can bring . An example of South African company currently pushing the boundaries of VR technology is Fieldspace Property Group . Their aim is to transform the way property brokers introduce clients to properties , and fundamentally alter the way property portfolios are viewed .
Property Fox allows property owners to submit their property details online , via the Property Fox website , for a ‘ free ’, one-week trial of the Property Fox services . During this time sellers are assisted with a free property evaluation , and the building up of a reserve of professional photos for their property marketing activities .
The team at Property Fox then promote the property on their website and across social media channels . Clients who sign up for a full-service package from Property Fox can expect to pay a much cheaper rate than the traditional 5 %‒ 7 % commission fee . One potential drawback for homeowners who then choose to delist their property with Property Fox is the R5000.00 marketing fee that they then need to settle . HomeFair is another online estate agent that offers their services at a fraction of traditional commision rates .
Another recent arrival to the tech disruption scene is HouseMe , an online rental platform that aims to establish direct connections between prospective tenants and landlords in the residential rental sector .
According to HouseMe ’ s CEO , Benjamin Shaw , their consolidated platform offers almost every management service a landlord might want , but for a fraction of agency fees . Verified landlords can connect to creditworthy tenants via HouseMe ’ s unique dashboard , auction mechanism and tenant app .
“ For too long residential rental has been a fundamentally broken system with inferior options for both tenants and landlords – and HouseMe is
built to address exactly that ,” said Shaw . “ Looking at the international case studies like Lemonade , Kodak and Uber , oftentimes the consumers themselves don ’ t quite know what they ’ re missing until it ’ s available .”
Shaw added that the reception to HouseMe ’ s offerings has been mixed , from pleasant welcomes to resistance from some of the more established agencies . “ They are doing their best to ignore what changes we ’ ve brought to market , choosing to resist wherever possible .”
The future of real estate tech “ Technology is only going to become more synonymous with the replacement or enhancement of every core human function in property rental ,” said Kyle Bradley , Chief Technology Officer at HouseMe . He and Shaw believe that we are on the cusp of a real revolution in real estate .
“ Tech does a great job of optimizing processes and creates cost efficiencies in procedures that have existed for many years . The most exciting change coming to the industry will be the behavioural move of agencies towards consultancies rather than retained management personnel .”
SAPOA ’ s Annual Convention and Property Exhibition , to be held in June this year , will be centred on the theme of tech disruption in the real estate sector . This should give chance for the future of real estate in South Africa to be sufficiently teased apart and explored .
RESOURCES
RICS , The World Economic Forum , Internet World Stats , Internet Live Stats , MoneyWeb , Leverton , The MIT Centre For Real Estate , Explaining The Future . Com , Tech Target ,
Small Biz Trends , Silicon Valley Innovation Centre , Law360 , Bizcommunity , Realty Africa , Bloomberg , GrowthPoint
www . reimag . co . za MARCH 2017 SA Real Estate Investor 13