Digital Innovation in
SA’ s First Township Property Platform
BY JEAN BROWN
PROPERTY TECH
Real Estate
Twenty-four-year-old Fernando Antonio lives in Mandalay, Cape Town, and is the brain-child behind the Zakasi Property Group, a Township-based property platform that allows Township property buyers and sellers in Cape Town to connect. He describes himself as a“ Real Estate Tech Entrepreneur with a passion for entrepreneurship beyond the sheer mechanism of just running a business”.
Antonio holds a Diploma in Business Management, a Certificate in Entrepreneurial Development( from the Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development, UCT’ s Graduate School of Business) and was recently exempted from his Real Estate qualifications ‒ the Further Education and Training Certificate [ FETC, NQF Level 4 ] and the National Certificate in Real Estate [ NQF Level 5 ]).
Entrepreneurial vision Antonio developed the Zakasi Property Group in Business School, for a group business project. He explains that the business concept came to him during an innovation lecture by Charles Maisle, the cofounder of Shanduka Black Umbrellas, a non-profit, enterprise development incubation organization that supports black-owned emerging businesses in South Africa.
“ We had to come up with business ideas that solved problems for Townships particularly, by reading through and identifying issues in a newspaper article. This is where I first encountered traditional and big property brands and portals; I then researched the accessibility of Township properties, as well as the effectiveness of traditional ways of advertising and searching for properties in the Townships. This helped me conceptualise a solution for the issues around demand and supply of Township properties;
the answer was to create a platform solely for an emerging, niche market in Townships.”
Antonio explains that he joined an Estate Agency in mid-2016 to gain exposure to the property industry. He initially prototyped his platform by creating a Facebook page to validate his assumptions ‒ would there be a business for it? Online users soon began to contact and message him via the Facebook page, looking for Township properties.
“ The response was, and still is, amazing. This made me realize that a website was needed to grow the business. The website is now available and is currently under construction. Currently our biggest customer base includes: property developers, buy-tolet investors and individuals who are first time home buyers.”
Antonio has a vision to grow the platform to include other Townships within South Africa, such as Soweto in Johannesburg and Umlazi in Durban.
HOW TO INVEST IN A TOWNSHIP PROPERTY
Antonio advises interested property investors to combine buyto-let and buy-to-flip investment strategies.
“ First, buy to let to earn a monthly income- while the area is developing- until it reaches a point of growth, driven by developments and infrastructure, such as the building of malls, schools, housing developments and other amenities. This will influence the value of the property and cause it to appreciate. Then flip and sell the property to get a good return on your investment.”
RESOURCES
Zakasi Property Group, Shanduka Black Umbrellas
24 JUNE 2017 SA Real Estate Investor www. reimag. co. za