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Ready to fly? Remember that flying Star Wars bike no one believed was real? The maker finally released a take-off-and-landing video, and now we’re real excited. ⚡

In Today’s Open Letter

SA’s rental property market is skewed in favour of landlords (but not without risks), and tenant-side competition is fierce in popular hubs like Cape Town and Joburg, so is SA ready for a bold new move…?

Remember when we told you about that US startup charging people to view rental properties? Well, Rently started out installing keycard locks on rental units, so people could go view without the agent. They charge $5 (R87) to view 10 properties and $12 (R210) to sommer get pre-approved and vetted with unlimited viewings for a month.

It allows them to offer related financial services and perhaps even negotiate a cut on rental income, etc. And they’re attracting landlords by paying some of the fees back to them with a promise that they can “make money” while the apartment is standing empty. Naturally, peeps are up in arms over it on X. 

But is the idea really that crazy?

The pain of house hunting

You have to go look for a suitable place and then phone and arrange separately with loads of agents, and arrange viewing times around other people’s schedules, fill in forms at every place… You get the picture.

Or, just a few hundred bucks and go see 10 places at your leisure. Hmm…

Could it work in SA?

SA has 17.83 million households, about 23.9% of which were renting in 2023 (up from 17.7% in 2020). That means there are 4.26 million renting households in the country. And if you take the rental share per province from the PayProp Index and factor in the average rental prices in each province, SA should have a healthy R39.2 billion per month in rental flows (R470bn per year). 

With vacancy rates around 5% landlords hold most of the power. But they still face headaches like arrears and soaring municipal charges. Could a pay-per-view model help smooth this pipeline for both sides?

Demand outstrips supply, especially in the low-cost (<R7’000pm), where tenants are hanging on to good deals for longer and not moving out as much as they used to.

In short, rental competition is fierce for new tenants, who search long and hard for a good deal and get rejected very often. Now, imagine offering them a solid pre-approval and guaranteed viewing of 10 properties in their basket…

What would this need to work?

For starters, SA is not New York, so you’d have to work smart, possibly targeting urban areas first. And we’d definitely not try to go landlord direct – you need to add a lot of listings fast, so we’d try to get estate agents and rental agencies on board first.

The deal needs to be sweet enough that apartment-hunters would rather give you a few hundred for convenience than go hunt alone. Tough, but SA looks to have the market.

Who’s building this?

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🔗 Luno’s Token Stocks Launch. Luno is set to shake up the investment world from early August by offering tokenised stocks, starting with big names like Nvidia and Apple. South Africans can now dive into global markets around the clock from just R20, without fussing over forex and fees. Hmm, who's in?

💬 Reminder to Reply. With WhatsApp's shiny new update, forgotten text messages might be a thing of the past. This savvy feature lets you set reminders for messages you might have ghosted on, either read or unread. An array of timing options, from two to twenty-four hours, gives you no excuse now. "My bad for ghosting you. I forgot to set my WhatsApp reply reminder."

🚀 SA's Salary Shake-Up. Get ready for the Fair Pay Bill to rock the South African labour market. Bid adieu to hushed salary pasts; this bill makes salary transparency the star. Employers will soon have to flaunt fair pay with salary ranges in job ads. "Uhm, legally, you can't ask me about that..."

🔥 Flaming Meat Prices. South Africa's meat lovers are facing sticker shock as meat prices jump 6.6% year-on-year due to foot-and-mouth disease and a partial ban on Brazilian chicken imports. While headline inflation is up 3%, meat prices are sizzling thanks to a fiery 21.2% spike in stewing beef. No man, we don't wanna cry at the braai...

🕯️ Two Legends, One Week. This week, we lost two icons: Ozzy Osbourne, the 76-year-old “Prince of Darkness” and voice of Black Sabbath, passed away on 22 July, leaving behind a legacy that reshaped rock and heavy metal. Just two days later, on 24 July, we lost Hulk Hogan, the 71-year-old face of Hulkamania and WWE superstardom. Their legacies, though, carry on forever.

✅ The Stack. Founders need tools and suppliers they can trust. Check out our Founder’s Stack with real-time AI insights and decision automation from Sidekicklab, zero-monthly-fee bank accounts and business loans in 4 minutes from Lula, plus loads more vital startup tools & services.

Yesterday, we told you about Docaroo’s AI doc storage solution, asking where you’d look for your birth/matric/marriage certificate. And we have yet another use case for Google Drive…

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🗂️ Bottom drawer (maybe under the takeout menus) (13%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📧 Email from 2018 with the subject “FNB application” (20%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 📁 Google Drive > Scans > Scans > Final_final.pdf (40%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📞 I’d panic and phone my mom (23%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🔄 Stuck in a reapplication loop with the respective issuers (4%)

Your 2 cents…

That’s not chaos, Isaac, that’s battle readiness. 🔥

🦘Founder @ Docaroo.ai

🐺 Founding Platform Engineer (Full-Stack) @ Community Wolf

📞 Customer Support Coordinator @ Jem HR

🤝 IoT Field Technician and more @ The Awareness Company

🚘 Head of Product @ admyt

🧑‍🌾 Customer Support @ KHULA!

Hiring? Get in touch, and we will feature it here.

Takealot’s been busy behind the scenes. It has launched Takealot Fulfilment Solutions to house its growing logistics muscle, from delivery and warehousing to international freight. The recent acquisition of M24 Logistics in September 2024 slots neatly into this, expanding its reach beyond just its own platforms.

At the same time, Mr D keeps stretching beyond fast food, delivering pet supplies, toys, and other frequently purchased items, on demand.

With the arrival of Amazon in May last year, the ever-expanding reach of Shein and Temu, as well as going head-to-head against international players like Uber Eats, one can't help but wonder if the inclusion of pet supplies, toys and other high-demand, on-demand items is taking the game to Sixty60, ASAP and Spar2U too.

In a space where fast, reliable delivery can make or break the experience, it’s interesting to see where South Africa’s biggest e-commerce player is quietly investing its energy.

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