Sometimes finding the right property isn't only about where you want to live, it's also about where you don't want to live.
We noticed something interesting in searches through Ask MyProperty: people were asking us to leave specific suburbs out of their results.
For example:
“Show me houses for sale in Randburg with at least 2 bedrooms and 150m² of floor space - but exclude Randburg Central, Blairgowrie and Lanseria.”
or
"2 bedroom apartments to rent around Sandton City, excluding Benmore"
We have now trained our search engine to cater for these exclusions.
This is particularly useful when you're searching across a large town, city or region but already know there are certain suburbs that don't suit you.
You can exclude areas directly from the search filters, or simply tell Ask MyProperty what you don't want:
“Houses in Randburg under R3 million, but not in Randburg Central.”
Or refine things further:
“Also exclude Blairgowrie and Lanseria.”
Your search updates as you go, and the excluded areas remain clearly visible alongside your other search criteria.
Built from how people actually search
This is a small feature, but it's a good example of where we're taking property search.
Traditional property search tends to ask you to keep adding things you want. Real conversations aren't quite that simple. Buyers also know what they don't want, change their minds and refine their requirements as they browse.
By learning from the way people are using Ask MyProperty, we're gradually making search behave less like a form you have to complete and more like a conversation.
Because finding your home should be as much about removing the wrong matches as finding the right ones.