The property market has entered a digital era, transforming how buyers, tenants, and sellers interact with real estate. Gone are the days of browsing newspaper listings—today, online platforms allow users to search, compare, and connect seamlessly.
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Proptech tools empower sellers to manage enquiries, track demand, and optimise listings, while innovative ownership models like fractional and co-buying make property more accessible than ever.
The digital progress has not been limited to the “front end” of the market either. Much of the work that happens after a property is bought, rented or built is now done virtually. Digital platforms now handle rent payments, arrears, maintenance requests, contractor appointments and access control.
Energy use, water consumption and other operating costs can be tracked in real time, across a building. Developers are modelling projects using current data rather than historic averages.
Yet, when ownership must change hands, property transfers require deeds to be drafted in a legally prescribed format, signed by hand in wet ink and lodged in person at the Deeds Office. And, if the property sits in a trust or a deceased estate, the process stalls again until the Master’s Office issues the required authority.
New ways to own property
With new ownership models emerging, which aim to broaden ownership, fractional models, co-buying platforms and shared-equity structures are opening the door to people, especially younger buyers, who do not easily meet the traditional financial thresholds for entry. Many of them want exposure to property but cannot take on the full cost of owning an entire asset.
For example, a fractional model might involve 10 investors buying defined shares in a commercial unit or a rental apartment. Each investor owns a percentage of the property, earns an equivalent share of the rental income and carries a proportionate share of costs. If one investor wants to exit, they sell only their share, not the entire property.
From a legal perspective, South African law already recognises this concept through the registration of undivided shares. Section 17 and 26 of the Deeds Registries Act 47 of 1937 (DRA) permits land to be registered in the names of two or more persons in undivided shares, and ownership is only affected once registration has taken place in the Deeds Office in accordance with section 16.
Section 56 further allows a mortgage bond to be registered over an undivided share in land, meaning that a co-owner may independently encumber their fractional interest.
If that investor wants to borrow against their share, the bank must be able to register a bond over that fractional interest in a way that is recognised in law. Without a legally enforceable structure that supports this type of ownership, the model falls apart the moment someone tries to raise finance.
Legal digital integration
But fractional ownership is not simply about divided equity. It involves ongoing responsibilities, voting rights, exit pathways and dispute processes. Another arises when the underlying property is held in a trust or forms part of an estate. In those cases, the conveyancer cannot move forward until the Master’s Office has issued the necessary authority.
A digital interface still needs to be legally sound. Blockchain records and smart contracts are sometimes suggested as a solution. While they can improve transparency and automate certain tasks, ownership cannot be transferred through them because a compliant deed must be lodged and registered.
Inside the buildings themselves, the switch to digital has been much smoother and quicker. Screening tools are standard, leases are generated automatically, and maintenance logs update in real time.
Property professionals now have greater visibility of their portfolios: screening tools support more consistent tenant assessments, standardised leases reduce room for error, and maintenance issues are logged and tracked automatically rather than disappearing into paperwork. AI is beginning to play a role too, sifting through large volumes of documents in seconds and drawing attention to what actually needs reviewing.
With such information at hand, proptech firms and property owners now sit with large quantities of personal and financial information and need to comply in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia), which dictates how that information must be collected, secured and shared, especially for organisations that use cloud services, analytics or outside platforms.
If information is not handled lawfully, records may be questioned, decisions may be challenged, and there may be regulatory consequences.
Where transactions stall
While the DRA provides the legal foundation for the registration and enforcement of rights in immovable property, the practical operation of the Deeds Office has not yet kept pace with technological developments. As a result, registration processes remain largely manual, document-driven and dependent on physical execution and lodgement. Deeds must still be prepared in the format required by the relevant deeds registries for successful registration.
The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act (ECTA) allows electronic signatures for most commercial transactions. Courts have upheld e-signatures for cancellations, financial agreements and even suretyships. But ECTA cannot override statutes that require specific execution formalities or physical documents. Transfers of immovable property, mortgage bonds, notarial deeds and several instruments associated with estates and trusts remain outside its reach.
Many proptech companies seek legal advice only once they have launched and discover that compliance issues have cropped up. By that stage, it is difficult, sometimes impossible, to adjust the model because these platforms touch ownership, payments, personal data, automated decisions and, in several cases, activities regulated by the Property Practitioners Act. None of these can be retrofitted easily.
A digital workflow must be designed with an understanding of where statutory processes take over, how rights will be enforced, what happens if the system fails and where accountability sits for data and algorithms.
Legal input at the design stage is not intended to delay a process; it allows these models to withstand scrutiny from lenders, institutional investors and regulators. Technology may draw users in, but legal certainty keeps the system working.
Closing the gap
Proptech has changed how we find, manage and understand property. But its next phase requires modernisation.
Until deeds registration and related statutory processes are modernised, the property sector will continue to operate on two systems: one fast and flexible, the other slow but fundamental.
The industry can keep improving the digital tools that make buying, selling and managing property easier. But deals still live or die in the Deeds Office. Until that system is modernised, proptech will always be running with one foot on the brake.
