Data and AI Disclaimer

1. Why this exists

Propalot puts a great many figures in front of you: a price fairness verdict, an investment score, a five-year projection, a yield, a load shedding stage, a fibre coverage percentage, a safety index, a commute time, a school catchment, a monthly cost.

Presented well, a number looks like a fact. Most of these are estimates, and a platform that shows an estimate in the same typeface as a fact owes you an account of the difference. This is that account.

2. This build runs on illustrative data

Read this first, because it changes everything below. The listings, agents, transaction histories and area statistics currently on the public site are a demonstration dataset. They are representative of the South African market and are internally consistent, but they do not describe real property currently for sale, and the agents shown are not real people.

Do not make a purchase, an offer, a bond application or an investment decision on the basis of anything on this build. When the marketplace carries live stock, this section will say so and will date the change.

Listings published through the seller portal at propalot.co.za/list are real, because a real person entered them. Sections 3 and 7 apply to those in full.

3. Where each figure comes from

Entered by the seller or practitioner

Asking price, erf size, floor size, bedrooms, bathrooms, garages, rates, levy, features, description and photographs. Propalot does not independently verify these. Section 7 says what that means for you.

Derived from public and municipal records

Suburb price benchmarks, transfer volumes, five-year and one-year growth, and price history. These are drawn from deeds and municipal sources and are as current as the source is, which is typically three to six months behind the market.

Operator and utility data

Load shedding stage and schedule, fibre coverage, and water reliability. These come from network operator coverage maps and municipal schedules. Coverage maps describe a network, not a street: a home inside a covered polygon can still be a hundred metres from a live connection.

Published statistical data

Safety index, walkability, schools and amenities. Aggregated from published crime, education and geographic data at suburb level. These describe an area rather than a property, and an area average is not a statement about any particular street in it.

Modelled by Propalot

Price fairness, investment score, yield estimate, five-year projection, rental demand, and the valuation range. These are outputs, not observations. Section 4 explains how they are produced.

4. How the models reach an estimate

Price fairness compares the asking price per square metre against the benchmark for that suburb and property type, and reports the difference. It knows nothing about the condition of the kitchen, the neighbour, the view, or the reason the seller is selling, all of which routinely move a price by more than the variance it is measuring.

The investment score weighs rental demand, capital growth, yield and infrastructure into a single figure out of 100. A composite score is a convenience, not a measurement. Two properties scoring 78 can be good in entirely different ways.

The five-year projection compounds the recent growth rate of the area forward. That is the crudest assumption in the system and it is stated so on the page: it presumes the next five years resemble the last five, which they may not. It ignores interest rate cycles, policy change, and anything specific to the property.

The yield estimate assumes full occupancy and does not deduct management fees, vacancy, maintenance or the cost of money. A real yield is lower than a modelled one, always.

The valuation range is a range on purpose. Its width is the model telling you how sure it is. A wide range on a property means the comparable evidence is thin, and that is information worth having rather than a defect to be hidden behind a single number.

5. What these numbers are not

Nothing on Propalot is:

• a bank valuation. A lender will send its own valuer and will lend against that figure, not this one;
• a sworn or professional valuation by a registered valuer under the Property Valuers Profession Act 47 of 2000;
• financial advice. Propalot is not a financial services provider and gives no advice on any financial product;
• legal or tax advice. Transfer duty, capital gains and the terms of an offer are for a conveyancer and an accountant;
• a structural survey. No model can see damp, a cracked foundation or a roof at the end of its life;
• an electrical, gas, plumbing, beetle or fencing compliance certificate, all of which a seller must produce at transfer;
• a guarantee of anything, least of all a future price.

6. The AI assistant

The assistant on a listing page answers from that property's data sheet and from the area data behind it. It is grounded, which means it is meant to answer from those figures rather than from general knowledge, and it will say when it does not know.

It can still be wrong. It can misread a question, combine two figures that should not be combined, or state something with more confidence than the underlying data supports. Treat it as a quick way to read the data sheet, not as an adviser, and check anything you are about to act on against the listing itself.

Your conversations with it are not used to train models. Section 6 of the Privacy Policy is the detail.

7. Figures a seller entered

The price, the erf size, the rates and the levy are typed in by the person advertising the property. Sellers warrant that they are true as far as they know, under section 4 of the Terms of Service, and we remove listings that are materially misleading.

We do not, however, independently verify each figure against the deeds office or the municipality before publishing. A rates figure that is a year out of date is not fraud; it is a seller quoting last year's bill. Ask for the current one before you sign anything.

8. Third-party and municipal data

Where a figure comes from somebody else, its accuracy is theirs. A municipal schedule changes without notice. A coverage map is optimistic by nature. Crime statistics are reported at a station precinct that may not match the suburb boundary the page draws.

We show this data because a buyer who has it decides better than one who does not, and we would rather show it with an honest caveat than not show it at all.

9. What to verify before you sign

A short list, because it is the useful part of this document:

• the title deed, the erf number and the registered extent;
• the current municipal rates account and the current levy statement;
• for sectional title, the body corporate financials and the reserve fund;
• approved building plans for anything that looks added on;
• the compliance certificates: electrical, gas, plumbing, beetle where applicable, and electric fencing;
• for a solar or backup installation, the certificate of compliance amendment and the SSEG registration;
• an independent structural inspection;
• the Fidelity Fund Certificate of any practitioner involved, which Propalot displays where we have been given the number.

10. Correcting a figure

If something on Propalot is wrong, tell us and we will fix it. Email hello@propalot.co.za with the page and what is wrong with it. A seller can correct their own listing from the portal at any time, which is faster than asking us.

Where an area-level figure is wrong at source we will say so on the page rather than quietly deleting the panel.

11. Liability

Section 12 of the Terms of Service governs liability, including for the estimates described here. In short, we are not liable for a decision taken on the strength of an estimate this document has told you is an estimate, and nothing in that section excludes liability which cannot lawfully be excluded.

12. Reaching us

hello@propalot.co.za · +27 10 001 0001
Propalot (Pty) Ltd, 12 Fredman Drive, Sandton, 2196, South Africa