The IOLProperty Portal - one of the the longest established property portals in South Africa and ranked number 3 in the country - has for the second year in a row not increased its price to users.
This decision was taken by the board recently as a way to assist the industry hard hit by the pandemic, and is in stark contrast to other portals who have, in some instances, had increases of up to 8 percent this year.
The portal’s general manager Carolyn Savage says: “To increase our fees when the industry is still feeling the effects of the 2020 hard lockdown would have been punitive and created an even worse knock-on effect than what the pandemic has already caused.
“We have chosen to rather work together with agencies, many of whom continue to support us through these trying months, and to this end have not implemented an annual mandatory increase.
“We have made sacrifices internally and the team together with our shareholders are committed to long-term growth with our partners.”
IOLProperty in 2018 joined with Property360 - a property-focused editorial unit.
The editorial team is "connected and passionate about real estate and we continue to lead the South African property conversation”, says the editorial editor Vivian Warby.
"The content side, with its highly engaged and informed consumers, supports the sales team by connecting advertisers with these consumers right across the buying and/or renting cycle,” says Warby.
Savage says the portal remains the only portal in the country that charges a single flat fee, regardless of the number of listings, number of leads generated or agents the agency has.
Leigh Auret, senior relationship manager, says the Portal is a vital part of clients’ online advertising offering for their sellers.
“When clients subscribe to the portal they get advertising exposure on their listings and broaden their target audience for their sellers.”
Savage says over the 13 years since it was established - the organic traffic, highest audience reach and google ranking from their parent site IOL has also helped make it resilient in these tough times.
Auret explains the Portal's offerings further:
• We include the agency's branding (their logo) on every listing - free of charge - this branding is normally charged for with other portals.
• In addition we include special features to boost the agents listing exposure.
Other extras included in a client’s monthly subscription include:
* 2 Featured listings per month
* Unlimited uploads of videos (you-tube enabled URL)
* Unlimited access to our showhouse facility (Subscribers are notified of upcoming showhouses each Friday)
“They get all of this for an agency price ofonly R595pm excl VAT. Agents also have full access to our back-end in order to pull leads/stats etc at their convenience.”
Savage says they are committed to working with and assisting the property industry
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Leigh Auret - 074 991 3373 or email [email protected]