World’s first free to list global property portal

Portal – Launching now in South Africa.

An ambitious prop-tech portal is aiming to revolutionise the property market with the launch of two brand new free to list platforms in South Africa.

Named Commercial People & Residential People, the two property portals have a worldwide focus, aiming to cover over 20 countries by the end of 2019.

Now I’m sure you’re thinking ‘great, just another property portal’ and wondering ‘what makes these sites so special?’ – but unlike its competitors, both Commercial and Residential People are 100% free to list, offering agents the chance to get away from the often sky-high costs of listing your properties online.

For many smaller agents across South Africa, the process of digitising their property portfolios and arranging them into a comprehensive and functional website can be a rather cost-prohibitive exercise that they simply cannot afford.

Unless the smaller real estate agent becomes part of a larger franchise, there is often very little an independent agency can do to market their properties to a nationwide or global audience… that is where Commercial & Residential People come in.

Founded in London, UK, in 2014, Commercial & Residential People have been meticulously developing their brand and establishing their agent database over the past 5 years, to prepare for their full launch across South Africa, UAE and the UK.

Commercial People is focused on hosting commercial properties such as factories, warehouses, offices and meeting rooms from some of South Africa’s largest commercial real estate firms. Meanwhile, Residential People is aimed at the residential property sector, endeavouring to help agencies across South Africa market their apartments, villas and other
forms of residential property more effectively.

In the UK alone many smaller real estate agencies are being priced out of the market due to the spiralling costs of listing on some of the nation’s largest property portals. In South Africa, this is exasperated even further by the increased size of the nation, lack of internet proliferation in some regions of the country as well as the previously mentioned cost of setting up a functional and presentable website.

Both Commercial & Residential People are 100% free to list, therefore nullifying one of the largest stumbling blocks (the cost) that prohibits many independent local and regional real estate agencies across the country.

Speaking about the origins of the two portals, Commercial & Residential People co-Director Christopher May said: “After constantly reading about the increasing costs of running a real estate business and being a broker myself, I fully appreciate the burden of the rising costs of running a successful real estate agency; this is why we decided to build a ‘Free to List’ property portal that adds real value.

However, despite eradicating the cost involved with listing a property, Commercial & Residential People are not just for the smaller and independent South African real estate firms. Whether you’re a successful multi-national agency, a business owner, business broker, landlord or service provider, Commercial & Residential People seek to be the all-in-
one property portal to suit your every need.

Powered by a sleek and sophisticated website that’s easy to use, Commercial & Residential People take usability and user experience to an unprecedented level with a fantastic range of enhanced marketing tools that will maximise your property’s potential to the fullest.

Mr May added: “I believe a lot of buyers and sellers do not truly understand the pressure that a lot of agents are under, particularly when it comes to the marketing of their property. You have to realise that most agents only get paid if they are successful which is why it is such a tough job, and I don’t think that a lot of the advertising portals out there truly appreciate this.

“At Residential People, we are completely free to list, but with the help of our automated easy to use marketing tools agents can drive more traffic to their listings, giving them the extra value and ammunition required to win new business and in turn help to improve our agents’ profitability.

Along with a sleek and detailed property page, Commercial & Residential People both offer 3 unique marketing tools to help listings stand out from the crowd that little bit more. The first feature is an automatic PDF generator that as the name suggests, will create a PDF in real-time consisting of a selection of the listing best photos, a succinct description and property location – this PDF can then be shared across social media or printed off to hand to prospective viewers.

Along with the PDF Generator, agents can also make use of a Microsite Generator that creates a private and unique microsite for the chosen property, allowing an agent to ensure that a potential client sees their property and ONLY their property. By creating a microsite, an agent can better highlight the key features and unique selling points of their property, whilst avoiding competition from other agencies and their rival listings.

Lastly, the third and arguably most eye-catching marketing tool is Commercial & Residential People’s Video Generator which allows an agent to create a brief and appealing marketing trailer for their property without the need for any specialist video software or editing skills. With the Video Generator, you’ll be able to instantly upload your video onto your listing page as well as offer you the ability to upload onto 3rd party marketing platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or Instagram.

Listing and marketing your properties online has never been more important than it is today, and with the help of Commercial & Residential People, improving your online presence doesn’t have to cost a thing.

So what are you waiting for? If you made it this far, why not give Commerical or Residential People a try!

https://www.commercialpeople.com/za