Landlords across South Africa have battled through a remarkably difficult environment for the last 18 months. COVID and the ensuing lockdowns led to the student housing sector being hard hit, with students being sent home from campuses and leases being cancelled in their thousands.
It was unprecedented, and shook the housing and property sector in South Africa. But over the last two months, we’ve started to see signs that things are turning around, and that we’re on the upswing.
The 2022 academic year is set to start on time, and all the students we’ve been engaging with at DigsConnect are chomping at the bit to get back to campus. This has been reflected in our metrics, as we’ve seen record numbers of students sending enquiries on DigsConnect through to the landlords who list on our platform.
We want 2022 to be our best year ever, for ourselves and for our users. So DigsConnect has recently closed a deal with Gumtree South Africa that will see all our accommodation listings being posted to Gumtree via an API, to further drive visibility for landlords and make it easier than ever for students to find accommodation. We have a tight integration that will allow potential tenants to be sent to DigsConnect to complete the enquiry process, directly from Gumtree.
An international audience
By now, the news of our partnership with Student.com will also be common knowledge. Via a two way API, all the property listings on DigsConnect will be exposed to an international audience, literally millions of views from Tokyo to New York, and everywhere in between. South Africa, as the gateway to Africa, is a hot exchange studies destination, and with this partnership DigsConnect will position our landlords as the accommodation of choice for these students.
The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has been a highly influential player in the higher education space for over ten years, funding thousands of students via their holistic bursary programmes, as well as many university projects. DigsConnect has recently been awarded grant funding by The Foundation to assist with their mission of providing holistic support for financially needy students, and together we’ll be working towards ensuring that every NSFAS student has an avenue via the DigsConnect platform to find viable, safe and affordable student accommodation.
Eduvos is one of South Africa’s largest independent private higher education institutions with 12 campuses across the country, offering 21 degrees in humanities, arts, business, applied science, technology and law. DigsConnect has just become the official accommodation partner for Eduvos, and via a direct integration will be assisting all applicant students with housing options close to their campuses of choice. This furthers the reach of the student applicant pool, as students that live further afield can now attend a campus that would previously have been inaccessible due to housing constraints.
It was unprecedented, and shook the housing and property sector in South Africa. But over the last two months, we’ve started to see signs that things are turning around, and that we’re on the upswing.
The 2022 academic year is set to start on time, and all the students we’ve been engaging with at DigsConnect are chomping at the bit to get back to campus. This has been reflected in our metrics, as we’ve seen record numbers of students sending enquiries on DigsConnect through to the landlords who list on our platform.
We want 2022 to be our best year ever, for ourselves and for our users. So DigsConnect has recently closed a deal with Gumtree South Africa that will see all our accommodation listings being posted to Gumtree via an API, to further drive visibility for landlords and make it easier than ever for students to find accommodation. We have a tight integration that will allow potential tenants to be sent to DigsConnect to complete the enquiry process, directly from Gumtree.
An international audience
By now, the news of our partnership with Student.com will also be common knowledge. Via a two way API, all the property listings on DigsConnect will be exposed to an international audience, literally millions of views from Tokyo to New York, and everywhere in between. South Africa, as the gateway to Africa, is a hot exchange studies destination, and with this partnership DigsConnect will position our landlords as the accommodation of choice for these students.
The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has been a highly influential player in the higher education space for over ten years, funding thousands of students via their holistic bursary programmes, as well as many university projects. DigsConnect has recently been awarded grant funding by The Foundation to assist with their mission of providing holistic support for financially needy students, and together we’ll be working towards ensuring that every NSFAS student has an avenue via the DigsConnect platform to find viable, safe and affordable student accommodation.
Eduvos is one of South Africa’s largest independent private higher education institutions with 12 campuses across the country, offering 21 degrees in humanities, arts, business, applied science, technology and law. DigsConnect has just become the official accommodation partner for Eduvos, and via a direct integration will be assisting all applicant students with housing options close to their campuses of choice. This furthers the reach of the student applicant pool, as students that live further afield can now attend a campus that would previously have been inaccessible due to housing constraints.
Finally, all this growth would fall flat without a powerful and elegant product to support the incoming traffic. In order to ensure that the influx of users on DigsConnect can find what they’re looking for - be that a room, an entire house, or a tenant - they’ll need to be able to utilize the platform and enjoy the process of doing so!
This is why we are so thrilled to announce that DigsConnect has partnered with The Delta, a venture builder based in Cape Town and Berlin that have launched more than 20 ventures in the last two years. The Delta's explosive growth and deep impact in the ecosystem means that we're in good hands, working with a team that shares our passion for beautiful technology.
Utilising their expertise in UX, UI, product management and development, we’ll be relooking at every step of our user journey on the platform, to refine and optimize the process, building a world-class product worthy of our global position.
This is why we’re more confident than ever in the upcoming season; bouncing back from the lockdowns with a vengeance and reigniting the student housing sector in South Africa.
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Now that you’ve got the knowledge, it’s time to shop! Head to gumtree.co.za or your Gumtree app (click for Apple & Android), and don’t forget to use your location settings to find local service information close to home.
