The Proptech Solutions Hackathon is a groundbreaking event focused on transforming how Africans buy, sell, rent, and manage property through technology. In a continent where real estate faces unique challenges from opaque land registries to unaffordable mortgages, informal housing, and a lack of digital property tools this hackathon invites developers, designers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs to create practical, scalable solutions built for the African property landscape.

With access to Africa's Talking APIs and a community of innovators, participants will build across key areas of real estate and property technology delivering solutions that are impactful, inclusive, and market-ready.

Addressable Problems in Proptech Solutions

• Property Listing & Discovery - Build verified listing platforms, AI-powered property search, and neighbourhood intelligence tools for buyers, renters, and agents.

• Land Registry & Title Verification - Develop tools for digitizing land records, verifying title deeds, detecting fraud, and integrating with government land registries.

• Rental & Property Management - Create platforms for landlord-tenant management, rent collection via Payment channels, maintenance tracking, and lease automation.

• Affordable Housing & Mortgage Access - Design systems for housing finance, sacco-backed mortgage products, credit scoring for informal earners, and shared ownership models.

• Smart Building & IoT - Build smart home integrations, energy monitoring, water metering, and IoT-enabled property management solutions.

• Construction & Project Management - Develop tools for real estate developers to manage builds, track costs, coordinate contractors, and monitor timelines.

• Real Estate Investment Platforms - Create fractional property ownership platforms, REIT dashboards, and investment analytics for retail and institutional investors.

• Valuation & Market Analytics - Build AI-powered property valuation engines, market trend dashboards, and comparable sales analysis tools.

• Informal Settlement Mapping - Design platforms for mapping informal housing, digitizing community land rights, and facilitating upgrading programs.

• Short-Let & Hospitality - Build booking engines, guest management tools, and revenue optimization platforms for short-term rental operators.

• Legal & Conveyancing Technology - Automate property transaction workflows, generate conveyancing documents, and streamline stamp duty and transfer processes.

• Student & Youth Housing - Create verified student accommodation platforms, co-living marketplaces, and youth-focused rental solutions with flexible payment options.

Objectives

• Bridge the Proptech Gap: Create solutions that improve access, transparency, and efficiency in African real estate markets.

• Foster Local Innovation: Empower African builders to solve Africa's unique housing and property challenges.

• Promote Housing Inclusion: Build tools that enable access to formal property markets for all income groups.

• Encourage Responsible Development: Prioritize data privacy, ethical AI, and transparency in property platforms.

• Enable Impact at Scale: Ensure solutions can grow to serve thousands of landlords, tenants, developers, and buyers across Africa.

Target Attendees

• Developers & Engineers: With experience in mobile/web development, APIs, or scalable property platforms.

• Real Estate Professionals: Agents, valuers, and property managers bringing essential domain expertise.

• AI/ML & Data Scientists: Experts building valuation models, fraud detection, and predictive analytics.

• Students & Learners: With a passion for technology, urban development, and housing innovation.

• Social Entrepreneurs & NGOs: Focused on affordable housing, land rights, and informal settlement solutions.

• UX/UI Designers: To reimagine the property search, rental, and investment experience.

• Finance & Legal Experts: Bringing mortgage, conveyancing, and SACCO domain knowledge.

Why Participate?

• Access to Tools & APIs: Leverage Africa's Talking SMS, USSD, Voice, and Airtime APIs to build scalable property solutions.

• Mentorship & Workshops: Learn from seasoned professionals in proptech, real estate, and civic technology.

• Collaborative Innovation: Team up across disciplines — tech, design, domain expertise — to bring ideas to life.

• Cash Prizes & Recognition: Win exciting rewards and showcase your solution to the wider Africa's Talking ecosystem.

• Real-World Impact: Build solutions that transform how Africans access, transact, and manage property.

• Talent & Gig Opportunities: Get discovered — connect with customers and partners looking to hire or commission builders.

Prizes

The winning solution will receive cash prizes as follows:

• Winner - $100 (Join Marketplace Program)

• 1st Runners Up - $50

• 2nd Runners Up - $25

Africa's Talking powers communications solutions across Africa with simplified access to telco infrastructure. Developers use our powerful SMS, USSD, Voice, Chat, Airtime and Mobile Data to bring their ideas to life, as they build and sustain scalable businesses.

Agenda

1. Warm-Up

• Introductions

• Form teams where need be

• Feedback

• Feature requests

2. Building/hacking

Code in GitHub/GitLab/BitBucket and deploy in Docker/Automated CI/Travis CI/Bamboo

Note: This section needs additional setup.

Upon commit, the repository is built and deployed to an accessible web server or an S3 bucket.

3. Demonstration and Wrap-up

Teams or individuals will demo what they have hacked for feedback or adoption.

Note: Carry a laptop

Opportunities

• Network

• Innovate

• Access to our Talent bench (You can get a job or a gig on the spot)

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Publish on Africa's Talking Marketplace

Marketplace: Get Call Back as a Service and Publish your plugin/app for our customer.

Developer Documentation (We welcome feedback)

New to Africa's Talking? Get started here.

Submit your Idea

• Hackathon idea submission form

Gigs

We would love to reach out to you so that you can build for our customers, please fill out this form with details to ensure we have your details:

GIG/HACK DEVELOPER PORTFOLIO FORM

Join community channels

Slack

Join Africa's Talking slack community here

Please follow our Twitter handles to:

• @AfricasTalking

• @ElarianHQ

You can get our videos, recaps, and event interviews on our youtube channels, subscribe to get updates:

• Africa's Talking Youtube Channel

Africa's Talking community allows developers to learn skills for the modern-day African Developer. We are language and framework agnostic. All developers are welcome. This is where Africa's Talking developers community meets to build, learn and exchange knowledge.

We are helping software developers and businesses to bring their ideas to life through easy-to-use APIs easily.

Would you like to partner with us? Kindly contact the Developer Experience Team.