In a very significant way, the disruptive impact of technology is gaining traction in real estate where it is not only simplifying transaction and acquisition processes, but also empowering professional agents.
At the forefront of efforts at its deployment to make the real estate sector in Nigeria more investable and increase liquidity to drive greater home ownership is a relatively young company called Zama.
Zama is a real estate company driven by technology to empower consumers with data, inspiration and knowledge around the place they live and work. It is out to connect real estate products consumers with professionals that can help them.
The company is a market inventor and pioneer of property technology (Proptech) which is a collective term used to define startups offering technologically innovative products or new business models for the real estate market. Because of Proptech, the market is already experiencing a wave of innovation, investment and entrepreneurial activity.
“Proptech is slowly gaining momentum in developed markets, and we feel a developing market like Nigeria can learn and re-calibrate itself for seasoned investors,” Abdulhakeem Sadiq, Proptech pioneer, founder and CEO of Zama, said in Lagos at a partnership agreement with Landwey Investment Limited.
Sadiq believes that the increasing role and use of Proptech is a boon for the regional real estate sector, adding that having spent years in research and development to refine the residential and commercial focused platform, their multi-phase tech solution has the potential to enhance and shape the Nigerian industry drastically.
“We are excited to partner with Landwey; it is clear that industry professionals in Nigeria are looking for new affordable and efficient solutions to attract and retain clients. With Zama, we’re putting the power in the hands of professional agents using technology to offer real estate solutions.
Landwey has proven track record in transacting in the local market and are growing to launch fantastic development projects in the coming months. Our partnership is driven by a mutual desire to simplify the home buying process and empower brokers with tools that can help them work smarter,” he said.
Through this strategic partnership with Zama, all Landwey agents and brokers will benefit from a data driven platform that empowers them with data and inspiration to advise clients and market their portfolios in a more professional manner. The platform can further help guarantee listing exclusivity and a more efficient system of interconnecting agents with geo-tagged properties and investors.
Olawale Ayilara, Landwey’s CEO, also explained that the partnership would advance the activities of the company and the industry landscape in Nigeria, saying that it would resolve the transparency issues in offline property transactions.
Ayilara sees technology as the future of real estate business in Nigeria. “The best way to attain transparency is to go online. Buyers won’t opt to buy what they have not seen,” he said.
He assured that through the platform buyers could ascertain the credibility of what they want even before buying. “There are many tools that would be used in the platform and one of them is Google and platform that could vet the agents before the property is listed,” he assured further.
Sadiq said that their product was designed as a one-stop platform to bring cohesion to the market. He said further that the product was an example of how tech-savvy African entrepreneurs and experts were harnessing global smarts, tech and efficiencies to create lucrative opportunities by solving historical economic challenges.
“Our market has its peculiar problems and introducing a process-driven technology would greatly enhance the validity of property valuation, for instance, or even in the process of finding a reputable agent to work with to help sell and buy properties,” he said.
