Estate Living Magazine New Beginnings - Issue 37 January 2019 | Page 50

L I v E
S M A R T
Trends
THAT WILL SHAPE 2019
In a period of continuing market uncertainty, players in the property market have
plenty of questions going into 2019. Could a handful of disruptive trends – some driven
by tech, others by economic factors – answer those questions?
Will brokers survive mobile property apps?
FNB recently introduced a mobile app, called nav» Home, which enables
clients to securely and privately buy property, or sell property to buyers who are
likely to qualify for a home loan. The service is currently only available to FNB
clients, but – given that FNB holds about 25% of the South African home loan
market – that’s still a huge pool of three million banking app customers. ‘The
new functionality allows known FNB sellers to connect with known FNB buyers
in a reliable, cost-saving and secure environment,’ the app’s chief imagineer,
Jolandé Duvenage, said in a statement. ‘This allows us to build upon our
existing home marketplace, which enables the ability to sell either through an
estate agent or privately.’ While agents are available if the seller requests one,
there’s an obvious appeal in limiting costs by eliminating the ‘middleman’. The
impact of this app – and disrupters like it – on those agents remains to be seen.