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- OneDayOnly partnered with the Rawson Developers to sell a Cape Town apartment on the online retailer's e-commerce platform.
- The property was discounted by some R255 000 and OneDayOnly says more deals may be coming up over the next few days.
- The fact that the real estate company has partnered with an e-commerce player to market some of its properties shows just how creative the property sector has needed to be to move stock.
Online retailer, OneDayOnly has just sold its first property and the company may have more up its sleeve as real estate companies look for innovative ways to inject some activity in the depressed property market.
OneDayOnly, is known for its daily discounted online deals, from gadgets to homeware and travel items. But on Monday it added what it called an "exclusive luxury micro apartment" on its e-commerce platform, with its usual daily discount, only this time it was R255 000.
The property, listed by real estate company the Rawson Developers, was snatched up within hours and a deal sealed before 09:00 on Monday morning.
"Everything happened so quickly, showing the agility and opportunity that lies within the e-commerce arena," said OneDayOnly.co.za director Laurian Venter. "We finalised the mechanics of the deal on Friday last week, made updates to our site over the weekend – as we are not traditionally set up for property deals – and the deal went live on Sunday night at midnight."
That Rawson has partnered with an e-commerce retailer to market a property at this kind of discount is telling of how creative the property sector has become as the lockdown put harsh brakes on sales.
The company had not responded to Fin24's questions on whether it plans to market more of its properties on the e-commerce platform to help it move its stock. But Venter hinted that there might be more.
"Although we are not in the habit of letting on our upcoming deals, we can say that we have a unique opportunity over the next few days to pre-launch these properties. So, watch this space," he said.
Already on the wrong side of the cycle as the market was favouring buyers pre-Covid-19, sellers and estate agents had to further contend with another fall in house prices. According to the latest FNB Property Barometer released in May, showed that annual house price growth fell to 1.9% in April – the lowest it has been since December 2009.
Some industry players predict that the fall in consumer confidence since the lockdown which is likely to have caused some to pause their home hunting because of income changes, will force house prices to fall further meaning that these kind of discounts might become a norm.
