Proptech Companies Bringing Africa’s Real Estate Into the Digital Age

Proptech Companies Bringing Real Estate Into the Digital Age

Proptech is the latest buzzword on everybody’s lips today. 

Often called the new disruption power and innovation driver, it is also said to be the modern remedy for real estate specialists suffering from piles of paperwork and a high-yield asset class for investors looking for fresh opportunities.

In a recent article on 2022 and Beyond // Why Proptech Is The Future Of Real Estate. We defined Proptech and how this tech was shaping the future of the real estate industry.

What is also evident is that Proptech sits at the crossroads of the sharing economy, fintech, and real estate. 

The sector grew like gangbusters the past few years as investors took advantage of historically low interest rates and sought modern software solutions to make things more efficient.

Along the way, tech companies disrupted just about every area of real estate for landlords, tenants, investors, brokers, and more. Sometimes called Realtech,

The industry is expected to reach $86B over the next year following an injection of $32B in VC funding in 2021—marking a 28% increase from the year before.

Funding is roughly split down the middle, with half devoted to residential and the other half to commercial property.

Also Read: PropTech In Africa // Top 12 Companies Giving Real Estate Sector A Face-Lift

Real estate software devoted to construction and property management is expected to remain hot through 2022, though rising mortgage rates and other economic conditions could cool a once-hot residential market.

Key Benefits of Proptech Companies

Transparency: One of the main benefits of this tech is that it improves transparency and collaboration within the industry.

In the past, many real estate transactions were conducted offline, which made it difficult for buyers and sellers to get accurate information about properties. 

PropTech technology can improve transparency in many ways. For example, it can provide data that helps individuals and businesses make informed decisions about properties.

Additionally, property technology can help streamline communication between buyers and sellers, making the process more efficient and transparent.

Ultimately, property technology has the potential to create a more open and transparent real estate market, which can benefit everyone involved.

Improved Collaboration and Communication: Another benefit is that it helps to facilitate better communication between landlords and tenants. In the past, it was often difficult for tenants to get in touch with their landlords and vice versa.

With PropTech tools like mobile apps, however, it’s now easier than ever for tenants and landlords to stay in touch, exchange information, and resolve any issues that may arise.

It can also help improve communication directly in the real estate industry, on the buying front. Before, many real estate transactions were conducted offline, making it difficult for buyers and sellers to communicate. With property technology, all of this information is now available online, making it easier for everyone involved in a transaction to stay in touch. 

Additionally, property technology tools like chatbots can help real estate professionals to communicate with their clients more effectively and provide them with the information they need in a timely manner.

Increased ROI: It can also help to improve value and ROI in real estate. Before the advent of this technology, many real estate investors only had access to a limited pool of properties. Property technology allows them to search for and invest in properties worldwide.

Additionally, the tools it has, like data analytics, can help investors make more informed decisions about which properties to invest in and how to best manage their portfolios.

Proptech can be divided into three i.e those companies focused on supporting the construction industry directly.

Those helping residents find their next home such as Digital Rental and Instant Property, who use the online marketplace model to connect both residential and commercial customers seeking to rent or buy properties with landlords and estate agents

And finally digital solutions playing a role in addressing the financing gap which sometimes restricts development such as Nigeria’s RealVest and South Africa’s CrowdProp provide innovative platforms for people to invest into property as an asset class.

Source: https://ascendixtech.com/proptech-real-estate-definition/

There are quite a number of companies in the space currently but here are more companies revolutionizing the real estate and setting its pace for future: 

14 Trees

A lot of smart and disruptive construction innovations exist today but they remain in the labs of large companies or startups.

14 Trees mission is to take these innovations to the field, optimize them, and scale them up. So that more African families can live, work and study in more decent, sustainable and affordable buildings.

14Trees pioneered in the introduction of Construction 3D printing in Africa. We delivered the first 3D printed house in Africa, and the first 3D printed school in the World. The company printed the walls in 12 and 18 hours respectively.

14Trees is a joint venture company between Holcim, a global leader in sustainable construction solutions, and CDC Group, the UK Government’s impact investor. 

In 2021, 14 Trees started off their first project dubbed Mvule Gardens in Kilifi County. The project has 52 affordable houses to be 3D printed in Kilifi, Kenya.

The company also started the SmartDiaspora.com is the first digital platform which allows people living overseas to invest in property back in their homeland. The company has project managers locally in each homeland country to ensure the diaspora get what they want back home.

Propsource

PropSource is a commercial property brokerage that works closely with listed nationals, or reits, to fill vacancies in their property portfolios. The startup has built its property database via technology, and has over 3,500 vacancies in it.

The startup raised an undisclosed amount of equity funding from an unnamed investor earlier this year to build out a residential product offering, which is now available to the public.

The startup’s system started on the commercial side as a lead generator, but quickly evolved and can now provide commercial agents with accurate probability matches of properties that suit the needs of clients.

Spleet

Founded in 2018, Spleet is a technology-driven real estate investment platform that connects landlords with vetted tenants looking for flexible rent payment options.

Since its inception, Spleet has processed millions in rent, housed over 1000 tenants and onboarded over 35 individual and corporate landlords.

In October,  Spleet secured $2.6 million in seed funding led by MaC Venture Capital, with participation from existing investors Metaprop VC, and HoaQ Fund.

The real estate investment platform will use the capital to scale its platform across geographies and real-estate asset classes by expanding distribution channels and investing in technology and people.

The company will also focus on utilizing technology to improve customer platform-user experiences by increasing liquidity, adding more product lines, and bolstering investor relations.

Crowdprop

Crowdprop is a platform that enables individuals to invest in real estate through the form of crowdfunding. The startup aims at bridging the gap in the market by providing more people with the opportunity to invest in property.

Crowdprop uses independent experts to analyze every property and undergoes a strict screening process. This process ensures that only safe and qualified investments are listed on the platform.

The property is divided into various shares so investors are able to invest in and own a portion of the property from as little as USD1000. The investor will own the property collectively with other investors. 

Investors are given shares according to their proportion of ownership and rental income is paid into the investor’s Crowdprop wallet which can be withdrawn or reinvested at any time.

Once the investment term has come to an end the property will be sold and the investor will receive their portion of the proceeds from the sale.

Instant Property

Instant Property offers Software as a service to the Real Estate Industry empowering sector players with both technology and data to help them with their digital transformation. 

The technology suite consists of:

• Online Real Estate Auction Aggregator Portal 
• Online Commercial and Industrial Vacancy Listing Portal 
• Industry Data Services and software branding and customization services.

As of 2019, Instant Property had positioned itself at the center of the online commercial property sector in SA and Africa with over 9 million m2 of commercial property space listed and over 2.5 million m2 of office, warehouse and retail space currently available for sale and to let.

The power of their marketplace stems from their innovative technology’s ability to service tenants, brokers & landlords through their proprietary big data commercial property platform with a built-in CRM system and machine learning capabilities uniquely designed for commercial property management, rentals, sales and a market first online and mobile app auction platform across Africa.

Landlords and large brokerages have the added possibility of white-labelling and customizing the Instant Property suite of commercial property technologies delivering a robust, centralized data-rich property management & online listing environment.

It is just interesting to see how the real estate space is changing and with new apartments coming every day in cities like Nairobi, this creates even bigger opportunities for the proptech entrepreneurs. In the coming years, we will probably see more growth happen and probably take up the fintech space in the funding space.