How much does a real estate website cost in South Africa?

What drives the cost of an estate agency website, how once-off builds compare with monthly subscriptions, and what to check before you sign.

It's one of the first questions agency owners ask, and the honest answer is that it depends on what the website has to do. A simple brochure site and a property website with live listings, search and a dashboard for your agents are very different projects. This guide explains what drives the cost, the two common ways to pay, and what to check before you commit.

What you're actually paying for

A property website is more than a few pages. Most of the cost sits in the parts that make it useful to buyers, sellers and your team:

• Design: a layout that presents listings well on a phone, not just on a desktop
• Property search: filters for area, sale or rental, type, price and bedrooms
• Listing pages: photos, key features, the agent's details and a clear way to enquire
• A dashboard: where agents add listings, change prices and statuses, and update their profiles
• Enquiry handling: every enquiry recorded with the listing it came from
• Hosting, security certificates (SSL), backups and updates
• Integrations, for example publishing listings to Property24

Each extra feature adds design, build and testing time. Integrations add the most, because they depend on another company's systems and documentation.

Once-off build or monthly subscription?

There are two common ways to pay for an agency website, and each suits a different kind of agency.

With a once-off build, you pay a larger amount upfront and then a smaller monthly or yearly amount for hosting and support. You own the build from day one, but changes after launch are often charged separately, and the site can fall behind if nobody budgets for updates.

With a monthly subscription, there's little or no upfront cost. Design, hosting, security, updates and support are covered by one monthly fee, usually with a minimum term. It spreads the cost and keeps the site maintained, which suits most agencies that would rather not manage a technical project.

Hidden costs to ask about

• Domain name and business email: who registers them, and in whose name?
• Content: will you supply the copy and photos, or is writing included?
• Changes after launch: which updates are included, and what costs extra?
• Listing imports: is moving your existing listings across part of the price?
• Integrations: is the Property24 connection included or priced separately?
• Leaving: if you move on, do you keep your domain, content and listing data?

How our pricing works

Our Website & dashboard service is a subscription of R1 250 a month excluding VAT, on a 12-month minimum term with no setup fee. It includes the design and build of your property website, the listings manager and property search, agent profiles, an enquiry inbox, hosting, SSL and backups, and support after launch.

You can add the Property24 integration for R1 250 a month and a WhatsApp AI chatbot for R2 450 a month. Take all three and the bundle saves 10%. Pay annually and you get 2 months free. You can build your package and see the total straight away.

A quick checklist before you sign

1. 1Write down the five things your website must do, such as search, listings, enquiries and agent profiles.
2. 2Ask for the total cost over 12 and 24 months, not only the upfront or monthly figure.
3. 3Check what's included after launch: updates, support and security.
4. 4Confirm who owns the domain, the content and the listing data.
5. 5Ask how listings get from your system to the website and to Property24.

Comparing the total cost and what's included will tell you more than the headline price. For more on the features that matter, read what every estate agency website needs.