2018 was a great year for ROAM property brands; namely BuyRentKenya and MaMaison in Senegal. Both companies grew tremendously and the results were reflected in great metrics for our users, a clear indication of our vision to become Africa’s most user-centric marketplace company. Good to note, leads grew positively in the last three months, largely driven by a big increase in direct WhatsApp conversations initiated through the sites.
BuyRentKenya won two more prestigious awards in the last quarter of 2018 (three for the year) for being the best online real estate portal in Kenya as well as CEO Lizzie Costabir being recognised as one of the top 25 women in digital. With positive growth in leads in the last quarter and a strong recovery in developers listing online, it shows a bright future for real estate in Kenya in 2019 and BuyRentKenya will be there leading the charge!
MaMaison, on the other hand, continued as the dominant property portal in Senegal, further growing its already impressive leads on the site. In December the brand had a successful launch of the first MaMaison Real Estate Forum in Senegal, an event very well received in the market. With many new initiatives planned ahead, it will be an exciting 2019 at MaMaison.
Our users have spoken, WhatsApp has been embraced as a communication tool and mobile is the preferred way to browse with three of every four searches happening on smartphones. As always winning with our users is our end game and with the new technology stack rollout underway, our users are now enjoying a refreshed homepage, which is a fraction of the previous size and loads much quicker, especially over mobile connections.
2019 is already set to be a milestone year for ROAM Property and we look forward to many of you joining us for the ride.
