An estimated 90% of South Africans have built their homes incrementally with cash, without access to title deeds, payslips or formal employment, leaving millions excluded from the formal credit system.
Until this largely informal property equity is unlocked, South Africa’s economic growth could remain below 1%, according to proponents of a new technology-driven solution.
Businessman Lance Chalwin-Milton, author and entrepreneur GG Alcock, and Afrirent executive group chairman Senzo Tsabedze have co-founded E-DEED, a property evaluation system that uses artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to assess the value of homes outside the formal property market.
The platform produces a digital valuation with a reported accuracy of 97% and issues an associated non-fungible token, or NFT, which reflects the assessed value of a property. The founders say this approach allows homeowners without title deeds to have their assets formally recognised for the first time.
Alcock said the complexities surrounding township housing, RDP homes and properties on tribal land mean millions of homeowners are unlikely ever to receive title deeds. “The reality is that millions of homes will never get title deeds, especially in tribal and Ngonyama Trust areas,” he said. “In the absence of a title deed, we need to find ways to help owners realise the value of the asset they have invested in.”
Chalwin-Milton said many households traditionally viewed as asset-poor are, in fact, sitting on significant wealth. “These assets can be worth R1 million to R2 million or more,” he said. “Out of an estimated 20 million homes in South Africa, only about 10% are shacks. Around nine million are deeded homes, and the rest are substantial but largely invisible structures in townships and rural areas.”
Tsabedze said E-DEED also addresses inefficiencies and lack of transparency in traditional property valuation systems. The platform, which requires only a smartphone, creates an insurable interest that allows previously uninsured homeowners to cover their properties at their true value.
Currently, only about 11.54% of homes in South Africa are insured. Chalwin-Milton pointed to disparities exposed during the KwaZulu-Natal floods, where insured properties in affluent areas were protected while uninsured township homes were lost. “Why should these families be denied the dignity of insurance when their brick-and-mortar homes are worth the same?” he said.
Alcock said the platform could reshape the financial sector’s approach to housing and asset finance. “There is both a moral imperative and a business opportunity in changing this,” he said.
The founders said their longer-term goal is to expand the E-DEED platform beyond South Africa into at least six other African countries by the end of next year.
