to conceptualise and design them, an agency to produce the massive physical print and a media buying...

3Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News

Property scams continue to rise at alarming rates

Investing in property is one of the biggest financial decisions a person is likely to make. New and increasingly sophisticated scams and incidence of fraud are on the rise and affect developers, buyers, sellers, estate agents, conveyancing attorneys, and other property professionals. “As property transactions typically involve substantial sums of money, they are a natural target for fraudsters. Tactics range from impersonating estate agents to intercepting emails with instructions on where to make payment for transactions as well as notices of change of banking details instruction, says Ryan Mer, CEO, eftsure Africa, a Know Your Payee™ (KYP) platform provider. While organisations like the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) have long warned consumers about vari...

7Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News, Startups

South African Proptech Flow Expands Reach Into Australia

API platform connecting real estate agents and social media users leverages significant growth on the continent to target global property market Flow, a proptech startup that enables real estate agents and developers to seamlessly advertise properties on social media, has announced that following consolidated growth in South Africa the company is launching in Australia. Flow’s move comes at a time when African proptechs are building scalable solutions with application beyond the continent more frequently than ever before, with strong reception from global markets seeing the viability of home-grown African businesses. Boasting 90,000 agents and a housing market value of $9 trillion, Australia offers a latent opportunity for Flow to change the way that people find places to live and wo...

1Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News

Clem Sunter and Wealth Migrate’s Scott Picken discuss scenario planning and its impact on the global and local property markets

Investors need to be aware of the red flags that bedeck the global economy and have the potential to derail the most careful preparation. This is the dire warning from scenario planner Clem Sunter, who is also the author of The Mind of a Fox and Thinking the Future. Wealth Migrate CEO Picken interviewed Sunter about the red flags to watch out for when assessing potential risks and opportunities as part of a recent exclusive webinar. The pre-recorded video of the webinar is now available and gives investors valuable insight into global and South African property investments as Sunter identifies the scenarios that could affect future investments. The webinar, which complements Sunter’s books, includes commentary from Picken, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the real estate indus...