The real estate industry in the digital age
These days all you need is internet access to get property. Photo by David S. Mukooza
What you need to know:
- Social media platforms like Facebook, twitter and instagram among others are being used as marketing tools.
- Ssuna Ronald, a digital and social media marketer, says that reaching out to people via social media has made it easier for players in the industry to market whatever they are offering to the people at a lower cost.
Looking for a house or office space to rent or buy two decades ago required one to have an intricate plan. One had to talk to friends and relatives to help them get a house or office space to rent or buy. Additionally, they also had to get some time off their busy schedule to walk around with hope that they could chance upon numerous ‘House to Let’ notices. In the digital age today, this seems to have changed.
In search for a house or office space to rent or buy, all one needs to do is get themselves busy with searching the web for what they think is suitable for them. Quite a number of reasons explain this change. One obvious one is the increase in the access to the internet by most Ugandans.
Internet access
With just a click, one can easily get themselves a house or office space to rent. This has been so because of the increasing access of the internet by most Ugandans.
“For the last three decades, we have seen the access to the internet by most Ugandans growing annually. Industries like the real estate industry have had to adapt to the new changes for them to survive,” says John Patrick Lunguse, a real estate dealer in Uganda.
According to Internetworldstats.com, by 2017, 31.3 per cent of Ugandans, an equivalent of 13 million people, had access to internet. Seven years earlier however only 9.6 per cent of Ugandans used the internet. Forecasts by Pew Research Centre, an American research centre, indicate that more than 80 per cent of the world wide’s population will be vastly connected to the internet. The ability by most Ugandans to be able to access the internet, one can, therefore, say, has brought about a change in how business is done today. This fully explains why properties agencies in the real estate industry have had to enforce their online presence.
Agencies online
Managing property, selling land, booking hotel rooms or even renting a house has been made easier by the online presence of property agencies. Everything from information concerning real estate investing to buying and selling of property, can all be easily accessed on a mobile device.
Jumia Uganda, an online shopping site that has been in Uganda for quite some time, is one of the online shopping sites that has developed an app that would enable one search for their dream house online easily. This, according to Richard Turyagumanawe, a property marketing consultant, has made it easy for people searching for property to buy since they have access to the kind of property they want online.
“Traditionally, buying property was viewed as being a complicated and rigid activity. Online presence of property agencies in Uganda is slowly changing this by allowing Ugandans to access the kind of property they want,” he says.
“The more the real estate industry grows, the more we are going to be seeing these kinds of changes. In past, most people could only buy property through middle men which I think is something that we had to do away with since many people were being ripped off by fraudsters who approach them disguising as property brokers,” he adds.
Turyagumanawe says these quick ploys by real estate agents in Uganda have been influenced largely by the ever growing uptake of Internet by Ugandans.
Social media
Social media platforms like Facebook, twitter and instagram among others are being used as marketing tools. Real Estate agents that previously depended on mainstream media platforms in the past to market their products are now embracing digital platforms in their operations.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and others are currently seen as better for marketing property than the traditional mainstream media.
“Owing to the emergence of a new clientele who are well versed with digital platforms than mainstream media, real estate agencies are now embracing online presence,” says Turyagumanawe.
Additionally, Ssuna Ronald, a digital and social media marketer, says that reaching out to people via social media has made it easier for players in the industry to market whatever they are offering to the people at a lower cost.
