New property Web site OnShowThisWeek.com is looking to change the process of viewing property in SA.
The site allows home buyers, property investors and tenants to search for on-show properties from around the country.
"We aim to alleviate some of the frustrations currently felt about show days by estate agents, sellers and buyers alike," explains founder Natalie van Zyl.
"Users visit the Web site, type in the areas and price range they are interested in, and the Web site lists which properties will be on show that week.
"We also list show days for rentals, developments and auction properties. Agents will then pay a minimal fee to list a property. Currently, the majority of our show day listings are in Gauteng and Western Cape; however, we are busy with discussions with Jawitz and Century21 to list all their show days nationally. We anticipate that by September we should be listing show days from all over the country."
Van Zyl adds that growing Internet accessibility and smartphone ownership in the country is creating the foundation for the new digital age and being a niche platform allows OnShowThisWeek.com to tap into the benefits.
"We have a team of people that individually load each show day property that we list and the Web site is wiped clean every Monday and the show days for the new week are then loaded from scratch - we do this to ensure our listings are as accurate as possible at all times. We have no cut-off times to submit or cancel a show day. We embed our listings with a link to the estate agent's Web site so we also drive traffic to the individual property sites."
According to a study compiled by analytics firm MSCI for the Property Sector Charter Council, the South African property sector is worth R5.8 trillion, with a further R520 billion worth of land officially zoned for commercial and residential development.
OnShowThisWeek.com co-founder Alex Kruchen adds that despite the site being designed for optimised viewing on any device, the company is in the process of redesigning and upgrading it and is concurrently developing a mobile app.
"The upgrade will be complete in September and the app will be launched in October. People using the app will be able to access all their saved/favourite properties from their phone, while driving around. Also, they will receive live updates on the app of new property matches and cancelled show days."
To date, the site has listed over 2 300 different properties and had over 46 000 visits since inception in November 2016, with 25 500 of those being actual users.
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