Amid all the uncertainty and changes in consumer habits associated with the novel coronavirus over the past year, the pandemic has shifted the real estate market in Jamaica, according to Sifi Studios Jamaica, “the search it, find it” tech solution experts and licensed real estate entity behind Jamaica’s first and largest digital real estate platform, KEEZ.

KEEZ co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ajani Williams shared that in their deep dive of active data from over 500,000 visitors to the KEEZ app between February and September 2020, there were some noticeable trends in the real estate market.

The most notable change was within the Diaspora segment.

“Our numbers indicate that between July and August 2020, there was a decline of 60 per cent in US-originated Diaspora traffic, a 73 per cent decline in UK traffic and a 70 per cent decline in Canadian Diaspora traffic. We suspect this was based on the economic and social impact of the pandemic, which affected Diaspora movement, spend and outlook.

“We have also seen a 20 per cent increase in demand for rentals, while simultaneously, there is a seven per cent decrease in residential purchases, though the purchases dip has not significantly collapsed demand enough to significantly impact the industry,” Williams said.

Sifi Studios attributes the slowdown in purchases to movement restrictions both locally and abroad in addition to market/economic uncertainty as a result of COVID-19.

“In March- July 2020, we saw an uptick in cancelled transactions and abandoned mortgage applications and approvals due to job losses.

“This shift tells a story of some folks delaying buying and capitalising on more affordable rental inventory in the market,” Williams explained.

Since February 2021, overall consumer demand and buyer preferences seem to be trending upward once more.

“February 2021 brought out a more hopeful story of how countries around the world are already recovering.

KEEZ attributes the acceleration of vaccinations, the gradual reopening of economies, and employment rebounds as the contributing factors to the upward trend in Diaspora real estate activities.

“As for the benefits to Jamaica, these should help the Jamaican real estate economy accelerate upwards, because based on Keez data, purchases are about 25-30 per cent dependent on diaspora business,” the Keez CEO said. As for how digital real estate has grown since the start of the pandemic, Williams believes KEEZ came to the marketplace at the right time.

Keez has grown in user popularity throughout 2020, going from 20,000 visitors per month in February when the pandemic started in Jamaica to almost 100,000 monthly before the close of 2020.

“The pandemic has fast-tracked the reliance on digital technology and what we have seen is that KEEZ’ traffic has grown as a result of less physical viewings and in-bank mortgage applications. KEEZ is at the forefront of tech with all the necessary resources for viewings and mortgage pre-approvals from numerous lenders. This helped us deliver more than twice as many customers to our collaborative brokerage partners compared to 2019,” Williams added.

KEEZ was founded in Jamaica in 2018, and provides listing of broker properties across Jamaica.