 Good morning everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I've been saying hello, Ben Hello Hello Wonderful, can you all hear me? Okay. Good morning. See ya. Good morning. Celeste. Good morning. Trish Hi, Felene. Hi, your head Hello, everyone. I think let's get started. We've got about 73 people on this floor in this session I think we can expect to hear more and more People joining us as we go along, but let me just start by saying a great good morning to you Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Marius Thank you for that feedback. Verve. Thank you. I see that you hear me loud and clear Xander Lee. Good morning. Good morning. Ian Fanyardsfeld. Hello. Hello. Hello, everyone and also Good morning to everyone that greeted in the chat This morning. This platform is called RIMO. It's a very simple, very engaging, very interactive platform and I'm gonna be your host for the next few hours And I think it's an hour and a half So good day, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us at our very first Nexus event of the year I'm Tracy Lee. Tracy Lee Miller, and I'm the brand and marketing executive at private property I'm gonna be your emcee your virtual host for this morning I suggest you go get yourself a cup of coffee, a cup of tea, a bottle of water Of course, the word Nexus means a series of connections that link two or more things together And that is what these private property Nexus events are really about It's a series of digital networking events that cultivates people connection through knowledge sharing and networking Our first Nexus was hosted last year in November. Were you there? Did you did you attend that Nexus? Morning, Claudia. Good morning, Endri. Good morning, Maria. I see you. Good morning, Natalie Good morning, Leanne from Plattenberg Bay And then our studio as well said. Good morning. Hi, Venusha Jelly Keena, this is your first Nexus event. Well, guess what? This is our first Nexus event for 2021 and Last year's event was so well received. We decided to bring it back this year, but to do it a little bit differently So for this particular Nexus event, we have literally gone and tailored Specific events to specific regions so that the insights that we're about to Share and that we're about to listen to are relevant to you in your area Giving you the best possible chance of achieving success in this market. It's still quite a tough market We've got a great lineup for you today and before we get started I'm just going to point a couple of things out for you so that you can be able to engage. Good morning, Mark Good morning, Deborah So that you can be able to engage with us this platform is incredibly engaging So on your left, you'll see there's a chat box where everyone is saying good morning. Good morning Tando The very next tab is the participants tab and in this tab you can literally connect with any person By just clicking and sending them a message or you know finding out more about them The very last tab on the left hand column here is the q&a tab. So I'm going to ask a question What is your favorite color? And if you think that this question is a good enough question to have your name to it or if it's a question Where you know, you know, it's a little bit tricky the the response might not be What what you want everyone to to hear then you can ask the question anonymously But I'm going to ask this question and I'm going to have my name in it And there you can see in that q&a box You now have tracy lee asking what is your favorite color? And if anyone else in the room thinks that this is a good enough question for all of us to hear the answer to You can vote it up. So somebody's already up voted that question You can up vote it again up voted again And then when the person who's presented their session They then will then ask them to answer that question for you But in the meantime this chat facility here blue Okay Okay purple blue silver Engie blue. I love it And now your favorite color is silver Can I tell you what my favorite color is? green You guessed it. It's actually green Okay, okay, so I think you guys actually you've got the hang of it. Yeah, my favorite color is green to felina I'm a little bit biased When it comes to to that Alma maybe from better niece I see we have another question here Stefan you actually you gave us the answer Okay, let's give it a couple more minutes. Let me also just share with you what our agenda looks like um And before we get to the agenda If if you are the most engaged person you ask the most questions you send the most emojis We know that you're in the room and you're participating you creating that energy for the room Then there is a prize up for grabs and then the final thing that I want to mention here is We also have a one and a half non verifiable cbd points on offer from aisa And if you want to qualify or get those points Please stick around until you get to the end of the session And then ben is going to put the the link in there for you to register so that you can get your your one and a half cbd points Okay, we still have a few more minutes. I want to bring our our first speaker on to the stage His name is deon fun sale and he's the regional manager Home Loans Cape region But before we do that, I'm going to give it a few more minutes. I think more and more people are are joining us Let me ask a few questions. Where are you watching from I can see some people already Volunteered that information. Thank you Sharon You're watching from cozy corner east london George east london East london fantastic Are you watching by yourself? Are you watching with someone? There's a reason I'm asking that question grace. You're in the uk Wow This is brilliant. You see the the beauty about these sessions is that you can watch from wherever in the world if you've got an Interest in a particular region. We're going to be hosting these sessions over the next four days And I'm literally going to be your host for the next four days. I'll you all know Endy you're in muscle bay Jeffries bay somebody from bloom fontain tando. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. And then we also have pe George east london Platenburg Bay Welcome everyone. Welcome. Welcome gelkina. You're all by yourself. Are you watching maybe with? Wow kids beach east london and hello tando from bloom. That's from celeste over there I think you guys are really starting to get the hang of this platform The other really awesome thing to look out for is when we break and we have networking sessions when you switch your camera on And your microphone on then everyone in the room will It's almost like you're sitting at the table and you're now able to engage of course not everyone has to switch on their cameras But it just makes the engagement a lot more human and interactive Venusia you're joining us from sunny Durban. It's pretty sunny where I'm at as well Okay, I think uh deon. Are you ready? I'm about to bring deon There's menlin as well from pretoria wilderness maria. Emma could see a welcome welcome And uh, who else do we have celeste? You're in george Anita marilene is saying hi to Anita Yeah, gelkina this platform is super easy to to use of course We have uh, we've been trying out various virtual ways to connect and we feel like this platform is an incredibly easy platform And really does facilitate engagement. Hello deon I'll try to see how you It is brilliant man. I'm brilliant. I'm amazing. I'm wonderful. I'm blessed I'm really looking forward to your session. Your microphone is on mute at the moment Let's just unmute you And then I will mute myself switch off my camera and then it's over to you deon. Okay Awesome. Enjoy Tracy, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much really a Privility to join you know, but something very interesting in that color question You asked to understand that you are green make sense But to understand that both you and felina green something is wrong. Something is wrong. We'll have to look at that again um Well, thank you. Thank you so much and it's a great privilege for me to be here today as as Tracy said My name is deon cancel from from epsa home loans. I'm hitting up the kate region and More specifically the The the western kate and then also that includes eastern and southern kate as well I'm joining this morning from the beautiful capital of the garden route here in jorts Really enjoying it that nice ways of traveling here this morning A bit of rain and really looking forward to have a great day Um to our strategic partners private property guys. Thank you so much for for setting this up and hosting these these these events I can assure you it's really a privilege to share some thoughts Um with with with you guys around around this I think um going through through the presentation You will also see that that i'm going to use a lot of micro information in terms of What is you what has been happening here in in the in our area in the southern and eastern kate Although I will only refer to eastern kate. Please bear in mind that that includes Um, um the the southern kate as well Um, I will be glad to answer any questions Um, if anyone would like to stood to ask a question, um at the end more than more than willing to Do that so if we can move on to to the first slide There we are So the slides saying to us don't panic, but let's let's just take a step back One year ago the first covet Cases in south africa has already been not diagnosed and wow that we see a steep increase In the new cases at that stage as well government introduced lockdown measures that compared to the top 25 in the world We were really belittled by a global pandemic that has not only Um infected our industry or our country But obviously as you guys know, um the whole world economists at that stage predicted a contraction of our economy By not least an 8.3 percent which was absolutely devastating for us And in june last year we saw an ipsos survey that indicated that 90 percent of south africans felt That's covered 19 has impacted them and their families 35 percent of south africans had experience a salarica 14 lost their jobs And six percent have asked to take unpaid leads and we saw amageddon coming Lockdown level five was closer to home with us in the property market as well We basically put out a business for two months And that required a lot of us to rethink what is important to us And we also had to rethink the way we live the way we earn a living And the way we conduct our our our business at that stage. It was a very very gloomy view for us Um just moving on to slide slide three so just just some statistical um in information on others is that Bearing in mind that that we have basically lost two months of economic activity in 2020 What was the impact on the industry? We saw a decline in property sales and we as a bank We saw that in our application volumes Which were down on the first half of the year by nine percent Versus a 2019 in the eastern cape. We were very lucky We were only down two percent and in the western cape. We were down four percent against 20 2019 However in that numbers there was it was remarkable to see the agility Of the property market and I think that's why we all love this industry Because when we bounced back in the second half of the year and wow Didn't each and every one of us felt that we saw the application volumes then grown by 36 percent in the second half of the year In the eastern cape there at the end of the year we closed off 30 percent up on 2019 and in the western cape we closed off 35 percent So just regaining up on what we've lost in the first half From a these perspective We saw that the activities translate into registrations and what we saw there is that again in the second half On average we registered 2.1 times more than what we did in the first half in the eastern cape we registered 1620 units Which is 1.9 times and in the western cape A whopping 2 189 which is 2.1 times more and that take us right through to only The lagging in the eastern cape by 8 percent to 20 90 and 11.1 percent in the western cape So what we saw was actually a tail of two hogs a dramatic downturn in h1 Where we saw there the sales decline and then an even more dramatic increase in the second half of the year And interesting as well Is that we didn't see a deterioration in the quality of those customers because that's important for us as a bank We actually saw good quality customers Coming through the door and that allow us to keep our appetite where we had where we had it And to make sure that the business that we put on hook is still quality business where we can offer clients The type of loans that they need the type of loans that they require And that also supported the business from our perspective So so what our customers say about home ownership You know in unpacking all these activities was very interesting because not one of the epsa home loan regional nuances Was the same it was so unique not one region reacted on this the same as the other And our business agility were really tested to the limits In some instances our decision horizons were literally weekly and in some instances dailies But I think important is what was our customers thinking what went through their mind in terms of what is happening in the industry So what we see here is the epsa home owners sentiment index And and if you look at the at the at the sentiment index Which is also known as the hsi for those of you who are not familiar with it It is a propriety index we test customers confidence in the property market So as you can see at the end of the year Customer confidence was at the highest for the whole year, but not only for the year of 2020 Actually since inception of this index in 2015 Overall, we saw a nine percent increase in the sentiments towards buying and that should be good news for all of us And an increase of four percent towards selling of property There are basically four main contributors to the confidence Of the four percent in quarter four Which resulted in the overall confidence ending up as you can rightly see there at the bottom at 80 percent under the demand side we saw the ability of property to increase in value and currently also the low interest cycle which played a major role In in in helping the confidence on the demand side then on the supply side, obviously We saw the resilience in house prices And the renewed impetus by owners to invest in their own properties That came to the fore very very strong during 2020 as well also very interesting to note is that The inland provinces the overall sentiment for the inland provinces actually increased by four percent in quarter three And those for coastal provinces by six percent So we see the sentiment towards property in the coastal regions coming back to where it was before And increasing a bit more than what we saw in the inland provinces So let's have a look at at the at the various or at the different regions that that we actually saw That that we actually see So if you look at the the three major metrics We can see that all regions showed an overall increase in sentiment However, the biggest of 10 percent was in the western cape and wine We think it was part of part of the issue that driven that was the same migration with customers can now Work from anywhere and they want virtually They can work from from from the homes and and and choosing that lifestyle Over convention in the city just made it so much easier for everybody to start doing business How 10 hour ever remains the region with the highest sentiment and we can also see that If we look at the number of applications for 2020, which was predominantly driven through our houten region The eastern and southern Cape overall sentiment was the second highest in the country and again That should be great news for you at 85 percent and that outperformed the national By five percent the sentiment towards Property in the eastern Cape was you get top five reaching 78 percent under on the index while sentiments towards selling was the lowest on the index The sentiments towards investing in property also matched the national seventy eight percent index While the sentiment that we see towards selling Or a buying versus selling is one percent higher than the national index and while we are seeing that at the moment Is because it's more expensive. It's almost 15 percent more expensive To rent at the moment than to buy your overall pro Buy your own property. So so what we see here is that All over in the metros and in the non metros We saw an increase in what customers is experiencing what customers are saying to us the drivers for that such in the the bond side and in the In the in the in the in the sell side and and that is where that is where we should be very very positive looking forward to know that that Impact will absolutely drive our business going forward and i'm going to touch on on on the business as as we go forward So so let us look On the next slide. Let us look at the homeowner sentiment by customer type So so what we see here is that all the customer types have actually improved in sentiments all of them And the majority of them to higher than the pre-covid level that's boosting overall confidence Two customer types that i would just like to to highlight and and show to you Is the existing home buyers and that is the orange line Here coming with that break come back here from the bottom and then the dark purple one Which is the investor one. So if we look at the existing home owners They have always lacked all the others if we go back on the on the index right up to 2015 We will always find that your existing home owners have lacked But they have shown us in the last towards the end of 2019 right up to 2020 With a 10 increase where they have shown us a much stronger come back than anyone of the others What we also saw is that investors and they had the biggest or the highest drop off In sentiment in the heart of lockdown. Why was that? Obviously investors choose not to add to their property portfolio and they would rather take a wait and see approach Because the economic uncertainty as well as the sharp increase in rental defaults Was just something that investors wanted to actually ride out So if we are ever see how they how they've bounced back That actually ended up the highest and even slightly above The first time home buyers would drove most of the search in our activities As more than 50 percent of all our bonds that we did last year was in the first time home buyer space So investors coming back and again That should give us a lot of confidence in what we are seeing in our markets at the moment If we look at the buying versus the selling sentiments on our on our next slide Just waiting for a slightly there to change over There we are We we see that the sentiments towards buying property return to the 2019 levels Much much earlier than the sentiment towards the sale of properties and and towards the middle of 2019 We've already reached the the pre covered Um values and and and and benchmarks in the in the sentiment towards buying So people buying properties that sentiment started to come back towards the middle of the of the um of the pandemic already If if we are ever look at the sentiments towards selling this is still not recovered from our 2019 levels So so what are we seeing we're actually seeing that the gap between a a wanting to sell And the wanting to buy it's actually continues continuing Um to to to widen and and that mean that we have got more willing buyers than we've got got sellers in the market at the moment And and to a certain extent That is also then what is impacting um on on the upholding of the property prices if we look at the the um the specific price segments of 750 to 1.5 million where we actually Had the most of our activity It also places pressure on stock In in this price segment and this may result in these property prices starting to increase So purchase prices have in general been higher as buyers have been reaching to buy more expensive properties given their improvements and and and and the affordability due to the low interest rates that we actually see So in the in the eastern cape, what did what did we see in eastern cape? We saw our average loan applications increased by 33 percent since 2019 To just over a million range on on on average. So what does the future hold for us? Let's have a look on the first one just in terms of the interest rates I think it will be important to see Because it's one of the main drivers. What is the interest rates holding for us in in the future? We've we've surely established by now That that the low interest rate cycle has been the driver of the positive sentiment and also the coincidental increase in home purchases And I mean surely you guys have felt it every day because of the low Interest rate people can now buy more those who couldn't afford can now afford and those that could afford can now afford Even a more expensive property We below we we actually on this stage. We believe that the property Or the inflation the interest rate is right at the bottom of the cycle And and and they will return at their current levels or remain at their current levels Until the end of this year around about for the fall in 2021 Which is when they will start to gradually start to rise again the rise we believe will now ever be gradual And and and on this stage it is our view that we will only return More or less to pre-lockdown levels by the end of 2023. So a very gradual Return of our interest rates if we look at the the house prices Because we can actually see that the recent developments that that that that I just showed you up in the number of willing buyers If absolutely place upward pressure on prices Although this remains to be seen because everybody is talking about whether this is a whole a buyer or a seller's market Purchase prices have in general been higher and buyers have been reaching to buy more expensive property Because of the of the interest rates, which absolutely play a major role in their affordability So so if we if you look at the market growth that we saw in our various provinces I think it's also important to actually note that if you look at the red bars there You will see that in 2020 all our regions actually performed lower than in 2019 And you can see some instances. It's quite significant if you look at the western cake around about minus 16 percent And and and that played a major role in in in terms of what we saw in the business However, if even even with even with the there was the With the uptake in in the in the second half of the year We still haven't reached The the the full year on year type of capacity that we had was type of production that we have Under the 2019 levels So so what we see here is that the top row the dark row brown That is predictions that we did in in towards the end of of 2020 And we did that for 2021 and you can see in all our regions the expectations are positive across all regions In eastern cake, we expect the market to grow by 5.6 percent Following on a negative from 7.8 So quite a significant growth that we expect in the eastern cake And and and this will be dominantly be driven by first-time home buyers and to a to a large extent We also see some investor business In in in in that as your but first-time home buyers will most definitely remain one of our key drivers in the eastern cake Coming off 2020 with our applications in december reaching 47 percent versus 2019 We think that the market might grow even more than what we have anticipated and after two months our full performance in 2021 Our application volume is absolutely continue to be so resilient We are up 21 percent on february on last year and that was before the pandemic There's there's most definitely still a A level of uncertainty in in in force casting models at at the moment If you look at the ditch of disclosure If you look at the uncertainty of the third wave and that just make our crystal balls a little murky at the moment the one thing that holds true however And something that we've been seeing throughout the heart of the pandemic during 2020 Is that south africans Has got an aspiration of owing your own home That remains a core aspiration And all of you each and every one of you have absolutely Contributing contribute to helping people to buy their own homes Whether it is upgrade whether it is further properties whether it's investment properties whether it's first-time home buyers But each of you play the role to make south africans dreams come true So thank you very much for for joining us Today and and and thank you for joining us In housing the nation because that's what we do we house the nation and we shape the industry in a meaningful way Thank you very much for listening. I really appreciate our i'm gladly i'll take any any questions. Thank you so much Thank you. Thank you deon I think we should do a virtual applause. We would have done that in the physical anyway Thank you so much for taking us through some of those insights very very interesting I have one question here from ian fanyar spaltion And he wants to know what does apsa believe will be the drivers in q4 of pushing interest rates? Well, um, I think on on this stage, we do see a slight recovery in our economy I just saw some numbers this morning Where we are currently on around about a zero point eight percent already and and as the economy recovers We will slightly see that increases in the interest rates as we as we go forward But but as we see it at a moment very very very gradually very gradually Okay, thank you for that. Mark van heerden has a question as well. It's here in the q&a box I'm gonna upvote it. Then I have a legitimate reason to ask it And it's been up. Thank you I've voted a few more times properties are often sold higher than expected in the seller's market What is the expected market response going forward into 2022 and risks to the buyers of these properties deon? I think I don't think it's a it's a straightforward one-line answer to that I mean, um, it is absolutely a willing buyer willing seller It's a combination of the two and and and that is what I what I try to show when I show you that that currently That gap is still widening, but shoot the prices On on the on the on the office on on houses start to increase and and buyers are willing to pay for that Then then surely that is going to drive what we've currently seen as I mentioned We've seen we've seen almost a 33 increase in loan value application just in the eastern cap And that is that is a good indication that that all of that will move together But then then it must be based on a willing buyer willing seller print principle Thank you so much for that Deon, I think there are no further questions. Everyone is giving you a applause. Thank you, Denise. Thank you Anna Marie. We see your thank yous under Lee Jeanette Laura Jean and then also Felene and Kobe all saying thank you so much for for sharing those insights with us This morning. Let me double check and make sure there are no questions. No further questions No, I think that's it. Deon, you can get into the limo drive off the stage And thank you Trish and thank you so much. It was a great pleasure to be part of the session this morning Wonderful. Thank you. Deon, please stay with us. We're not going to be For much longer and if anyone wants to join with you or join you or communicate with you You're more than welcome to click on the participants button next to the chat and q&a button And you can send Deon or any one of his colleagues a message if there are further insights that you want to maybe discuss Or further insights you need to to to have Outlined for you. I think this part of the program is a bit of engagement and interaction Please take out your cellular devices. Take out your cell phones And then go to www.menti.com It will ask you for a code. The code is 45628137 45628137 We are going to be asking you a couple of questions just to get a sense of really who's in the room It helps us to come up with the with the correct Content in the future Please enter your name and sign up and maybe if if possible enter your actual name There we've got one person already Felene is in Esti is in Celeste. You're in your head is of course your head is in Ben is in Michael is in Let's see if we can get as many of us into the room as possible Tell us your name tando. I can see your in There we go. Some more people Jalee Kina. You're in And then let's see what's happening on the chat. We'll give it a couple more minutes The code Annamarie is going to be pasted by ben. Just check the chat box here But just so you know, it's 45628137 Ben if you can just drop that code into the chat so that it stays there. Thank you studio 45628137 45628137 Okay, let's give it a few more minutes I think the only thing that this platform needs is like a dj Some music Um, all right. I think we've got quite a number of people in studio en and lights. Yes, your head some disco lights Always brighten up a Monday morning. Isn't it 45628137? That is the minty code We're about to ask a few questions the option the answers will be on your device in your hand And you select your response and then I will see the the answers on the screen here That's controlled by studio. All right. Are we ready? Are we ready studio? Can we get started with the first question, please? Are we in are we in Fatima? Sharon Sharon, you're not able to join. Okay, try again. Let's try again The first question is what is what is your job title or role within your company? Are you options are CEO direct executive franchise owner second option principal Second option principal agent managing broker estate agent intern and other Those are your options and let's see who's actually in the room with us today Yep, there's more of estate agents interns then followed by other Maybe in the chat box. Can you tell me what other is? What is other? In the chat box 11 people said other. Let's see what other is Investor there we go operations and admin manager Lightstone training consultant leasing administrator PA Fantastic. All right Right, there we go. This obviously nexus is an event that we've put together for industry Sharing insights together having conversations about how to take this industry forward And so thank you your head data and data and analytics Our next question is what type of real estate transactions. Do you specialize in? Sales and rentals sales only or rentals only Hi Fatima. You're from property practitioners Port Elizabeth sales only erin Sales only that's erin brandford And then mala is also letting us know that she specializes in sales only and now sales only Okay, there we go. So 24 responses for sales only and then 14 for sales and rentals and then of course seven of the respondents specifically focusing on rentals I'm sure you're going to be looking forward to the pay prop presentation That that is going to be taking place shortly Let's get into the next question a few more questions in this mentee mentee meter When okay, this is my favorite question like this is this is my question Do you multitask when attending virtual meeting meetings or online events? Yes, are you guilty? Are you does your mind tend to wonder? Are you 100 focus or sometimes sometimes depending on where you find yourself and what's happening around you and in your vicinity? But yeah, I think the great majority of us It's kind of like a yes. We are we are multitasking We are a little bit guilty. So I think this is where these sort of engagements help because we tend to The engagement brings us back into the room All right, sometimes Lou Lou Lou Lynn Liebenberg Lou Lynn Liebenberg I think I hope that I said your name, right Mala. Yes outright. Yes 100 percent sometimes from Natalie and Henry 100 percent. Okay. Let's try to get you guys back into the room Let's go to the next question. Please studio And this is the question that we always ask Which is in your opinion as an industry professional and practitioner Is it a buyer's market or a seller's market? Look at how those responses are flowing in What do you think is it a buyer's market? Is it a seller's market? Both in both. Okay, wonderful Wonderful. Let's keep going. Let's keep the responses coming in. Viv Barton. You're saying it's a buyer's market And we need an option for both. Okay. That's a nice Bit of feedback there. Maybe Ben you can we can add that as an option three You know, is it a buyer's market or is it a seller's market? So many of you are saying that it is very definitely a buyer's market and then Charmaine along with A few other colleagues on the call saying that it's actually both at the moment Roland Liebenberg also concurring that it's both Natalia the ridder. Thank you for that telling us that it's both and Adeline You think it's a buyer's market. I wonder which one of our guests would be keen on Joining me on the stage and giving me a rationale one for buyers and one for sellers and one for both Think about it Let me know in the chat if you're keen to switch on your camera and give me your opinion I would absolutely welcome that think of this section um In the olden days when someone would get the mic and you'd have to stand up and you'd have to say a few words Okay, I think let's move on to the next question in one word We're almost at our networking break, which won't be very long, but it's a great opportunity for you to engage Let's go to the next question in one word. How would you describe? 2021 so far not 2020 2021 Are you getting my answers is a question that Christina? Jacoba you're done is asking I can hear you Christina i'm gonna ask ben to reach out to you and if he can maybe take your question Then he can put it into the chat for us All right harsh Yes, that's a word. I've heard mala. I've heard that word In fact, I think a lot of us are suffering from a little bit of ptsd unpredictable Amazing challenging But uh, I think the overwhelming sentiment here challenging exciting lucrative roller coaster buzzing with activity demanding uncertain amazing This is always a very interesting um Question that went the way in which people answer Do we think it's better than 2020? I think it is You're saying that it's difficult. We hear you. We absolutely agree with you. Let's go into the next Next question Cecilia, it's booming Where are you joining us from Cecilia? We want to come visit you last question in the mentee section If you could change one thing in the south african real estate industry right now What would it be? If you could change one thing in the south african real estate industry right now What would it be? It can be a sentence. You can give us Maybe a few a few words So interesting how The same responses come through EAAB response time productivity from the EAAB the regulator Low ball office Getting rid of poppy EAAB the EAAB Getting rid of the EAAB, which is also very different regulation More stock. Let's scroll down a little bit improvement in the deed's office processing time Alla agente geregistreer de agente Moet Weas All agents must be registered agents. Is that what the comment is saying? I'm not a hundred percent sure Maybe drop it in the chat for me so I can understand more stock You definitely like to see more stock and then Of course something that uh, I think a few people would probably also Ask to have changed is a monthly salary subsidy inequality and lack of transformation This is the second time that's come through since I mean since last year Buyers can only do an offer Once the bank has authorised The approval including credit done so offers are automatically final. Okay, so that's uh one of the industry Um aspects or elements that you would change a sense of urgency from our colleagues at the EAAB More stock and then Cecilia something that we're very very passionate about here at private property Is educating that first time home buyers. Of course, we all know that it's an incredibly daunting biggest purchase of your life So we want to be that brand that's there for the individuals wanting to to get into that market Okay, I think that's it. Okay loyalty from platform that agency used to advertise their property Not allow private sellers to advertise. I hear you we hear you Fatima Um, and then EAAB offers turn around time. Okay, so we're going to leave that there for now Thank you for sharing your comments through And thank you for sharing your your your opinions through with us We're now going to take a five minute break. We'll be back again in five minutes I'm going to suggest that when you do go into this networking break if you switch on your camera You are going to be able to see who else is on the table with you You are also able to move around from table to table And if you look on the right hand side of your screen, you'll be able to see all the different floors that are there I think the last time I checked there was about five different floors So five minutes for networking when we come back We'll have your head smith and we will have a young devil from pay prop And they'll be taking us through some insights for the rental rental market. All right, everyone Enjoy Yeah, I have to agree with you Laura Jean some pumping music in the breaks would be absolutely awesome I fully fully agree. I've had a little bit of coffee. Um, I don't know about you. Are you back at your seat? Let's have a seat. We're back for the second session of our first nexus Of course, this nexus is brought to you in partnership with our Our partner's apsa and also a big thank you to the next speakers that I'll be bringing up now pay prop head of data analytics your head smith And smuts and the CEO of pay prop yandavo will be taking us through the 2020 rental market in the review And what the future holds studio? Let's bring them up in the meantime I'll just ask that they leave their microphones off for now as I continue to introduce them And then I'll hand over to them so they can take us through their their Talk they'll also be giving us a sneak peek at pay prop state of the rental market survey results Before the release next quarter. So we're credibly incredibly privileged To have that from them. Let's bring on pay prop I think both your head and yan are in the room. I saw them saying hello Earlier in the chat. Hello your head always good to see Thanks for having us Awesome. Enjoy guys Okay, so let me share my screen and hope that I can do it correctly, you know, sometimes I'm better with math than technology Um, there we go. I'm hoping that you can see the correct screen Can someone confirm for me whether or not you can see the correct screen, please All right Great guys So, um, I am going to switch off my camera because I want to encourage you to make the presentation full screen Because there will be quite a few graphs um with some details so that you can Do that. Sorry, here we go Okay, so please feel free to Make that one big and then I'm going to switch off my camera for this and then I'll switch back on Once I'm done All right, so as Tracy said, I'll be chatting to you about what happened in the rental market during the year of 2020 Of course, as you can imagine COVID and lockdown played a big role in what we saw in the rental market So I want to chat to you about four things rent firstly and then arrears. I think most of you know that arrears Worse than during the course of the year, but I also have some good news around it Then third we'll look at some credit metrics and then lastly as Tracy said you guys will be the first to see some of the state of the rental industry survey results All right, so looking at rent if we look at national rental growth the red line and Inflation the blue line over the last two years We can see that rental growth trailed below inflation for most of the last year two years And you can also see there at the end of the red line that rental growth actually dipped below the zero line In November what that means is from November 2019 to November 2020 rent actually got a little bit cheaper I know it is only 10 rent, but it's the it's the principle. It's that's that feels so wrong rent should be going up and up But we experienced the first negative rental growth Ever since we launched the paper rental index in 2012 So hopefully in the year to come this will improve a bit, but we don't expect it to shoot the lights out anytime soon So what are the reasons for this? There are two factors. There's a demand side and a supply side So on the demand side affordability obviously plays a big role many tenants lost the income whether that was fully or partially And that obviously affected their ability to afford either higher rents And also large rental increases So because the demand for more expensive properties dropped a bit that Put downward pressure on the prices Then on the supply side, we have two factors affecting rental growth. The first is I think we saw this everywhere But it's I guess in touristy places also quite a lot because no one could travel during lockdown for most of 2020 Many eb and v properties that were on the shorter market said md and those owners Moved into the long-term rental market. So that increased the supply and put downward pressure on price and secondly Is that because of the low interest rate now is a really good time to buy properties especially For investors who wants to buy buy to get properties. So many of them actually bought properties push that into the rental market and that also And affected the supply. So if you have low demand and high supply Both of those contribute to lower prices If we look at this basically the same statistics just on a quarterly level and we add a trend line And you can see what we've already seen over the past two years Rental growth just trended downward for most of the last year And I think it's it's worth noting that even before lockdown even before the second quarter of 2020 Rental growth was already under pressure if you take this graph Like a year or so further backwards Rents were at six seven percent so Like I said, we don't expect this to change anytime soon. I'm not really expecting it to go into negative territory If we look at the quarterly Rental growth, but you can see it is under severe pressure and you can see from 2020's first quarter to second quarter Rental growth literally halved Now let's compare this to the eastern Cape Stats to the national average You can see the eastern Cape is in red. That really depends quite a different picture than the national growth Rental growth rates were trending upward except for the second quarter in 2020 That was the first quarter of lockdown, but then recovered really well In quarter three and actually had the highest year on year rental growth In the last quarter out of all the provinces at 3.9 percent That is significantly higher than what we saw nationally of growth of 0.2 percent If we look at the western Cape, this picture is unfortunately not so rosy garden root You can see there in the last three quarters of 2020. There was actually negative rental growth So again, what that means is this is the year on your figure So the 0.5 percent negative rental growth in quarter four means that from The fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020 Rental became half percent cheaper Luckily the western Cape wasn't the only one with negative rental growth We actually saw five provinces with the negative rental growth during the last quarter of this year So in the very beginning of this graph, you can see the eastern Cape just shooting the lights out at 3.9 percent Even though the eastern Cape is the second cheapest province to rent in the western Cape is still the most expensive even with that those three quarters of negative growth Moving on to arrears. So again, I'll I'll tell you about the national pattern and then we will Compare the provincial stats to this So when we look at arrears, we look at two things We look at the percentage of tenants in arrears and then secondly we look at what is the average arrears Size relative to rent and these two metrics followed slightly different patterns But I'll talk about them in a bit Right. So if we look at the percentage tenants in arrears, we can see that Started the year off quarter one at just below 20 percent and then that first quarter of lockdown That shot up to 25 percent. That means that one in four tenants were actually in arrears Which really isn't great You can see that that has That's recovered significantly back to 20.9 percent So we're still not at a pre-lockdown level But we are at least moving in the right direction Then if we look at the average arrears percentage, this followed a slightly different pattern Started before lockdown started the year out at 78 percent And then peaked in the third quarter in our at 104.6 percent So just over one month's rent was the average arrears size When a tenant was in arrears So if we compare the Eastern Cape stats to this You can see the dark red is the Eastern Cape It followed the same pattern But was the percentage tenants in arrears were higher throughout the year Started the year at 20.9 percent peaked in the second quarter and then ended the year at 22.6 percent So also like the national number not quite where we were before lockdown Now if we look at average arrears size Here are some good news for the Eastern Cape athletes These levels were below the national average also throughout the year Started at 70 percent peaked at just under one month's rent in quarter three And then ended the year at 92 percent So average arrears is a bit more sticky than percentage tenants in arrears Due to people losing their income This might be a bit more sticky so we expect to see a slower recovery than with the number of tenants in arrears Looking at the Western Cape The Western Cape had the lowest percentage of tenants in arrears But also followed the same pattern Started the year at 15 percent and ended at 18 Look at the real sizes in the Western Cape Not quite so good started the year at 68 percent below the national average Peaked at 106 which was more than the national average and also recovered Bit down in the last quarter to 94 percent But that is quite a way of the below 70 that we saw before lockdown So some of the reasons for the terrains that we've seen in arrears Is when lockdown was first announced in March Many tenants because they didn't know if they were Going to get full income They might have stopped paying their rent in full due to that cash flow uncertainty And then when it was announced that everyone could go back to work In June many people again started paying Their rent in full and where possible paid their arrears off Average arrears percentage followed a bit of a different pattern Tenants with lower areas like I just said were able to clear their debt and mathematically if the lower areas Are paid off then the average will shoot up and like I said This remaining arrears are actually a bit sticky If you think about it for this number to actually go down A tenant would have to pay his full rental Plus some more on top of that and that is just not possible for everyone In the current economic climate Moving on to credit matrix So how we determine our credit matrix is we look at all the The credit matrix of the credit checks that were done through our system within a quarter So it doesn't track the pool of tenants. It rather looks at the type of person and Who is actually applying for a rental property? So keep that in mind when you go through these So we look at quite a few metrics and I won't talk about all of them But we look at income the growth of income How many tenants had major delinquencies and that would include notices against your name If you were more than three months in arrears on any account over the last year Any defaults against your name And then debt to income ratio is exactly that. How much of your monthly net income Do you use or do you do you pay on your Servicing your debt Rental income again, what percentage of your net income do you spend on rent every month? Affordability is the sum of those two Disposable income is what you have left after you paid your debt and your rent And the credit score is again Self-explanatory just accredited so you'll see for most of these Throughout the year from quarter one to quarter two many of them actually deteriorated quite a bit I'm thinking here major delinquencies Affordability not really Disposable income was actually not too bad But from the beginning of the year to the end of the year Things didn't actually deteriorate as much as I expected you can even see the credit score the national credit score actually increased a bit Now an interesting one that I just wanted to point out is the debt to income ratio At the beginning of the year On average people spend almost half of their salary of the net salary on debt So that includes yourself and payments and your DSTV and your car That type of thing and then interest rates just dropped By three and a half Percentage points to seven percent and you can see how the data income ratio actually improved during the year So a lot of that is um due to that lower interest rates If we compare the eastern cape, and I'm not going to go I'm not going to talk too much about it. I just want to Show where the eastern cape is compared to The national statistics so income in the eastern cape is a bit lower than national Rental growth in the last quarter was a bit lower There's slightly more Tenants with delinquencies, which isn't great Good news is that the data income ratio is actually a bit lower meaning people spend less of their net income on their debt repayments rent is more less in line On average they have a higher percentage of disposable income But overall looking at the credit score it is a bit lower than the national Moving on to the western cape. There's some good news here again high income levels. I think the highest in the country um a bit slower on the rental growth side But I'm looking at tenants very few or a lot a lot less than than nationally have delinquencies lower debt ratios Higher disposable income and also higher credit scores. So the overall health of tenants in the western cape are a bit better than what we've seen nationally So why did the credit metrics improve and I you know Say that I mean overall if you look at the credit score So there are a few possible reasons. Um, so this isn't necessarily fact or science, but rather educated guests Lower income tenants as we know in the economy were hit harder when it came to job losses And it's possible that those those lower income tenants actually left the rental markets and moved in with family and friends If they could and where they could so over the short term that actually exited the rental market It could also be that tenants are staying longer within their property and not moving into a more expensive property And that could mean that A rental agent might not necessarily do a fresh credit check on this person On the other side Maybe because of lockdown and financial pressures Tenants are a bit more responsible financially. Maybe they paid off some of their debt With all that money that they're not spending on restaurants and booze Like I said, the lower interest rate also had an effect on the debt to income ratio that we could see Um, but I must say was it I was surprised because I thought that because it's such a biased market according to some at the moment That your good tenants would move out of the rental market and buy their own property. Maybe instead of renting But that luckily is not the case. There are still good tenants out there to fill your rental properties Moving on to the fun bit The paper upstate of the rental industry so this We first did this at the end of 2019 You can download those those server results from our website. I'll give you a link in a second And these this survey we sent out again at the end of last year and I put the results together And you can have a sneak peek of this right here today So who took part 95 percent of server respondents actually was in the industry that is to be expected 70 to 69 percent were either a business owner or a rental agent So it gives you an idea of the the viewpoints of which from which these questions were answered and things I was a bit surprised to see that Almost two thirds of respondents managed less than 150 properties. So No extremely large rental books less than 150 overall So we had a few Categories the first one was technology And not surprisingly 55 percent of respondents said that they increased the use of technology In their business during COVID and I mean that with distributed working and working from home was just a necessity and 55 percent of people actually increased the use of technology 70 percent of people said that they believe that virtual viewings and 3d tours are yet to stay And then I think I I do agree with them and there's a lot of great technology out there and that can facilitate these services and then interestingly 69 percent of people said that it is more productive to increase automation Than to increase the workforce. So this to me is an example of work smarter and not harder Moving on to a few rental portfolio questions And again a lot of these are due to COVID but 70 percent said that the rental increases that they put through in 2020 was lower than normal 93 percent of people Have made payments arrangements with tenants during COVID. So that really it was a shockingly high number to me But that just shows you how many tenants were actually affected by loss of income Or even if it's just a household income That took a bit of a knock 93 percent of agents Make payments arrangements with tenants 55 percent of respondents said that they see more vacant properties now than that they had a year ago And this could also be due to the oversupply of rental properties that I mentioned earlier And then lastly 64 percent of respondents said that they lowered their commission in order to keep a landlord So Why is this a problematic number? Because commission is your main income in a rental business and once you've lowered that commission percentage It is very hard to push it back up and I understand that most people do this out of necessity But it is just something to keep in mind how you're going to change going forward Then looking at challenges we looked at current challenges and The challenges that they foresee for the year ahead 51 percent of respondents said that the biggest single biggest Challenge is to find good tenants 68 percent of respondents said that the biggest worry for 2020 Is the ongoing effect of COVID on their rental business Not all bad news though The last question of the survey was how optimistic are you about the future of the rental industry? Only five percent were pessimistic 17 percent were either Were neutral about this and then a whopping 78 percent said that they are optimistic about the future of the rental market Find this again a surprising number because the year before before we even knew that COVID existed This figure was actually 62 percent So maybe we are all thinking about business and life a bit differently, but it is really it's great to see that overall People are still optimistic about the future of the rental market Do you want to know a bit more about what I spoke today? On the rent and areas and credit metrics you can download the annual the rental index at z8onpatre.com forward slash rental index That is the year in review. I'm going to stop sharing and then Over to Yan who will tell you a bit about the future of the rental index. I mean the rental market Thank you Thank you. You're it. Um, can I just make sure I'm not muted doesn't look like it So, uh, good day everybody. It's uh, it's our absolute privilege and uh, and I know to participate in this event I want to thank amasi tracy lee all ben and the rest of the team at private property for affording us this exceptional opportunity now, um Today, I just want to show you some insights and I did not prepare Any power point presentation because I think that should have been titled Death by PowerPoint should I have done that? I actually just want to point you and maybe create an awareness of one or two things that we do need to take cognizance of as state agents I think there might be a little positive news in that And without any further ado, I'm going to tell you That I just want to point out one or two sections of the new property practitioners act that was promulgated or published on 3 october 2019 And then we're going to look at the draft regulations that are not published yet But that could have a significant influence on the business of property practitioners now You may be wondering may be wondering why we all as state agents are still working in accordance with the old act the state agency affairs act of 1976 It's a 45 year old piece of legislation And I think it's overdue for replacement and most of you would probably agree with me As this act dates back to an era before internet digital marketing social media And very importantly from our perspective it dates back to an era before automated and integrated payment service providers such as buy prop Now we must remember that the new act only sets the broad principles Of the new law. It doesn't yet speak about its implementation That is the function of the regulations And we are still awaiting those regulations, but the draft The draft have been published It has been published and we've been waiting we've been commenting on it and The period for comments was extended to 20 November of last year And now we wait now. We don't know exactly when these new regulations are going to bring the new property practitioners act into operation But we do know it is going to happen probably or very likely In terms of the last draft that we've seen Now if I can now Share my screen. I'm going to start with referring you to the act That's the property practitioners act and I want to start at section 54 which is basically the a repeat of What we know as section 32 in terms of the estate agency affairs act I can see my screen. I hope you can all do that too See that too So if we if we consider section 54 and This is just on my screen. So I'm going to scroll around trying not to make me a seasick But if we consider the contents of section 54 of the property practitioners act You will see there. It is still all the All the must-do's for estate agents and it starts off saying that every property practitioner must open and keep one or more separate trust account It carries on to say that you must appoint an auditor and then you must notify the authority That's the new name for the estate agency affairs board of who your auditors are And then it carries on and it tells you exactly what the intention of the law is When we talk of trust monies client monies in section five or subsection five of section 54 Gives you all the musts and then we can go through these different languages used here And this is pretty very similar pretty much Similar to what you know Under section 32 but what is new and what I just want to point out to you as I don't think that Any of the other commentators on the subject that have really focused on it I want to point I want to show you the contents of section 23 I want to point you towards it because I think it could be good news for some of you And it's really important for some of you to take cognizance of it I mean I can find this I'm going to 23 27 So I hope you're not seasick by now yet 25 And now we need to get to the English there I'm going to take it to the top of the screen. I hope you can all see it Section 23 of the property practitioners act deals with exemptions in respect of accounting records and trust accounts And it stated there that a property practitioner whose turnover is below 2.5 million grand Must force his or county records to be subjected to an independent review by a registered accountant Subject to certain provisions and the minister may by notice in the government Determine the circumstances under which certain property practitioners may be exempted from keeping trust accounts And determine a different dispensation For the review of accounting records for those property practitioners So the good news here and since the South African property market is so fragmented There are many agencies with a turnover below 2.5 million grand And there are many startups newcomers So the intention of this legislation is that they may under certain Circumstances be an exemption for you to keep accounting record Firstly to have trust accounts and secondly to have those audited. This will have significant cost advantages to those small property practitioners or state agencies and now we need to understand more about that now This section 23 explains the intention of the act It doesn't say how it's going to be implemented and that's why it's important that you now start tracking the cognizance of the regulations as I say, this is not final these are drafts but when we consider Section four of the draft regulations of 2020 that will soon be enacted It deals with the details of exemption from trust accounts Now pursuant to the provisions of section 23 that I've just pointed to show to you A property practitioner is exempted from keeping a trust account If he's and then there are certain conditions certain circumstances And then it deals with it in detail. I don't want to read it all to you It will be definitely there by a power point. But what I do want to point out very specifically Is section 4.4 of the draft regulations So exemptions are subject to certain things. You don't keep you haven't kept monies You say that you won't be keeping monies. You are below certain thresholds and very importantly, you are otherwise compliant Then you may apply for you can apply for exemption. There's a pre-scrub procedure and attached to these regulations There are certain examples if I scroll up It's an affidavit that you can do and that will then accompany your application for exemption but Section 4.4 says that a property practitioner will be exempted from operating a trust account regardless of your turnover If such property practitioner is otherwise compliant With the provisions of this regulation and then certain other Subconditions Now the contents of section 4.4 is very important to property practitioners that utilize systems or payment service providers such as pay prop because it says there in 4.4.1 That you can be exempted if you are otherwise compliant and You as the estate agency has Mandated one or more other property practitioners that specialize in collecting and distributing trust payments those entities like by prop will be called payment processing agents Then if if you are otherwise compliant, you don't use your own trust money If you use an accredited payment processing agent and meet other criteria, you can be exempted When we look at the details of this Firstly, it's important to understand that your payment processor or payment processing agency Must also be a property practitioner That is compliant with all these applicable legislation and regulations that property Processing agent like by prop Must operate a trust environment that complies with these acts like by prop has been doing And it is important to notice here that it is a trust environment In which if we look at 4.4.3 Each and every client of of the by prop the paper the Processing agent must have secretly audible client accounts both in respect of Each estate agency to whom it provides a service and in respect of each client of the estate agency in other words each landlord and each tenant Now the trust environment with all these segregated trust funds is what is required for you to apply for exemption under this regulation and then 4.4.4 the trust environment and each of the client accounts Operated by the payment processing agent your pay prop or audited annually in compliance with the act and the regulation so Just a heads up. As I say, I'm not trying to give you legal advice I'm merely trying to show you what is in the regulations already and I think the good news is that estate agencies or going forward what we refer to as as what will be referred to as property practitioners Will be able to apply for exemption from keeping trust accounts subject to certain conditions Secondly paying for audits Because a duly authorized recognized payment processor like by prop Can assist you with all these audit requirements. There must be a trust environment where everything is date stamped With crop of audit trails, etc. So I think the intention has been underpinned by the minister or the legislator in these draft regulations And although we don't know exactly what the future holds in terms of when it's going to be in operation I think It's safe to say that probably within the next couple of months You will be able to apply for exemption You will be able to save a fortune on on audit costs because An independent auditor will simply have to review your books once you have complied With these regulations Once again when exactly it's going to be an operation We don't know but I think we think it is important that you take cognizance Seek legal advice see whether you can apply for this paper up has been Compliant with all these provisions For the last 16 years We're confident that our Clients will benefit greatly great cost saving opportunities And obviously something to look into now that we're also almost the we're almost at the first anniversary of covid It's been 353 days So this environment that will save you money save you time is important to to consider I see i've got a question will the EAA be renamed as we are now property practitioners versus estate agents indeed Uh, it will be an authority of some sorts like the fsb name is changed to the financial conduct financial services conduct authority The EAAB will have a new name That will have a different function. It will have different structures. There will be ombudsman So yes, uh, when the draft regulations are finalized all of this will be brought into operation And those of you who do not wish to operate Trust funds and have audits and all the stresses and costs around that Please have a look at uh section 54 Section 23 and regulation 4 more specifically 4.4 Back to you. Thank you tracy lee Unless they offer the questions I think um, we are really up against the time here But i'm really grateful that your head is still in the chat and she is answering questions directly Um, I think you've already answered the question in the q&a will the a ea be be renamed. So thank you for that Jan, thank you so much. Thank you to pay prop for agreeing to to come and uh and join us today And we obviously look forward to hosting a few more of these events over the next four days. Have a lovely day Thank you tracy lee A pleasure. I love when people say my full name Tracy lee All right, so I think for we we we are a little bit running out of time But what an incredibly informative session. Do you agree with me? Was that Something that that really is going to make you think Really, just thank you to yan for for pointing out those sections in the act It I think it just deepens our conversation. It's very very informative And I almost feel like we need a session just on the act itself And and maybe where we can entertain some of these questions that are coming through as well But um without further ado, I'm going to ask you to give us a little bit more of your time Yes, Sharon. I agree. Thank you to yan for pointing out the different sections under the act Absolutely It's completely completely going to help us if you want us to do another session Just on that let us know in the chat box But without further ado, I'd like to welcome on to the stage private properties business development executive Carl van den Berg And he's going to give us a glimpse into what private properties brand is going to potentially What the future holds for the brand as well as what true partnership with the industry is going to look like Going forward. Let me ask Carl to join us on the stage. Give me a thumbs up if you're still in the room I can see 96 of us are still here Hello, Carl. How are you my best? Sorry, how are you doing my whole name say my whole name Carl take it away and afterward if there any more questions I think we just have a final minty to do But we should be we should be over in in a very short while. Thank you Carl Thank you so much guys and thank you to to everybody in the private property extended family for joining us today It's it's an absolute privilege to be able to spend some time with you You know, we we prefer to be in the physical world But this is is the next best option a big thank you to to John from absa for his insights as well as young And your head from from pay profits Again, it's just such a great privilege that we get to be able to share some of the information that we have As private property and with our partners So really today, I'm just going to talk and you know, I see that the time is running out. So I really just want to talk through You know where private property is and where we're going What are the digital trends and and what it is that you can expect out of private property? And then Celeste will come and join us on to the stage. Celeste is our provincial head Uh for kzd and garden roots the Eastern Cape and Free State and she'll start giving you some really good insights In terms of what we see from a property portal around what's happening in your specific areas So really, let's just start you know, who is who is part of property? Well, we choose to be the trusted partner in Real estate and we talk about a property ecosystem and we truly are in the center of this property ecosystem What's on either side of us? We've got two sides really and one is the consumer We refer to the consumer as people that are shopping for properties people that are buying and really intent on around buying What we've got in the on the right hand side is yourself, which we would refer to as clients or partners Now it seems quite easy to say that we choose to be in the center of us and we choose to be the trusted partner But the reality is it's really really difficult. It's quite a bit of a balancing act And let me explain why So if we choose to be not in the center and a little bit more Curcier line, let's say to ourselves if you decide the agents We then run the risk of alienating our consumers and it's 57 million people in this country There's a whole lot of people that are interested in buying property To run the risk then if we listen to one side of the field We run the risk of losing the consumers does the millions and millions and millions of people that are on power properties portal every month Looking at your properties What happens then is they vote for their feet and they go elsewhere If we also if we go a little bit too much to the consumer side We've got 57 million people that are very very happy But our clients who we hold near and dear to our heart which is yourselves Then we get alienated you guys So it's a lot easier to say we choose to be in the center of the ecosystem We do choose we understand our role in this but it is a bit of a balancing act Just in terms of you know, how does that we become this trusted partner? The one is really to be completely obsessed around what our clients and our consumers are needing And if Around what both sides of this world want it's a lot easier for us to be able to solve these real problems And that's what we Is no longer a case of you know, just being a marketing arm really and just showing off properties We need to solve real world problems for both our clients yourselves As well as consumers that are wanting to purchase property The only way to really do that nowadays is through digital and through technologies And I spend a little bit of time talking about that just now If you get these first two right again Then got the opportunity to create valuable propositions and that value proposition Really talks around linking the buyer to the the agent or to the property as such So this is how it is that we're choosing to do it Where are we going? We've got a five year strategy I'll talk a little bit about it now But our ultimate goal in the next couple years is to have five million unique years coming onto our property portal every single month And viewing your properties Some things around where we are now we are now averaging 3.2 million unique years every single month coming on Which is double what we were doing in 2019. So it's things on moving I know we've had a lot of conversations with real estate agents and and principals in the life And everybody is saying to us that it's tangible. They can see the difference There is absolute value that public property is giving to our clients. So that's really really good news In terms of our five year strategy You know, we saw it in and sort of the back end of 2019 really preparing and really thinking around what it is That we wanted to do last year was our foundation year And we did some really really amazing things one was we rebranded if anybody noticed we look not only look Consistently different, but we also act very very differently. We engage with our consumers quite differently to what you've seen in the past This year for private property is the watershed moment This is our year of innovation and I'll pack it and pack it a little bit more just now And then we're going to reposition optimization and end scale It is all about scale that needs to be the the real end goal because in its value for everybody Once we're dealing with more than five million people in maintenance We've got the market share that we're watching out of out of our clients You know, as I mentioned just now that's probably property looks considerably different I don't even remember looking that blue and red anymore. I only see us as green Our CS is a very very different organization And I'm hoping and put it into the comments there, but I completely feel that we've seen as a very very different entity It's not just how we look. It's how we act as well. That's really really important So I think the the gist of the conversation was really around Digital technology and we're a digital business and that's that's a good thing for all of us So we talk around, you know, are we evolving around Proptech and fintech or is it a revolution? So We need to understand what is an evolution? What is a revolution and I'll stick to just digital stuff An evolution would be something like Moore's Law So Moore's Law spoke around how quickly processing on computers could could essentially evolve So the Moore's Law speaks around the processing power of a market ship Doubling every two years. So if you look at that in a short amount of time So if you look over a five-year period, that is a significant change and you would see it as a revolution in digital technology But Moore's Law has been around since the 1970s. So if you pat it out over a long graph these gradual changes That's really an evolution of technology. What's an example of revolution? Well a year ago today, none of us heard of RIMO, none of us used Teams, none of us had Zoom We have been forced into an even a complete revolution of our technology and it's come with its pain It's come with its understanding, but it really has been an amazing journey over the last year We worked very very differently. We used to have beautiful offices and I'm slunger and Durban with 180 degrees C views On our work from home and I'm praying that none of my kids come running through the house and disrupt this meeting But this is our last night. So really that's the difference between an evolution and a revolution If we have a look at how consumers have changed as well There's a significant change around how people Shop for property and how people buy property and we got to know this we need to understand that this has changed So we saw us saw in one of the the previous. I think it was your head's a slide Your head spoke around, you know, how consumers are Engaging with virtual reality and metaphor to the rest of it. That's absolutely one element Consumers are now spending a considerable more time Researching at property before making contact with an agent. Now, that's a good thing because I know a life of an agent is incredibly tough You list a property and next thing you get 500 leads You need to stop being able to understand and decipher what is a quality lead And what is not so essentially what separates the buyers from the shoppers And that's really the the the role that public property has to make going forward Another concept I wanted to make around digital technology is we always use this word around it's destructive You know, we're going to be the destructor in the industry Um, and I think over the years it's become sort of quite a negative connotation, right? So people see destructive or um being a destructor in pop tech as cutting out the real estate agent or doing this That fundamentally changes how we do it Powered property and myself we've got a very very different way around it You are seeing around one of my earlier slides around working with our consumers coming up with value propositions that that benefit all And to us is digital. It's how do we Create solutions for your daily problems as real estate agents as well as for clients So disruption is not should not always be seen as a negative thing We see it as a very very positive thing because it creates efficiency Just in terms of I mentioned 2021 is the power property zero of technology Absolutely, you're going to be seeing in the next couple months And probably halfway through the year. We're going to be making some fundamental changes to this business We started working on this well into halfway through last year. So we're really are very very far down the road And essentially without giving too much and we'll share a lot of information when we get a lot closer to Well a much better world machine around both a consumer engagement as well as a client side So again consumers the shoppers the clients as yourselves So what we want is we want a consumer to be able to come onto our Portal and thoroughly enjoy the experience have ease of being able to find information Have ease around being able to find the properties that that suit their exact criteria And from a client perspective you wanting to know what value is power property getting what are the what are the new Products what are the new services? How can you get information? How do you know what your market share is in the area and that's what we're going to start building So about halfway through the year you see a fundamental difference and again, how does that power property Interacts in this ecosystem um And then just we talk around humanizing the digital strategy So it's really really awesome to have this end-to-end digital experience But the reality is it's specifically for sci-africans. It's cold and it's hot We know this we know that buying a property in this country is highly emotive. We know it's highly complex We fully understand that consumers wanting to have a human being there and that's you guys And that really is what it is that we're wanting to achieve over the next year or two It's not about this intermediating real estate. It is about bringing a real estate agent a lot closer I saw earlier on there was a comment there that spoke around I think it was you know that a buyer shouldn't be able to enter into an agreement or sign off to purchase without having a bank ARP That's exactly what it was that we wanted to be able to do and that's what our portal is going to start being able to do to you Is to be able to hand a client over to you that has really got a pre-run principle from absa that we've told you This is what market they're looking at buying in the exact area the exact price range three bathrooms 2.5 trillion and that's the digital strength that we need to bring to the fold And we thoroughly enjoying the starting on this journey And again, we'll work really really closely with all of our clients and our partners around how it is that we we do this That creates efficiencies that we want I think i'm going to stop it there There's a couple slides that I want to speak to but we are running out of time So I think it's really really important that we bring celestine. I think there'll be time for q and a's I'll read here on the chats if there are some questions I'll see there's a couple we'll see if we can answer them at the end I think now's a really good time to bring celestine to the stage and let us share some of the information that we have behind your specific areas Thanks Tracy Thank you. Thank you Carl In the meantime, if you could look at the chat and uh, I'll bring you on at the end after celest There are a couple of questions That bridge it's asking there's a few questions that Sharon is saying ditto to So specifically look at those and there's another question that Bridget asked which is It sounds like we're competing for the same consumer perhaps Carl gives give it some thought and then after celest I'll bring you back on just to give us your responses celest looking beautiful as always answers Thank you. Thank you for your time Thank you. Thank you. Tracy. Thank you. Carl um for that segue into the performance overview for the garden roots in and eastern Cape Good morning everybody It is so exciting for for us to be able to reconnect feeling a little bit Oscillated out here in in quasulunital I have to say i'm a little bit jealous when listening to the fresh Rainy whether that some of you are experiencing we are experiencing tropical heat here in dobes But yeah, so so welcome to everyone I am going to switch my camera off for the duration of my presentation purely because there are some graphs And I want you to be able to see them, but I'll be back. I promise Awesome Okay, so Let's take a look at the sales performance for the eastern Cape. I have split The the data up to to showcase both the eastern Cape and the garden roots separately So bear with me. I will go through the eastern Cape first and then we'll move over to to the garden roots So what has been happening in the sales performance space in terms of the listings for the eastern Cape Year in year we have seen a steady growth in terms of listing counts However, results for the period january and february 2021 against the previous years for the same period Um has shown a little bit of a decline in terms of the listing counts Now, this is not overly concerning for us because it is a trend that we are seeing across the board on a national level Despite this decline Views and leads have continued to grow Um and have improved for the period 2021 2020 that january february's time frame About 13 and 2 respectively, which is quite encouraging Now when we we take a look at the rental results for the eastern Cape Sorry next slide esti Thank you. Um, we've seen a steady increase Again, if we take a listen to what uh, you For those for that listing counts However, um, the leads and views have dropped by 25 7 and 25 respectively Um, which is somewhat indicative of the market as he's as you had mentioned earlier. Sorry with regards to supply and demand and also The various adjustments that have taken place In in the market with covet and and the impact of it Okay, so if we take a look at The where people are looking where are people searching from a sales or buy perspective in the eastern Cape I think it comes at no surprise. It's some of the suburbs listed I know dion mentioned semi semi-gration Some of the places listed like jeffrey's bay in st france's are typical destinations in the semi-gration movements With consumers being able to choose more freely Where they do work and life so Interesting information that we've gleaned from this it would be if we had more time I'd love to spend time actually unpacking each of these pockets um But yeah, certainly some information interesting information moving on to the rentals top searched suburbs in the eastern Cape Again, whether you are buying or selling who wouldn't want to be closer to the ocean and the wide open spaces And it's again perfect for the work life balance And then if we take a look at the median listing prices from a sales and rentals perspective for the eastern Cape We see that the median listing prices for both Sales and rentals are tracking below The national average in general or the national median. Sorry We have noted a nominal decline in listing prices year on year again in that january february time frame for 2020 against 2021 against 2020 um With a slight drop of five percent for sales and 20 and 21 percent for rentals now remember This is the listing price. So it's not your actual sale price or your actual lease price It is what the property is listed for um rentals have been most notable and this could be in response to a lower demand for rental properties and um A rate sizing on the parts of landlords owed to greater demand to to for for the clients to buy and possibly In response to the household budgets adjustments from the part of the consumer or the or the tenants if we take a look Now moving on to the garden route Um, we've seen similar to the eastern Cape. We've seen some growth in terms of views and leads. In fact um substantially better growth in terms of views and leads from From a garden route perspective Even despite a drop of 10 percent in listing counts That we've experienced in in the beginning of of the of 2021 Despite the drop in listings you can we can all agree that the the The response from the consumers in terms of views and leads has been dramatic Moving on to rentals, much like the rest of the country Um The views and leads have dropped Um interestingly the the the views for the for the 2021 2020 period of january and february has stayed The same um, however, just like the rest of the country or just like the eastern Cape. We have seen a drop in um leads looking at the the Uh top searched properties in the garden routes again The garden routes is no stranger to immigration and it appears for this region. Um, it is still growing strong Um owed to people adjusting to the new way of doing life in business This is also true for rentals. Um with the rentals focused more. It looks like on on this on the central george area um And with clients moving more out of the central uh town area in terms of um investment for buying Okay Right Then if we have a look at the median listing price Both for for rentals and sales for the garden routes It is interesting to note that unlike most other parts The garden routes has been tracking above the national average in terms of sales median listing price We've seen a six percent increase in the the Sales listing price again for that period january february 2020 against january february 2021 and We have seen a 19 percent increase in the rental listing price um bringing that Even though current even though it's been tracking slightly below the national average It's starting to come in line and um exceeding the national average um Moving into february and march 2021 Thank you hasty what I just want to express is the the The information that we've shared with you today is very general for the garden routes and the eastern cape What we would really love is an opportunity to set up some time with you in your area of specialization Or within your specific geography where you specialize and we would love to unpack The statistics or the data that we have gleaned for your specific area with you Um and on behalf of my team and myself I just want to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you because we would not have been able to Achieve these results without your support. So thank you and stay safe Very thank you very much Celeste, please stay on the stage along with Carl Carl there was two or three questions maybe Sort of in conclusion some of your thoughts I know the studio have informed me that other questions have been answered by your head and yan directly So we don't have to go back to those very first sets of questions But but Carl while I still have you perhaps you can just give us a response to those two or three questions that were asked in the general chat Yeah, I'll see here from Bridget What is park property doing in order to have more of the market share we even come close to our competitor Sorry, we don't say their name As if he's off shooting up the roof To also benefit us agents and mocked our listings better. So Without giving too much away We clearly have a strategy and the first portion of that strategy has been working really really well So besides what Celeste shared there with her boss We talk about we're struggling to get 1.2 million consumers onto our portal every month Only two years ago. We're now doing 3.2 So some of the strategies that we're doing has been really really effective on some of our ICO and SOE stuff Another portion that that was working incredibly well will be working incredibly well for us is when we don't watch that platform And this is really what it's about. It's about choice Consumers need to choose a brand and how do they choose a brand? They choose it because it resonates with them They choose it because it means something to them They choose it because it makes everything that they need is is answered And and that's what we are providing a way of an example. We have almost 700,000 people on our social media pages that is Staggeringly big compared to any one of our competitors and we use that really really well to start promoting the information and the knowledge that we have another example we We do We put properties onto our facebook page and we'll randomly choose a whole bunch of properties in that area We essentially every time we do that we're getting 15 and on average 15 thousands Impressions for just in your facebook ad We get a show house there with our own chat You're 500,000 people who have said video now that talks to you how does that we share for the consumers that the consumer chooses public property There's a whole bunch of other strategies which I can't make public But it really is around making sure that the consumer makes the right of the choice and let's see to view this Thank you so much No, that's it call. I think that's that's enough from from our side. I just wanted to Thank everyone for being here. So I'm gonna let you get in the limo both Carl and Celeste Maybe you guys can Share the ride home Thank you Thank you Celeste. Thank you Carl. Fantastic Thank you everyone. We have absolutely come to the end of our show today or of our conversation today Huge. Thank you to absurd bank and pay prop for sharing their knowledge with us Especially thank you to yan for those comments right at the end there I'm sure many of you may have been listening with half an ear But when he spoke about those sections, you must have, you know, your ears must have propped up Because wow, what what great insights remember you can get your 1.5 one and a half non verifiable cpd points from isa Follow the link that is being pasted in the chat right now and I think maybe if I can just hear from you guys whether you've Enjoyed your time with us today Just in the chat. Can you drop a thumbs up or a well done or a thank you or a Green heart which would even be better. Then I know we've done our work today. Thank you shaman. Thank you for that Thank you so much at the start I did say that we are going to acknowledge the most the best question and the person who have actually Engaged with us the most So we now have The best question i'm going to give that prize to marilane phyllis marilane, thank you for that question Um Our team will reach out to you between ben and trish and the rest of the private property marketing team will reach out to you marilane And we will give you your prize and then the person who engaged absolutely engaged the most how amazing is technology like we can tell Immediately who's been the most engaged and the person who's been most engaged and asked Literally the most questions and drop the most heart is anamary, but it's anamary that Without her surname So there's an anamary yansifan firan and then there's an anamary without the surname Can you please stay on the line and have a chat with ben? And then ben will be able to Let you yes anamary. That is you we got you there. All right everyone I just wanted to say thank you again to our partners pay prop Thank you so much to our partners apsa and the teams that have connected from all across the country all across the world um I don't know if you know this but we have a weekly newsletter That we send out to the industry where we share property news and trends tips and tricks As well as important business updates and initiatives from private property We also share popular articles from our agent connect facebook page And we ask you to then repost and share on your own networks drop us a green heart in the comments If you're subscribed to the newsletter if you're not Don't worry ben will drop the link in there and you're able to then Subscribe to the newsletter the session for today. This morning session is now over We're not going to close the event yet If you if you look next to the live button, you'll see event is ending in 11 minutes what we'll do is we'll keep the event open for the next 11 minutes And guys, please have a chat with each other discuss some of those insights and hopefully we'll see you again Very very soon. All right. That's that's a wrap from me. Thank you so much to everyone. Thanks to the studio You're hitting everyone else. I wish you a wonderful wonderful rest of your day. Thank you for lean. Thank you everyone. Bye