Taking the first steps

“Nothing resulting from human progress is achieved with unanimous consent. And those who are enlightened before the others are condemned to pursue that light in spite of others.”
- Christopher Columbus

In the 10 years of its existence, Private Property has always aimed to be part of progress achieved in this great country we live in. We have learned a whole bunch of hard lessons and fortunately have grown to South Africa’s busiest property website. This is a truly amazing feat if you take into account that we have about 10%-20% of the stock on our site compared to our competitors.

I firmly believe that a big part of the reasons for this is that we have always been committed to look after the interest of the browser; we have been able to gather quality content and have made it easy to find what you are looking for.

Today we stand at a crossroad and we have chosen to alter our course a little, by taking the lessons we have learned and applying them to a much broader spectrum of the market, we will now aim to build a digital property market place with the best quality content, and where we constantly strive to make it easier for a browser to find the property they are looking for.

Why do we choose to do this?

We believe that the internet is the future for many industries, and particularly property. We are passionate about applying the amazing technologies being developed everyday to make searching for property for sale or rent easier. In the last few months we have already taken the first step, by add amazing features like virtual tours, videos and auctions to the website. In the last week we have taken another step forward by launching the Property Tribe.

Building a digital property market place will indeed take the best of our abilities, and will no doubt be extremely challenging. But I think time will reveal a property industry that is extremely efficient, with industry players that add substantial value to their clients, and tools that will allow buyers and tenants to easily find what they are looking for.

Early next year we will take another big step forward to expand our reach, we will be systematically be allowing selected Estate Agents to add to our system, enabling us to give browsers a broader choice, and giving Agents a powerful advertising tool.

Judging from the phenomenal success of SmartSell, the first agency added to our system in May this year, it is going to be an extremely exciting year ahead.

This is a copy of the first Blog entry by Justinus, CEO of Private Property, on the Property Tribe blog. Visit the blog to hear what others are saying about Private Property and the property industry in general.