real estate 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...

5Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Events, Real Estate, South Africa News, Tech

Dynamic conversations propel the future of work and real estate at Envision forum in Cape Town

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa at the V&A Waterfront was the centre point for discussions around the intersection of work, real estate, and technology on 30 August as JLL, the international real estate advisory company and leading design and build company, Tétris Design x Build hosted the landmark Envision, High Performance Real Estate and Workplaces forum. The event highlighted the evolving landscape of workplace strategy, corporate real estate technology, and the future of cities in a post-pandemic world. The choice of Cape Town for the forum was a nod to an example of what a city can achieve through of resilience and innovation. “The complex issue of how to go about using technological advances, data and research about how people function at their best, and how busines...

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...

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...

17Dec

By Gil SperlingNo Comments

Real Estate, South Africa News

There are lessons in the US iBuyer Bubble Burst for the South African property market

By Gil Sperling, Co-CEO & Co-Founder: Flow The US housing market suffered a seismic shock last week when leading property listings portal Zillow exited its iBuying business after a $1 billion loss over the course of three years – and there are lessons in the move for the South African market. iBuying has been a growing trend over the course of the last three years, with companies like Zillow harnessing their knowledge of hundreds of millions of American homes and the areas in which they were situated and leveraging that data to make house flipping profitable at scale. iBuyers move quickly and offer home owners premium pricing, based on their predictions for the supply and state of the area – a real win for the owners in a globally-depressed economic climate. It turns out that Zillow...

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...

28Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Events, Real Estate, South Africa News

JLL and Tétris Design and Build join forces to promote the growth of sustainable buildings

Organisations now see this as a critical decade for real progress to be made in decarbonising the built environment, according to JLL Global Research, requiring real estate to make complex changes in what will be a critical shift for the industry Sustainability is no longer just a buzzword. Climate change is the defining crisis of our time and there is a notable rise in public concern about this looming disaster. Sixty-four percent of people believe climate change is a global emergency, according to a recent survey by the United Nations Development Programme and Oxford University. With over half the world’s population believing the crisis requires urgent action, and 73% of investors saying that green strategies drive higher occupancy and higher rents, it is clear that the future of th...

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...

26Apr

By GenslerNo Comments

Real Estate

5 Principles for Retail Center Repositioning

As we look ahead to a post-pandemic future, there’s one market segment that’s currently ripe for redevelopment and transformation: the traditional retail mall. With the massive transformation of real estate spurred by the pandemic, retail centers will emerge as one of the most valuable asset classes in a post-pandemic landscape, as building owners, investors, and developers look to reposition these aging, vacant, or underutilized properties — converting them into vibrant, mixed-use developments that will unlock latent value and meet consumers’ rapidly changing demands. CBRE Research predicts up to a 20% reduction in total retail real estate inventory by 2025, which will be largely triggered by large-scale adaptive reuse and conversion, particularly among Class B and C malls that have been ...