Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 29 June 2026

1. Introduction

PropertyGate is a South African online rental property marketplace that helps prospective tenants discover rental properties and contact landlords or authorised property representatives directly.

This Privacy Policy explains how PropertyGate collects, uses, stores, shares, and protects personal information when you access the website, browse listings, create an account, submit or manage a property listing, upload verification information, contact us, or report suspected misuse of the platform.

We process personal information in accordance with the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 ("POPIA"), the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, and other applicable South African laws. Where appropriate, we also follow internationally recognised privacy and security practices.

2. Personal Information We Collect

We collect only the information reasonably necessary to operate PropertyGate, keep the platform trustworthy, and provide the services requested by users.

Account information

  • Full name, email address, phone number, password credentials, and account identifiers.
  • Account role or capacity, such as landlord, agency, independent agent, property administrator, or building manager.
  • Account status information, including email confirmation, verification status, suspension status, creation date, and update date.
  • Password reset, login, logout, and security-related account activity.

Landlord verification data

  • Document type, upload date, review status, review date, and rejection reason where applicable.
  • Proof that may help confirm authority to advertise or manage a property, such as municipal, utilities, rates, services, internet, or telephone account documentation showing a property address.
  • Uploaded verification files and related metadata needed for review, fraud prevention, and account administration.

Property listing information

  • Listing title, property name, property type, target tenant type, furnishing, sharing arrangement, rental price or price range, deposit information, lease term, utilities, pet policy, availability, and description.
  • Property address, building name where provided, city, province, approximate map coordinates, and location information used for search and listing display.
  • Property photographs, image order, upload dates, and listing media information.
  • Contact information selected by the advertiser for publication, such as WhatsApp number, telephone number, or email address.
  • Listing lifecycle information, including draft, review, approval, rejection, pause, report, expiry, renewal, rented, and deletion status.

Tenant, visitor, support, and moderation information

  • Search terms, filters, pages viewed, listing interactions, and landlord contact clicks.
  • Contact form information, including name, email address, subject, message, and related support history.
  • Listing flags and reports, including reason, optional comment, listing reference, time submitted, and information used to prevent repeated or abusive reporting.
  • Technical information such as IP address, device and browser information, approximate location derived from network data, usage information, cookie identifiers, diagnostic data, and security logs.

Payment information

PropertyGate does not currently process rent, deposits, subscriptions, bank account details, card details, or in-platform payment transactions. Rental payments and lease arrangements take place directly between tenants and landlords outside PropertyGate. The platform may display rental amounts and deposit information as part of a listing.

3. How We Collect Information

  • Directly from you when you register, sign in, update your profile, create or edit a listing, upload property images or verification documents, contact us, or submit a listing report.
  • Automatically when you browse or use the platform, including through cookies, session tools, analytics, logs, and security controls.
  • From service providers that help us operate the platform, such as providers of authentication, hosting, email delivery, location services, analytics, error monitoring, image storage, and security tools.
  • From administrators or reviewers who record moderation outcomes, verification decisions, listing review decisions, and platform safety notes.

4. Why We Collect and Use Information

We process personal information where POPIA permits us to do so, including where processing is necessary to provide the platform, perform an agreement with you, comply with legal obligations, protect legitimate interests, prevent abuse, or where you have given consent.

  • To create, authenticate, secure, and manage user accounts.
  • To allow landlords and property representatives to create, edit, submit, renew, pause, and manage listings.
  • To review listings before publication and maintain quality, safety, and trust on the platform.
  • To verify, where required, that a landlord or representative appears authorised to advertise a property.
  • To publish active property listings and display the contact information selected by the advertiser.
  • To help tenants search, filter, view, and contact advertisers about rental properties.
  • To respond to enquiries, support requests, privacy requests, and complaints.
  • To send transactional communications about account activity, document review, listing review, moderation, security, and service updates.
  • To detect, investigate, and prevent fraud, spam, suspicious listings, unauthorised access, abuse, or breaches of our terms.
  • To measure platform performance, understand usage, troubleshoot errors, improve features, and maintain reliability.
  • To comply with laws, lawful requests, regulator requirements, court orders, and record-keeping obligations.

5. Public Listing Information

Active property listings are public. Information intentionally submitted for publication may be visible to anyone who visits PropertyGate, including tenants, search engines, and other third parties.

Public listing information may include:

  • Property details, rental price, availability, lease terms, and description.
  • Property photographs and general location information.
  • Contact details that the advertiser chooses to publish, including WhatsApp, phone, or email details.
  • Advertiser name or verification status where displayed to support platform trust.

Tenants do not need an account to browse public listings or use the advertiser's published contact details. PropertyGate does not currently provide an in-app chat inbox. Communications by phone, WhatsApp, or email take place outside PropertyGate and are handled by the parties and their communication providers.

6. Cookies and Analytics

We use cookies, local storage, and similar technologies to operate secure sessions, remember technical preferences, protect the platform, understand usage, and improve performance.

  • Essential cookies and session tools are used for sign-in, authentication, account security, and protected dashboard functions.
  • Analytics tools help us understand page views, searches, listing interactions, contact clicks, and general product performance.
  • Security and diagnostic tools help detect errors, abuse, excessive requests, suspicious activity, and service reliability issues.

You may manage cookies through your browser settings. If essential cookies are blocked, account access, verification uploads, listing management, and other secure features may not work correctly.

7. Third-Party Service Providers

We do not sell personal information. We share personal information only where necessary to provide, secure, monitor, improve, or legally protect PropertyGate.

We may use trusted providers for:

  • Website hosting, infrastructure, storage, backups, and content delivery.
  • User authentication, account management, and database services.
  • Property image upload, storage, processing, and delivery.
  • Verification document storage and controlled access.
  • Email delivery for account, support, listing, verification, and moderation notices.
  • Mapping, address search, geocoding, and location services.
  • Analytics, diagnostics, performance monitoring, security, rate limiting, and fraud prevention.
  • Professional advice, legal compliance, dispute handling, or regulatory engagement.

Service providers are expected to process personal information only for authorised purposes, keep it confidential, and apply appropriate safeguards. We may also disclose information where required by law, court order, regulator, law enforcement authority, or to protect our rights, users, or platform.

8. International Transfers

Some service providers may process or store personal information outside South Africa. This may happen where hosting, support, security, analytics, email, mapping, or storage infrastructure is operated internationally.

Where personal information is transferred outside South Africa, we take reasonable steps to ensure that the recipient is subject to appropriate safeguards, contractual protections, or privacy obligations consistent with POPIA and applicable data protection standards.

9. Data Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer period is required or permitted by law.

  • Account and profile information is retained while your account is active and for a reasonable period after closure where needed for support, disputes, fraud prevention, legal claims, or records.
  • Verification information is retained while needed for account verification, trust and safety, legal compliance, dispute handling, and platform integrity.
  • Listing information is retained while listings are active and may be retained internally after expiry, pause, rejection, rental, or deletion for moderation, duplicate detection, audit, security, and dispute purposes.
  • Contact form, support, report, moderation, and security records are retained for as long as needed to respond, investigate, protect users, or meet legal obligations.
  • Analytics and diagnostic information is retained for a period reasonably necessary to understand usage, improve the platform, troubleshoot issues, and secure the service.

When personal information is no longer required, we securely delete, anonymise, or de-identify it where reasonably practicable, subject to legal, security, fraud prevention, and dispute-resolution requirements.

10. Data Security

We implement reasonable technical, administrative, and organisational safeguards designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, loss, misuse, or destruction.

  • Access controls are used to limit account, verification, listing, and administration data to authorised users and personnel.
  • Verification documents are stored in restricted areas and reviewed only by authorised personnel for verification and platform safety purposes.
  • Passwords and authentication are managed through secure account processes.
  • Uploads, forms, and requests are subject to validation, size limits, and abuse-prevention controls.
  • Security, moderation, and rate-limiting controls help reduce spam, unauthorised activity, suspicious listings, and platform misuse.
  • Operational monitoring is used to detect errors, availability issues, and security risks.

No internet-based service can be guaranteed completely secure. Users should use strong passwords, keep login details confidential, and be careful when sharing personal information directly with other users.

11. Your Rights Under POPIA

Subject to POPIA and applicable legal limitations, you have the right to:

  • Ask whether we hold personal information about you.
  • Request access to your personal information.
  • Request correction or update of inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or outdated information.
  • Request deletion or destruction of personal information where legally permitted.
  • Object to certain processing activities where POPIA allows you to object.
  • Withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.
  • Lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

We may request proof of identity before responding to a privacy request. This helps us protect your account and prevent unauthorised disclosure or deletion of personal information.

12. Children's Privacy

PropertyGate is intended for adults who are legally able to search for rental accommodation, advertise property, or participate in rental-related transactions. The platform is not directed at children under 18.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children without the consent of a competent person. If you believe that a child has provided personal information through PropertyGate, please contact us so that we can review the matter and take appropriate action.

13. External Links and Direct User Communications

PropertyGate may contain links or contact options that take users to third-party websites, communication tools, or services. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, security, or content of those third parties.

When tenants contact advertisers directly by phone, email, WhatsApp, or another external channel, that communication is outside PropertyGate. Users should avoid sharing unnecessary sensitive information and should inspect properties carefully before making any payment or signing any agreement.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in the platform, law, service providers, security practices, or data processing activities.

The updated version will be published on this page with a revised "Last Updated" date. Where a change is material, we may provide additional notice through the platform or by email where appropriate. Continued use of PropertyGate after an updated policy is published means the updated policy applies to future use of the platform.

15. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your privacy rights, or want to raise a privacy concern, please contact PropertyGate:

Email: admin@propertygate.co.za

You may also contact the Information Regulator of South Africa if you believe your rights under POPIA have been infringed: https://inforegulator.org.za/