Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March/April 2019 | Page 19

TECHNOLOGY
Disruption is not
a dirty word
Reimag’s Digitalization
Conference inspires
delegates to find
revenue streams for
their digital offerings.
BY EDITORIAL
Y
ou don’t have to ‘go viral’ to be a successful property
investor, but a growing market of buyers, renters and
investors want to engage with you digitally, delegates
heard at the annual Real Estate Investor Magazine’s Digit-
ilization conference in Cape Town and Johannesburg in Feb-
ruary. And it’s this engagement that will be your business’ se-
cret weapon for winning the battle for market share.
‘We have currency in digital: data. Even if you’re not
statisticians, you can use data to find your market,’ said Anja
Viviers, founder and digital specialist at Mana Technologies, a
digital strategy business.
According to Viviers, the property industry’s target market
is willingly offering up their interests, location, income level
and hopes and dreams regarding property on a daily business.
By simply looking at the information businesses like estate
agents already have access to, a better and more accurate
marketing strategy can be developed. This, however, is but the
beginning. Delegates at the conference were shown how access
to some basic information can completely transform your
business to be highly relevant and a more profitable enterprise.
‘We quickly realised that the medium income markets
are completely disruptable. Using data we could see which
additional services in the home renting space was costing
our clients a lot of money and those are the areas we focused
on to take over,’ said Ben Shaw, CEO at HouseMe, a digital
platform that connects prospective tenants to landlords with
full automation of the letting agency process with fair and
transparent rental pricing - all for a fraction of traditional fees.
‘In the long run, data wins, because the market we’re trying
to tap into is exactly the same as everyone else’s’ said Shaw.
According to Shaw, using data will naturally let businesses
evolve into being ‘cross-platform’, offering multiple services to
their clients.
And just as the digital world is reshaping the way we connect
with our customers, so it’s redefining how our businesses will
work in the near-future.
Allowing your clients to decide what your website looks
like, offering them cash to contribute or employing your
tenants to scope out potential rental properties? To the 20
somethings behind DigSConnect.com, South Africa’s largest
student housing marketplace, this approach has been a major
part of their strategy – and their success.
‘We are committed to creating a community, so that every
student feels like they can belong,’ said Alexandria Procter,
founder and director at DigsConnect.com
‘Creating DigsConnect was about reimagining student
accommodation. Digitising the process of finding student
accommodation meant removing the bad parts associated with
the process,’ says Alexandria.
DigsConnect.com has connected hundreds of landlords
with student tenants, and students with digs mates. ‘As recent
graduates we know how important it is to find a safe place
to live. Look out for the verified tick on certain properties,
meaning that we have personally visited and verified the
property,’ she said.
On DigsConnect.com parents or students can search and
compare hundreds of properties and find the perfect fit.
There’s also a ‘Find a digsmate’ feature to connect people
in a safe and user-friendly way. Landlords can create free
property listings. Students will message them directly through
DigsConnect.
Delegates at the conference left reassured: just because the
new generation of house buyers, property investors and renters
want to connect digitally, doesn’t mean they don’t want to
connect at all.
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine MARCH/APRIL 2019
17