TECHNOLOGY
The Future of Real Estate Lies in Tech
A South African Perspective
BY MARGOT GUTTERIDGE
W ith the world catapulting towards the fourth industrial age, the real estate industry is evolving rapidly too, with nimble, digital operational models rapidly gathering steam. People’ s lives have moved online and their real estate demands have too.
Prop-tech companies like PropertyFox are at the forefront of this digital disruption in South Africa. The online-only property company is using technology to offer more efficient and cost effective ways to buy and sell real estate. PropertyFox has saved consumers close to R10 million in fees since its inception in April 2017- and offers a very transparent process which keeps the client involved throughout.
It’ s this future-focused, digitally-savvy approach that led SA Home Loans to acquire a 49 % stake in PropertyFox – an investment that will fuel the expansion of the business across South Africa, whilst facilitating continuous innovation.
Kevin Penwarden, CEO of SA Home Loans says PropertyFox’ s business model is compelling as its success has been proven elsewhere in the world,“ PropertyFox resonated strongly with us. We believe the rise of tech and its integration into every aspect of the real estate process is good news for the future of the industry, with Big Data, Virtual Reality and other advances already bringing about substantive changes that benefit consumers.”
Crispin Inglis, CEO and co-founder of PropertyFox says the industry is changing at a rapid rate,“ Following the global credit crisis and recession, the number of practising real estate agents registered with the Estate Agency Affairs Board has gone from 80 000 members in 2007, to 30 000 in 2017. In ten years, the landscape has completely changed, with people attracted by the cost- and time-efficiency of finding property online. Ultimately, an approach which combines tech with a consumer-centricity is what the modern consumer is used to in other industries, and what they have taken to rapidly in the property sector too.”
In a recent ShareNet article, Mark Mayer an investment specialist at Discovery Invest suggests that – if you want to gauge the extent to which the internet has organically changed the process of buying and selling a house – you could try asking a traditional estate agent to find buyers without using a portal such as Property24.“ Just wait and see how all these serious buyers that were perfectly suited to your property miraculously evaporate into thin air.”
Mayer says that, in his personal experience around property research, it is almost entirely conducted over the internet, and it is his strong contention that it is by far the most productive channel for lead generation utilised by estate agents today.
Inglis says that, very soon, long-term behavioural data, social media interactions, browsing history and psycho- and demographic factors will inform individual psychographic profiles for buyers. This will replace the generic browsing filters used today. Profiles will become ever more specific and buyers will be able to receive an instant response of relevant properties suited to their psychographic profiles. They’ ll then be able to explore‘ matched’ homes through virtual reality tours, with haptic gloves and olfactory VR providing a multi-sensory feel for the environment.”
On the other side of the equation, he says sellers will be able to use big data to input highly accurate specs for their home and neighbourhood and then target an increasingly select group of‘ ideal’ buyers with matching psychograph-
16 FEBRUARY 2018 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine