Rufaro Manyepa
ONCE upon a time, people went to libraries for information. Whenever they needed something, people would leave their home and visit the library, perusing through whatever books they could to find the information they needed.
People would look through several books until they found the right one that had the exact information that they needed.
That very idea is what Propertybook is all about. Until about 10 years ago, Zimbabweans had to leave their home, travel around the city — maybe even the country — looking through newspapers and operating through word of mouth to find a property. Finding a property was an intense process.
But that’s what people were used to. And then Propertybook arrived in 2015. It was the book people were looking for. Except this time, people didn’t need to leave their homes to find it. It started slowly. In the first five years of operation, traffic averaged around 60,000 monthly visitors.
But then Covid-19 came along. All of a sudden, people couldn’t leave their homes anymore. People couldn’t shop around in person or use word of mouth to find properties. For the sheer volume of available properties, people needed an online platform to search from. That’s why Propertybook’s traffic doubled in 2021.
And it doubled the next year. And then the next. By the end of 2024, Propertybook’s traffic was eight times higher than it was just five years before, with 500,000 monthly visitors. The property landscape has changed forever. Today, Propertybook has over 9,000 properties listed. It’s the best place to find all kinds of properties, stands, developments and houses for sale and for rent in Zimbabwe.
It has a network of over 2,000 registered agents. Furthermore, it has grown from a team of three to 21 people across Zimbabwe. It features over 250 neighbourhood guides covering all of Zimbabwe, and even a property news blog that is updated daily. It truly is the leading property portal in Zimbabwe.
This portal comprises an in-house web development team, marketers, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, writers, certified SEO specialists and salespeople working full-time to build websites, market properties and elevate Zimbabwean real estate. Leading this expert team is Mark Conway, Propertybook’s founder.
Mark founded Propertybook 10 years ago with a vision for a better, smarter and easier Zimbabwean property market for buyers and sellers, renters and landlords. This year, the celebratory slogan is “The King’s of Property Marketing.” That is the juggernaut that Mark has built — propelled by his expertise as a certified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a long-term oriented, forward-thinking trailblazer in the property market.
That experience as a CFA is what motivated innovations like Propertybook Insights — a detailed monthly market report on prices, trends and types of properties across Zimbabwe, provided absolutely free of charge. “We want to work together and transform how business is done,” Mark said.
This win-win culture is what drives his vision for Zimbabwe’s property market. “We want Propertybook to help the agencies, users and Zimbabwe as a whole. That is how everyone wins.” It’s been 10 years of wins for all of Zimbabwe. With more growth, technology and client-focused innovation on the horizon, we can fully expect it to be many more years of the same for Propertybook.