What started out as a simple solution to better connect property professionals, has now grown into a fully-fledged mission to enhance the experience of the commercial property sector.
Traditionally, property brokers have had access to vacant properties through their direct landlord networks or through notoriously dissimilar vacancy schedules which are routinely distributed and potentially outdated.
“As a commercial property broker, I noticed that there was an industry-wide issue with the way in which property brokers had access to vacant stock” says VacancyPro co-founder, Christian Papst. “It was clear that a foundational rethink was required in the way that property brokers source properties, that the bulk of the offering had to be at no cost and with the added security of each broker being vetted before gaining access,” he adds.
Now, property brokers are able to conveniently search for properties from all landlords through VacancyPro’s intuitive portal.
“By grouping the vacancy schedules, property brokers receive a list of the exact properties they have searched for, instead of sifting through multiple schedules. This means quicker and efficient service, happier clients, and more closed deals” notes Christian.
For landlords, this places their properties directly in the hands of VacancyPro’s property broker network, maximizing exposure and increasing their chances of securing tenants.
While VacancyPro has continuously updated its platform to ensure a fast response turnaround, it has recently undergone a complete redevelopment from the ground up.
Compiling key features and requests, VacancyPro has factored in additional elements to create a substantially better user experience such as the long-awaited inclusion of property images, advanced radius map searching capabilities as well as saved search property notifications.
Landlords are not excluded; they are now able to upload and to regularly manage their properties via the platform too, giving property brokers instant access to up-to-date information.
“Another significant advantage of combining property schedules includes the ability to view the information in a much more universal way”, says Rhys Llewellyn, co-founder of VacancyPro.
“By collating property information on a broader scale, we are able to analyze and to discern new and unique industry-wide statistics and trends that add substantial value to landlords and other stakeholders by providing them with powerful information to reinforce their decision making”.
So where to from here? Onwards and upwards says VacancyPro.
Since its inception in 2019, the platform has gained solid traction in the Western Cape, giving rise to demand from other provinces which will be going live in the coming months.
