MAIN IMAGE: Fritz Swanepoel, CEO of Leapfrog Property Group
Fritz Swanepoel
Property search is starting to look a little different. For Fritz Swanepoel, CEO of Leapfrog Property Group, the shift is not just about another clever digital tool. As international property portals move towards conversational, AI-powered search, the information captured by agents could play a bigger role in whether a seller’s home is found — or quietly missed altogether.
“For years, we have written property listings primarily for people,” says Swanepoel. “Increasingly, we will also need to structure them for the technology helping people search. That does not make the human side of property marketing less important, but it does mean that attractive photographs and a beautifully written description may no longer be enough.”
From ticking boxes to having a conversation
Traditional property searches are built around filters. Buyers select an area, price range, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms and perhaps a few additional features such as a swimming pool, garage or security estate.
That approach works when buyers know precisely what they want and when the available filters accurately reflect their priorities. But real people do not always think about homes in neat categories.
A buyer may instead be looking for a property that allows two people to work from home, accommodates large dogs, is close to good schools, has reliable backup power and will not require extensive maintenance. Another may want a home suitable for an elderly parent without necessarily searching for a formally designated multigenerational property.
Internationally, major property platforms are beginning to allow consumers to express these requirements in everyday language. Instead of selecting a series of boxes, buyers can increasingly describe the kind of life they want to live and ask technology to identify the properties that appear to match.
“This is an important shift because property has always been about far more than bedrooms and bathrooms,” says Swanepoel. “Buyers are not really searching for three bedrooms and two bathrooms. They are searching for a particular way of living. Technology is becoming better at understanding that distinction.”
AI can only find what the listing contains
That opens up real possibilities, but it also exposes a simple problem.
An AI-powered search can only work with the information available to it. If a property has excellent backup power but the listing merely says “solar”, the system may not know whether that means two panels for a geyser or a complete inverter and battery installation.
If the home has a separate room perfectly suited to working remotely, but it is described only as a “study”, it may not appear in a search for a dual work-from-home property. If pets are permitted in a sectional-title development but that information has not been captured, the home could be excluded from a pet-friendly search.
“The technology may be intelligent, but it cannot reliably discover information that was never recorded,” Swanepoel says. “That means poor listing data will no longer merely make an advertisement less informative. It could prevent the right buyer from seeing the property at all.”
The risk is particularly relevant in South Africa, where buyers increasingly consider features that are not always captured consistently across property listings.
These include the capacity and ownership status of solar and battery systems, boreholes and water-storage capacity, fibre availability, security infrastructure, sectional-title rules, accessibility, work-from-home suitability, municipal reliability, monthly levies and the true running costs of the property.
Governance must also become visible
In a previous article, Swanepoel argued that governance has become part of location. Buyers increasingly want to understand whether municipal services are reliable, infrastructure is maintained and additional investment will be required to make a home resilient.
The industry now has to make sure that listing information reflects those day-to-day realities, not just the obvious features of the home.
“A home with dependable services, well-managed infrastructure and properly maintained communal facilities may offer a very different ownership experience from a similar looking home a few kilometres away,” he says.
“Technology may recognise a difference in price, but unless the underlying information is detailed and reliable, it may not understand why that difference exists. The property professional remains responsible for providing the context.”
This does not mean that agents should make unsupported claims about municipalities or attempt to predict future service delivery. It means they should understand and accurately communicate the practical factors that affect the property and the buyer’s likely experience of owning it.
The listing description is not dead
Swanepoel cautions against interpreting the shift as the end of good property writing.
Buying a home remains an emotional decision. Buyers still need to imagine themselves living in the space, raising a family, entertaining friends or beginning a new chapter of their lives. Photographs, video and carefully considered language remain essential to creating that connection.
But the emotional story needs a stronger factual backbone than it may have needed in the past.
“The best property marketing will combine the two,” he says. “It will capture the feeling of the home while also providing accurate, structured information about how that home functions.”
A description that promises “effortless modern living” may create interest, but it tells a search system very little. A listing that accurately records energy resilience, security, connectivity, accessibility and operating costs gives both the technology and the buyer something meaningful to work with.
In practice, the strongest listings will need both: marketing that makes a buyer care, and data that helps the right buyer find the property in the first place.
Accuracy will matter more than volume
There is also a temptation to respond by capturing as much information as possible. Swanepoel believes the priority should be accuracy rather than volume.
Incorrect information can cause more damage than missing information. An AI system can distribute and repeat an error faster than a human being, potentially presenting assumptions as established facts.
If a solar installation is financed or leased, that must be disclosed. If a room is marketed as a bedroom, it should legitimately function as one. If a development is described as pet-friendly, the applicable body corporate rules and approval requirements must be understood.
“The more technology relies on our information, the greater our responsibility to verify it,” says Swanepoel. “AI does not remove accountability from the property practitioner. It increases the importance of that accountability.”
Agents will need to ask better questions when taking mandates, inspect properties more carefully and distinguish between what has been verified, what the seller has represented and what still requires confirmation.
A new source of value for the agent
There is a tendency to assume that better property technology will gradually reduce the role of the property practitioner. Swanepoel believes the opposite may be true for practitioners who adapt.
Technology can search, compare and organise information, but someone must ensure that the information is correct. Someone must understand why one street performs differently from another, how a particular body corporate is managed and whether a property’s features genuinely meet the buyer’s needs.
“That is where local knowledge becomes even more valuable,” he says. “The agent’s role moves beyond simply uploading a property and waiting for an enquiry. The practitioner becomes the person who translates a real home, in a real community, into information that both people and technology can understand.”
The practitioners who succeed will not be those who attempt to compete with technology on speed. They will be those who provide the accuracy, judgment, context and accountability that technology cannot produce by itself.
Property data is becoming property marketing
The property industry has traditionally treated listing information as an administrative requirement and the description and photographs as the marketing.
That divide is becoming much harder to maintain.
Every verified feature, accurately captured cost and clearly explained restriction can influence whether a property is matched with a prospective buyer. The information sitting behind the advertisement is becoming part of the advertisement itself.
“For sellers, the message is straightforward,” Swanepoel concludes. “The quality of your mandate and the quality of the information captured about your home will matter increasingly. You are not only appointing someone to advertise the property. You are appointing someone to ensure that the market can properly understand it.”
“For property professionals, the challenge is just as clear. Tomorrow’s most effective listing will not simply be the one with the best wording. It will be the one that is accurate, complete, compelling — and visible to the buyer who is genuinely looking for that kind of home.”
In the next generation of property search, a home may be perfectly suited to a buyer and still never appear on their screen. The difference could come down to the quality of the data captured at the very first listing appointment.
