The rise in use of Content Management Systems (CMS) and ready to use plugins combined with easily available hosting means that every Taurai and Tarisai out there can quickly buy a suitable sounding domain name and start their own property listing site. The problem though is that most of these sites often do not bother to vet the items listed on the site as they are just in it for the ad revenue.
Propertyend.com is different, members of the public are cannot just go to the site and start uploading houses they are selling. Due diligence is at the heart of everything Propertyend does. To prevent fraud and scams, only vetted estate agents who meet qualifications in their countries/cities of origin can upload listings. This makes life hard for would be fraudsters and increases accountability.
The site was started in 2009 by Peaceful Chimbwanda a Zimbabwean-born UK-based entrepreneur who is a resident of Coventry. He serves as the CEO of the company.Being a person in UK looking to buy a property back in his native Zimbabwe presented Peaceful with unique problems:
Twelve years ago, I set about buying a property in my home country of Zimbabwe from my then base in the USA. Being so far away from Zimbabwe and with very little to no direct contact or interaction with the network of estate agents in that country, what began as a simple desire from my living room to find a property in my home country, soon became a nightmare. Just finding a single property to consider buying became an impossible task as nothing was available online to look at. I must admit business use of the internet and websites has since improved in Zimbabwe since 12 year ago, but at the time businesses, particularly estate agents, didn’t seem to see the need for any online presence.
After struggling to find any meaningful property listings online, I imagined how much of my frustration was shared with many other people from Zimbabwe, or indeed other African countries, in the diaspora. In that moment of frustration, the idea for a trans-African online property portal was born.
As already pointed out things are a little different these days with property portals popping out every other day. What makes this site unique are two things: a deliberate regional focus instead of focusing on just one country as well as deliberate focus on the diaspora market. With most property owners now demanding real foreign currency local buyers have just been priced out.
It is the requirement that only registered agents can upload properties on the site that impresses me the most though. Over the years a lot of people have lost their money when buying from individuals posing as estate agents. A favourite tactic of these drifters is to list properties they have no legal right to sell or rent and disappearing with prospective tenant’s and/or buyer’s money. Other sellers have been also known to sell their property to more than one buyer.
Vetting estate agents will certainly not prevent fraud but it will significantly minimise it. Most fraudsters are one hit wonders looking for quick cash and moving on to the next thing. Few of them bother to go through real estate accreditation. Most accredited agents are in it for life.
Most listing sites could take a leaf from Propertyend.com’s diligence. The downside though is that there are fewer properties than would otherwise be available on an open listing site as some people prefer to sell their own properties without going through real agents who will take a cut.
Share
Home
7 comments
The website is not secure.we can not enter our details there
How exactly are you doing the vetting. My friend you’ve been away for a while.. Things have changed and people are looking for Forex..if you want to put such a huge investment firm you have to see it for yourself. No real choice in this place with all that corruption and use a lawyer outside you’ll fall flat. Thus is zim not UK title can be forged and the courts take a long time. Protect yourselves
Although I usually like your writing Garikai I’m not 100% convinced your writing is unbiased. Propertybook (www.propertybook.co.zw) since launch in 2015, we were known as the Harare Rentals Group on Facebook before becoming a legitimate MLS, has only listed EAC registered members, this was very important to us in order to have some form of accountability within the real estate industry and to curate the agencies listing in order to protect visitors/investors making sure they only dealt with reputable agencies whether it was for rentals or sales of property in Zimbabwe.
Looking at a few of the listings I’ve seen quite a bit of scrapped content from agency sites, suggesting that these are not listings loaded by “reputable agencies”, so the “Due Diligence” you speak of is already in question and possibly exposes the visitors of this site.
Another point to note is that this domain, according to websites that show domain age was only created on 2016-07-23 01:36:25, also rubbishing the point about this site being started in 2009.
Although we welcome the competition, we believe that you can not give credit where it is not due. This site is simply someone, based in the UK, who has started this up as a hobby in the hopes it might work.
I’m only talking for the Zimbabwe portion of the site and couldn’t tell you wether the other countries listed are “safe” listings.
No harm with constructive criticisms as we need to safeguard people’s hard earned savings. I for one was sceptical of Propertyend but used then and managed to acquire a property through the in Gwanda.
The due diligence carried out on the real estate agent helped me to trust the whole process.
I would urge all people to make their own informed judgement and not use emotion or hearsay.
I bought my stand through one of the estate agents listed on this platform. I am pleased with the service I got. The stand was advertised on propertyend and I got in touch with the agent through the website and the agent took it from there. I think with all things one has to be vigilant because not every registered agent operates honestly regardless of where they are based. The website offers an advertising platform and it is up to you to get yourself legitimate legal representation to complete the process on your behalf. I can recommend the lawyers I used if anyone is interested.
I have been living in Canada for over 20 years and now making plans to retire in Zim. I wanted to buy a house in a quiet and safe area not far from Harare. I was very sceptical about having a company do the sourcing and transacting on my behalf, but my predicament was that I had lost contact with relatives or friends I could trust to be my advocate in Zim.
After searching around and doing my own due diligence, I learned of PropertyEnd, their representatives made my journey 1000% better, the end to end process was painless and I was given updates at each stage.
I would truly recommend this company and if like me you are used to the trust and efficiency most diasporas have got used to in the West, PropertyEnd will not let you down.
Very pleased with this site. I used to struggle to search for property in Zambia and Zimbabwe my friend recommended this site and it has made my life easier. Keep up the good work guys