Keykasa Property Platform
Where your next chapter lives. KeyKasa is a brand new South African property platform with AI search, a live 3D map and swipe-to-shortlist, built to do more than Property24 and Private Property for a fraction of the price. One of the custom web applications we've built for South African startups.
Client
Keykasa
Services
Industries
PropTech, Real Estate
Date
2026
Challenge
House hunting in South Africa is a slog. KeyKasa wanted to fix that with a property portal that actually feels like it was built this decade.
Property24 and Private Property still run the category, and they still make you fight a filter form to find a one-bed near work that allows pets. The KeyKasa brief was to do three things the incumbents have not. Replace the filter form with plain English, replace the endless scroll with a swipe shortlist, and put it all on a live 3D map that shows you what an area is actually like, not just where pins sit on a flat tile.
The other half of the brief was the agent and landlord side. They wanted to ship listing analytics, interest heatmaps, in-app chat with renters and a self-serve "run your own agency" flow, all without falling into the lead form spam and pay-to-rank patterns the bigger portals lean on. And the commercial line had to hold up: first three listings free, no agent commissions, no premium tier. Build all of that, brand to launch, before the first user lands.
Solution
I came on as the frontend engineer and product designer, working day to day with the KeyKasa in-house team. We built it from a blank page: brand, design system, every flow and screen, and the entire frontend that ties the search, swipe, map and agent tools together. The product runs on three steps the team summed up nicely: just say it, swipe the good ones, skip the time-wasters.
The hero feature is Super Search. You describe the place you want in plain English, "two bed near Sea Point, pet friendly, under 18k", and the AI turns it into a real search instead of asking you to translate your life into a dropdown. Results land in a swipe shortlist: yes, no, next. Your list of contenders builds itself instead of you pasting URLs into a WhatsApp thread. A live 3D map sits beside it with lifestyle and amenity layers on top, and every suburb gets a Happiness Score that tells you how well it actually fits the life you described.
On the agent and landlord side, listings go live the same day with analytics, save rate, interest heatmaps and in-app chat with verified renters. AI writes the listing copy for you or imports it straight from another portal. Anyone can spin up their own agency, invite colleagues and co-list, no sales call required. The whole product sits inside a calm, modern visual system that reads as a serious South African property brand from the first scroll, not a hastily-shipped MVP.
Project
Outcome
KeyKasa is ready for launch. A South African property portal with AI search, swipe-to-shortlist, a live 3D map and a suburb happiness score on the renter side, and a self-serve "run your own agency" flow with analytics, heatmaps and in-app chat on the agent side. First three listings free, no agent commissions, no premium tier. Built brand to launch in one pass: design system, every screen, the full frontend. The next chapter is users on the platform, and the foundation is sitting comfortably ahead of where Property24 and Private Property sit today.
Urban Catalyst
Frontend & Product Design, Cape Town
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