After promising to sell nearly everything he owned last year including six mansions in California, Tesla’s billionaire CEO has taken up residence in a studio-apartment sized rental – here’s what it looks like inside and out.



If you’re looking for the world’s third-richest person, you won’t find him living among the billionaires. After selling off most of his real estate assets and moving to Texas in the past year, Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a> in early June that he now only owns one house (in the Bay Area)—and that his primary residence is a tiny box house that he says he rents from his rocket company, SpaceX. 



The house, which is around 400 square feet, is located in Boca Chica, Texas, where SpaceX produces its Starships. Musk, who has a net worth of $169.8 billion according to&nbsp;Forbes, rents a “<a href="https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/elon-musk-texas-house-boca-chica-16278768.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">foldable, prefabricated home</a>” made by Boxabl, a housing startup company. The house, which Musk tweeted sells for about $50,000, typically has a setup akin to a small studio apartment: One large room partitioned into a living room area, bedroom area, kitchen and bathroom. In contrast to many other billionaires who own lavish mansions, Musk lives in an easily transportable 20&#215;20 foot unit.&nbsp;



“It’s kinda awesome though,” Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> on Twitter last month.



The 50-year-old mogul&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256239554148724737?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">first announced</a>&nbsp;plans to sell all of his homes and most of his possessions last year, in response to criticism of his massive wealth. Musk has now nearly made good on his promise to do so,selling six of his seven properties.



“Only house I own is the events house in the Bay Area. If I sold it, the house would see less use, unless bought by a big family, which might happen someday,” Musk&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1402718368633745410?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;on Twitter last month.&nbsp;



A few days later, he&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1404336639938154497?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">confirmed</a>&nbsp;he had put it up for sale: “Decided to sell my last remaining house. Just needs to go to a large family who will live there. It’s a special place.”



The 47-acre property is located in Hillsborough, California—around halfway between San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The “over 100-year-old mansion” is a 16,000 square foot house that boasts nine bedrooms and ten bathrooms. It’s the last piece of real estate that Musk owns: He has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/891-Crystal-Springs-Rd_Hillsborough_CA_94010_M24423-37895" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">listed</a>&nbsp;it on the market for $37.5 million, having originally bought it for $23.4 million in 2017.



Musk has offloaded his Los Angeles real estate in the past year, often at slim profit margins—if any. He&nbsp;<a href="https://nypost.com/article/elon-musks-houses-homes-sold/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sold</a>&nbsp;his first mansion, located on Chalon Road, for $29 million in June 2020; he had purchased it for $17 million in 2012.&nbsp;



In October, he sold a 2,700 square foot ranch-style house that used to belong to Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder for $7 million (Musk bought it for $6.75 million in 2013), with the&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1256255619239038977?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stipulation</a>&nbsp;that the house “cannot be torn down or lose any [of] its soul.”&nbsp;



In December, Musk sold&nbsp;<a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/real-estate/story/2020-12-30/elon-musk-sells-three-bel-air-homes-for-a-combined-40-9-million" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">four Bel Air properties</a>&nbsp;for a combined $61.89 million; He originally spent nearly $55 million on those properties, purchasing them between 2015 and 2019. Overall, Musk has made an estimated profit of $19.2 million on his six home sales over the past year.



Musk’s offloading of real estate comes after a battle with the state of California. The billionaire criticized the state’s coronavirus-related restrictions on operations at the Tesla factory in the Bay Area last year—<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/05/20/tesla-drops-lawsuit-against-alameda-county-over-factory-reopening/?sh=766e1f59c1bf">leading to a lawsuit</a> that Tesla later dropped—and also claimed that the state takes entrepreneurs for granted. In early December 2020, Musk <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/12/08/elon-musk-confirms-hes-moving-from-california-to-texas/?sh=421191e44948">confirmed</a> that he was moving to Texas, citing the fact that two of his biggest projects—Tesla’s new factory and a SpaceX facility-are located there.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Starbase, Texas <a href="https://t.co/mt4IpqqmjF">pic.twitter.com/mt4IpqqmjF</a>&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1368915472142401540?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



It remains unclear whether Musk is renting any other houses in Austin, though. It’s also unknown if he stays with his girlfriend, 32-year-old singer Grimes (who&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Grimezsz/status/1362064129377394694?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lives</a>&nbsp;in Austin) and their 10-month-old child, X AE A-XII. Musk has five other children with his first wife, Justine Wilson, but it’s unclear where they live.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df37ed215a75b9afaa4e5b%2F0x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="Musk Somera II by Fererico Winer for Forbes"/><figcaption>Somera Street Elon&#8217;s Homes from left to right 954 958 955&nbsp;FEDERICO WINER FOR FORBES</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-954-somera-rd-los-angeles">954 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-29-719-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $29,719,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-september-30-2016-for-24-250-000">Purchased September 30, 2016 for $24,250,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-955-somera-rd-los-angeles">955 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-4-443-000">Sold December 22, 2020 for $4,443,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-july-10-2015-for-4-300-000">Purchased July 10, 2015 for $4,300,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-958-somera-rd-los-angeles">958 Somera Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sold-december-22-2020-for-6-774-500">Sold December 22, 2020 for $6,774,500</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-purchased-january-15-2019-for-6-400-000">Purchased January 15, 2019 for $6,400,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10947 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold December 21, 2020 for&nbsp;$20,948,500</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Purchased July 28, 2015 for $20,000,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10930 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold October 8, 2020 for $7,000,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Purchased October 24, 2013 for $6,750,000</h5>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">10911 Chalon Rd, Los Angeles</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fspecials-images.forbesimg.com%2Fimageserve%2F60df2aafbd04bc615f446fdb%2F1960x0.jpg%3Ffit%3Dscale" alt="10911 Chalon Rd by Dylan Stewart-Newscom"/></figure>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Sold June 12, 2020 for $29,000,000</h5>



<h5 class="wp-block-heading">Purchased December 21, 2012 for $17,000,000 </h5>



By Sergei Klebnikov, Forbes Staff

Billionaire Elon Musk Receives Axel Springer Award

Where Elon Musk Lives Since He Pledged To Ditch ‘Almost All Physical Possessions’

John Rabie is the entrepreneur who transformed the way South Africans build houses. With humble beginnings, he is now known as the man who took 1.25 million square meters of marshy wasteland on the outskirts of Cape Town and turned it into the $1.95-billion Century City.
It’s hard to believe that this co-founder of the Rabie Property Group is the same humble man who was painting buildings in Sea Point 40 years ago, along with his longtime business partner, Leon Cohen.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2016/02/01/inside-house-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Inside The House Of The Future</a>
&#8220;I started as painter with Leon. We formed a painting business. We said to ourselves, ‘hang on a second, let&#8217;s start building’. In those days, there was plenty of land in the southern suburbs in Constantia,” says Rabie.
From his office in Cape Town’s foreshore, filled with memorabilia of his property developments and school photographs, you can see why Rabie has stood at the test of time.
“It took me 40 years. There is no instant gratification to wealth. Property development is not a one-day game, it’s a five-day game,” says Rabie, using cricket analogy. “It’s taking a view for the future. Because we build buildings not for five years but because we want to live in them for 10 or 20 years.”
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Along with Century City, Rabie has been involved in other developments around Cape Town, including Marconi Beam, Westlake Estate, Royal Ascot and Big Bay.
Rabie is also responsible for cluster house developments. This started when Rabie didn&#8217;t have the capital to build the houses from scratch. Instead he came up with the idea of plot and plan, which allowed house hunters to pay a deposit on a plot of land for cheap and wait for Rabie to build it.
&#8220;In those days people bought their own little plots and then they built their houses. So we said ‘ok, we can build these houses on your plot for cheaper’. Then we said ‘hang on a minute, let’s take it to the next level’. We acquired five plots on Constantia, I think we paid R10,000 ($850) for a stand at the time – can you believe that, in Constantia of all places? We said ‘let&#8217;s build a house, finish it and furnish it and landscape it’.&#8221;
The idea took off in the 1980s and Rabie&#8217;s team was building five houses a month.  Soon it was building villages, over vast areas of Cape Town&#8217;s southern suburbs. It then moved on to show houses, giving buyers an idea of what the house would look like, right down to the kitchen sink.
&#8220;You know, what people struggle with is the design. How the house is going to look when the building is done, the vision. We had a beautiful brochure with eight or 10 designs, because the individual owned the plot we could sign a building contract and build that house that they chose.&#8221;
Back in his office, Rabie admits to being a hoarder. He has dozens of books with newspaper clippings and advertisements. It is a personal archive of 40 years of developing property. His proudest moment came in 2004, when he bought into a project that wanted to turn a marshy wasteland of 1.25 million square meters into a mini city.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/woman/2013/12/01/property-industry-shows-green-shoots/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Property industry shows some green shoots</a>
&#8220;The biggest boom to hit this country was in 2001 to 2007 – the world exploded. That was the biggest property boom we&#8217;d ever seen,&#8221; he says.
&#8220;It changed Rabie Property Group, because we now had a city.&#8221;
Fourteen years and an investment of more than $1.95 billion later, Century City has taken shape. These days it is a city-within-a-city; a place where one can work, live, shop and relax. The precinct hosts more than 500 businesses, 4,000 residential homes and is known for its clean and safe environment.
<div id="attachment_35845" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35845" class="wp-image-35845 size-large" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Century-City-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Century-City-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Century-City-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Century-City-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Century-City-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Century-City.jpg 1154w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />The Apex forms the focal point of the new Century City Square in Cape Town. Photo supplied</div>
&#8220;The great thing about Century City is it&#8217;s like a jigsaw puzzle, as the markets change you can change it to have a bit more commercial, a bit more residential areas. When I go inside the conference center or along the canals, I have to pinch myself,&#8221; says Rabie.
One of the latest developments in Century City has been the introduction of a Marriott hotel, the signature brand of the world’s largest hotel group, Marriott International. This brand was ushered in through the recent conversion of the African Pride Crystal Towers Hotel to the Cape Town Marriott Hotel Crystal Towers.
“It’s extremely positive for Century City to showcase a global giant like Marriott. The credibility of the brand internationally adds gravitas to our tenant directory, and we will no doubt see many more visitors from around the world coming to Century City because of the presence of a hotel under this brand,” says Cohen.
By 2010, Rabie had thought he had done all he could do in property. He was traveling abroad when he noticed a trend of inner-city revival. He saw major cities, like Sydney, were rejuvenating derelict buildings in city centers and repurposing them for residential living.
He immediately thought Cape Town could do the same. So, he embarked on co-founding Signatura, the private label property company, to do just that.
&#8220;No one was thinking of inner-city revival at that time. It was going to be very important for Cape Town to have hospitality linked to residential – in other words, intertwined. Our first project was the Radisson. We converted the office into the hotel and put 175 apartments on top, but the apartments have the use of the hotel facilities, the gym etc. That was hugely successful,&#8221; says Rabie.
<div id="attachment_35846" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35846" class="size-medium wp-image-35846" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Radisson-Final-300x212.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="212" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Radisson-Final-300x212.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Radisson-Final-600x424.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Radisson-Final-768x543.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Radisson-Final-1024x724.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Radisson-Final.jpg 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Rabies ambitious Radisson development in Cape Town. Photo supplied.</div>
Signatura recently completed the upscaling of central city landmark, the Safmarine building. It was transformed into an ambitious $100-million residential and hotel development known as The Radisson Blu Hotel and Residence.
It caters to South Africa&#8217;s growing upper middle class who are eager for luxury living close to the city and the ocean. What stands out for Rabie is the way in which social media has changed the way people buy property.
&#8220;We used to have to put flags up on Sunday at 10 o&#8217;clock. We&#8217;d get dressed up in our work clothes. That’s how we did it. If you didn’t get people into show houses on a Sunday, you didn’t sell. With social media, it changed dramatically. You hardly see us advertising in the press anymore because social media is so incredibly strong. We get 10 to 15 leads every day from people on the internet wanting to know about our developments.&#8221;
In five years, Signatura has rejuvenated more than 20 buildings in and around Cape Town – achieving over $500 million in sales.
It seems Rabie made the right decision to give up painting houses to build them instead.

John-Rabie-online

From Painting Houses To Building A $1.95-Billion Development

In the end there was only one way in and one way out of the besieged city of Sarajevo during the final months of the 1990s Bosnian War, after the air traffic had finally surrendered to the small arms fire peppering aircraft fuselages and the unnerving radar locks of surface-to-air missiles.
The era of the easy route to war for journalists was over. They could no longer hitch a ride on humanitarian dawn flights, from Italy and Germany (boarding conditional on bringing your own flak jacket), to arrive for a late breakfast at Sarajevo’s Holiday Inn near Sniper Alley.
The only route for diplomats, aid workers and journalists to the city was a contour road, more like a goat track, traversing Mount Igman’s precipitous ravines and regarded as one of the world’s most dangerous. The final 60 kilometers to Sarajevo was under the sights of Serbian artillery and mortars; the last 25-kilometer stretch was exposed to heavy machine gun fire.
News cameraman Brian Green and a Danish colleague ran the gauntlet in 1995, with no military escort in an armoured Chevrolet Blazer weighing three or four tons. They traveled under the cover of night, without headlights, along the rain-slicked road.
Deep in the danger zone, a wheel sunk into the road’s soft mud; the two dug themselves out desperately, engine revving and wheels spinning, amid the fear of alerting Serbian forces. Arriving on the city’s outskirts at 4AM, caked in mud and knowing the journey was almost done, they were left stranded in no-man’s land for a couple of hours before the French foreign legionnaires, deployed under UN auspices, allowed entry. This was to be Green’s final war assignment.
“It was a little bit crazy. I was supposed to go for a week and ended up being there for 21 days and you basically lose control when you go into that type of environment. I thought maybe it was a bit silly with a young wife and kid,” says Green.
Sarajevo hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics and eight years later the ski slopes were used as gun emplacements to pound the city with artillery; the ski chalets commandeered for barracks. During the 44-month siege the city averaged 329 daily shell impacts, with every building in the city damaged and 35,000 reduced to rubble.
The Serbian snipers provided the unremitting terror, perching in the foothills to hunt for their victims in the streets below. All residents were fair game, including journalists.
Despite the risks, it was a difficult job to walk away from.
“I loved the element of danger, recording history. It was just absolutely fantastic,” says Green.
In 1992, between covering Middle East wars and the death throes of South Africa’s apartheid state, Green and his wife Lulu bought a house in Johannesburg’s old eastern inner city suburb, Bezuidenhout Valley.
“We bought it for R40,000 ($2,800), fixed it up for R40,000 and sold it for R130,000 ($9,100) a couple of years later.”
Green had at first viewed the renovation through the lens of a fast yield, but it was the process that he found most rewarding. With hindsight he realizes the satisfaction was “to breathe new life into old buildings, giving them modernity and dignity.”
However, he brushes off any common ground between war reporting and property development, as he enters one of the rehabilitated buildings on a 30,000-square-meter piece of previous Lorentzville urban decay, several hundred meters from his property investment 25 years earlier.
<div id="attachment_35122" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35122" class=" wp-image-35122" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Victoria-Yards-16-300x200.jpg" alt="Victoria Yards" width="500" height="333" />Victoria Yards (Photo by Guy Oliver)</div>
His latest venture, Victoria Yards, was once the site for the steam washing of the soiled cloth nappies of the city’s middle class offspring. Among the development’s shareholders are Green and his partner Mark Batchelor, and the Enthoven and Brozin families behind Hollard Insurance and the international peri-peri chicken chain Nando’s.
The walls of Green’s Victoria Yards’ “office for now” are draped with signed limited edition prints by Thomas Pakenham, author of the critically acclaimed chronicle of Africa’s colonization, The Scramble for Africa, who in later life went off script to publish his haunting and evocative photographic portraits of trees.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/entreprenuers/2017/10/10/weworks-20-billion-office-party-crazy-bet-change-world-business/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: WeWork&#8217;s $20 Billion Office Party: The Crazy Bet That Could Change How The World Does Business</a>
Green is inspecting a collection of rusted iron horse shoes found at the site with the same delight as a conchologist, while sitting amid regimented rows of industrial light shades imported from India and awaiting installation. He speaks of Mogadishu’s colonial-era Italian classical buildings, Sarajevo’s Islamic architecture, Johannesburg’s “homogenized” mall culture disfiguring and vandalizing the city scapes and a holiday in the Mozambique capital during its civil war.
“I always saw potential in dereliction. I remember going to Maputo in 1989 with my wife and finding a f***ed-up house. And all we could see was how beautiful it was and how we would so love to fix it.”
<div id="attachment_35123" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35123" class=" wp-image-35123" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Victoria-Yards-44-300x225.jpg" alt="Victoria Yards Brian Green" width="500" height="375" />Victoria Yards (Photo by Guy Oliver)</div>
The disposable nappy ended the reusable cloth nappy cleansing era and when Green and his shareholders acquired the property, in 2016, there were an array of small businesses operating; from chop-shops to carpenters and a film set company responsible for the props of the Oscar-nominated South African sci-fi movie District 9.
Green has eschewed replicating the success of his 44 Stanley mixed use development of restaurants, bars and boutiques, that emerged from a western Johannesburg suburban no-man’s land or pandering to the artist and creatives’ colonies in the adjacent inner city suburbs of Troyeville, Bezuidenhout Valley and Doornfontein.
“There has been a massive interest from the art world… But we want artisans. Cobblers, embroiders, potters, tattoo artists, glass blowers, knife makers, those kind of guys.”
There are exceptions to the Victoria Yards’ ideal. The South African artist Ayanda Mabulu, whose explicit sexual metaphors of Jacob Zuma’s South African presidency has drawn ire and praise in equal measure, is taking up residence, along with former teenage delinquent and armed robber Blessing Ngobeni, who reinvented himself to become an acclaimed surrealist artist.
Victoria Yards “needs to look at other ways of resurrecting the place… the area is very poor. There would be a backlash towards gentrification, because what you do is come here, make a nice place and then eject the locals. That’s not cool,” says Green.
<div id="attachment_35124" style="width: 510px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-35124" class=" wp-image-35124" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Victoria-Yards-15-300x200.jpg" alt="Victoria Yards Brian Green" width="500" height="333" />Victoria Yards (Photo by Guy Oliver)</div>
However, the development is not to be confused with philanthropy.
“We are businessmen. We have to make a profit and if we don’t make a profit, I don’t want to be here. We have to make a percentage yield from our investment. But I also think we can improve people’s lives.”
The sprawling property feels too limited for Green’s eclectic designs.
“We want an ecosystem where people can feed off each other”.
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There is talk of a foundry where the film set building operation once was.
“The Cuban ballet school was looking at the place.”
Urban farming is a given, with orchards and food gardens, cooking schools, test kitchens, a tool hire shop renting work tables on short term leases.
“We want a baker, a coffee roaster, a framer, metalworkers.”
Green’s free-wheeling vision might be confused with a hipster on hashish, but there are sound business fundamentals of the value chain underlying it, coupled with the want to provide opportunity for artisans.
Neighboring Victoria Yards is Nando&#8217;s global head office. By 2025, the purveyor of spicy chicken will have 2,100 outlets worldwide. Every six years the stores are refurbished, with the proviso that franchisees source 75% of their interior decor from South African artisans and artists.
“It’s a hungry machine,” says Green, and the Victoria Yards’ tenants will be ideally positioned to feed it. &#8211; Written by Guy Oliver

The War Cameraman Who Saw Gold In Shells

The future is difficult to predict; perhaps the solution for entrepreneurs to stay afloat is to create it.
This is when high-growth asset classes, in the form of stocks, bonds and their cash equivalents, are something that entrepreneurs should enjoy having in their personal portfolios. They make it more comfortable for an entrepreneur to take risks. If an entrepreneur’s business venture fails, an asset class will act as a soft cushion for them to fall upon until they are able to rise again.
Real estate is a safe but overrated investment option. Even celebrities are given this clichéd investment option to safeguard their future. An advantage of real estate is you can choose whether to invest your money in commercial buildings, like office blocks, shopping centres and industrial buildings, or residential buildings, which includes apartments or houses, in the form of holiday houses or rental properties.
But, this is advice anyone can find on Google, or the first thing your financial adviser will tell you. The problem is some of these properties have an annual growth rate that is comparable to leaving your money in a savings account at the bank. Basically, any financial adviser who talks about property as a core investment is an amateur.
Successful African entrepreneurs need to spread their wings and invest in multiple asset classes.
Passive fund management is quickly taking over from active fund management, which charges high management fees, yet rarely outperforms the market. When you claim your money back, the money reflected on paper at the time of payment will be deducted to leave you an amount that will not make you smile.
Larry Fink, Founder of BlackRock, the largest global fund manager with $4.3 trillion in assets under management, noted an emerging trend of massive amounts of money that are flowing from active management to passive management.
Low-cost passive indexation fund managers are not yet popular, but they are the future, with undeniable value proposition. Entrepreneurs who want to secure their family’s future should consider passive asset managers, with guaranteed returns and the option to tailor your indices to those that are performing best in the market.
My advice is to consider becoming an angel investor of about 10 funds in start-ups, and small and medium-sized companies. They can be risky, hence the small percentage, but if you make it, the rewards are huge. This will also be an exciting experience for an entrepreneur to help other entrepreneurs grow, similar to what Peter Thiel did with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. It proved to be the best decision he made after co-founding PayPal with Elon Musk and Max Levchin.
Many billionaires become angel investors in start-ups around the world, from China to Germany, Kenya, the United States and India. They claim the experience is more rewarding than just trading on the stock exchange.
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia, is a small angel investor in Quora, which has built an online community of intellectuals. Steve Case, Founder of AOL, funded dozens of start-ups through his investment firm Revolution LLC, where he focuses on growing them.
Depending on how big your bank balance is, you may consider investing in art, antiques and vintage cars, like Aston Martin, which is one of the few cars on the planet to appreciate with time.
However, paintings and other vintage items, is a game only the rich can play. If you have really made it as an entrepreneur, it will suit you to have these types of items in your portfolio. China’s millionaire art collector, Li Guochang, is preserving his wealth this way.
If you don’t have piles of cash, you need not worry. As an entrepreneur, you don’t need to be it to start participating in asset classes to secure your financial future.

Become An Angel  To Avoid  Investor Demons

Standing in a long queue of pedestrians in Surulere on the mainland of Lagos, Nigeria, Austin Somefun is waiting for an okada (motorcycle taxi). He is on his way to view a new flat for his family, which currently stands at five children and two wives.
“My second wife just had her third child and so we need a bigger space. I have been looking at properties all week but so far, I have not found the right size for my family,” says Somefun.
He is part of the growing population in a country, which according to Reuters, will increase from 188 million to 300 million people by 2030.
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“Population explosion definitely creates a demand for residential property. The Lagos State commissioner for budget and planning estimates that Lagos alone needs to spend $50 billion in the next couple of years to keep up with the 23 million residents in the state and a significant amount of that budget will go towards housing,” says Steven Brown, an economist working with Britain-based Integra Consulting.
According to the Real Estate Developer’s Agency of Nigeria, the country is lacking about 17 million houses with about 60-70% living in slums and informal settlements. The Centre for Affordable Housing and Finance in Africa, estimates that 700,000 more homes are needed each year to keep pace with the population explosion.
Kennedy Okonkwo is founder of Nedcomoaks, an indigenous real estate company vying for this growing market. The company focuses on Nigeria’s middle class who, according to Okonkwo, is underserved. Okonkwo had a brief stint in the IT and human resources sector before a missed opportunity changed his life.
“I was working as a strategic adviser for a company and my part time job in real estate had a deal that was worth N18 million ($90,000). The deal meant I was going to provide accommodation for expatriates and the company issuing the contract was waiting for me to come and see them but I was busy doing a strategy session so I lost the deal to a competitor. I said to myself it’s time to focus on the property business and I resigned from the job,” says Okonkwo.
His love affair with bricks and mortar began when he brokered his first deal as an estate agent worth N260,000 ($1,300). Okonkwo started from scratch; scraping together money for construction while selling Hawes &amp; Curtis shirts to tide him over.
“The landowners had signed over the land for 30 years and most of the families did not have money to build on the land and time was running out. So I approached them and got the land on leases. I got about 22 of them and started building four units of room and parlour self contains and doing resettlement schemes,” says Okonkwo.
Things were looking up for Okonkwo until the global recession hit him in 2008. Most of his clients who invested in the properties could no longer afford the monthly repayments and the banks clamped down on all credit to business. Luckily for Okonkwo, he secured a loan of N100,000,000 ($500,000), which added to the company’s working capital and proved a lifeline.
“Initially, we would look for money to develop one property and once we sold that, we would build three more properties because we would market and get other people to buy more. Once we got the loan from the bank, we were able to expand very rapidly.”
Part of the Nedcomoaks property portfolio is a 92-unit construction of three-bedroom terraces and a new build of 28 units of four-bedroom houses with average prices for his developments at N25 million ($125,000).
Similar to Brown, Okonkwo believes there are massive opportunities within the property market in Nigeria. The Nigerian property sector is valued at $39 billion according to a recent report by CBO Capital, an investment advisory firm based in Lagos.
“I went into the property business because I felt there is a real need for it. For everybody, when you look at your needs, it’s probably food first and then you think of shelter. So there is no way anybody that is providing shelter will get it wrong. I think there are enormous opportunities to tap into in the Nigerian property market today and the reputation of the developer matters a whole lot,” says Okonkwo.
The industry still has a long way to go to satisfy the growing demand. Like everywhere in Nigeria, the foreign exchange (FX) restrictions in the country have hit the property market.
“In the operational aspect of construction, it has a tendency to drive up the cost of the construction because most of the finishing materials are imported and so the restrictions of FX make it difficult to import these goods which drives up the price. On the other hand, a property that was selling at $150,000 can now go for $100,000 if the person has FX, so for these people, there is a higher advantage,” says Okonkwo.
As Africa’s largest economy continues to grow, Okonkwo is gearing up to be the go-to property developer for the growing middle class, one home at a time.

The Miss That Led To  A bullseye

How words can hurt.
Four years into her graduate course studying property law at Kingston University London, Cheryl Ankrah-Newton was tritely told, to her utter dismay, that she may have to give up her dream.
“I am not sure this is the route for you,” said her personal tutor at their final career-planning meeting.
“It is not the type of industry that is suited to a woman.”
The lecturer’s words, though hurtful, were not entirely misplaced. Ankrah-Newton was one of only five females in a class of over 100.
Fast forward a few years, and Ankrah-Newton is glad those words didn’t dissuade her from her chosen path.
She now owns a property consulting firm and has played a role in recognizing the importance of – and helping bring – big brands, like international clothing giant ZARA, to South Africa.
“I was quite naïve in the beginning. I did not realize the challenges that come with this industry is that it is a very male-dominated industry, especially a white male-dominated industry,” says Ankrah-Newton. There was no way she was going to give up.
The eldest of three children, she had to set an example for her siblings. Born in Britain to a mother of East Indian heritage from Trinidad and Tobago, and a father from Ghana, Ankrah-Newton spent 10 of her formative years in Trinidad and Tobago and visited Ghana at least twice a year from the age of 16.
Africa was always on her mind – even though she says in passing she was once crowned Miss Trinidad and Tobago.
Her parents told her no matter what she chose to do, she must do it to the best of her ability.
“My uncle was the one who gave me the advice to be a surveyor. So I looked at the top schools for property law. Kingston was number one for surveying and they also had a decent law school. So I thought that if I go there and do surveying and I don’t like it, after a year I will just switch to law.”
Ankrah-Newton enjoyed the course so much she decided to do it full justice. She studied management, tenant law, land law, investment and development. She landed her first internship with Jones Lang LaSalle, a leading commercial real estate development and investment services company.
“I went in very fearful because of what the lecturer had said to me, but when they hired me it gave me confidence because everyone wanted to work for them. It was an amazing experience because it made me realize that the property industry could be fun.”
But Ankrah-Newton’s lecturer was right; the industry was patriarchal. She secured her next position with Land Securities, Britain’s largest commercial property company, to help develop one of Britain’s largest shopping malls.
“The funny thing was the tutor who told me I couldn’t do it, taught me shopping center development but had never worked for such a prestigious company,” says Ankrah-Newton.
She also soon gained experience at another top real estate firm, Hammerson, before deciding to shake things up. She had an interest in retail development, where she developed a passion for being creative, and yearned to be part of something bigger.
“Even though I had worked with such prestigious organizations, I could not really say I built this building in Birmingham, because I was really a small part in such a big engine,” she says.
Her husband, who at the time was moving to South Africa for his new role with Google, helped her decide on making the move to Africa. She took this as an opportunity to explore her entrepreneurial side. She had realized she had it in her when organizing events in Britain to earn extra money.
It led to her starting her own property consultancy firm, Illuminate Africa Group.
“Consumers are still not given enough choice when in Africa. I believed we needed an infusion of some competition and the best way to do that was to bring some international brands into the mix because the African consumer is ready for change and diversity,” she says.
Although South Africa has a market for luxury retail, she says it lacks properties to house formal retail trade. She believes international brands will no doubt provide more choice for high-end shoppers, but she also understands the limitations of this model.
“You will still get the ones who will fly off to London to shop and unfortunately we won’t be able to bring those shops here yet, but there is scope to bring the big international brands, once we get the basics right.”
And where better to build on this hope than in Sandton, Africa’s richest square mile?
Ankrah-Newton currently works with Liberty, the owners of Sandton City, one of the largest shopping centers in sub-Saharan Africa. She was also a part of the mall’s Diamond Walk project, featuring exclusive, high-end stores.
Ankrah-Newton is determined to claim her rightful position in an industry she was told she did not belong in.

Cheryl-etch

All Things Big  And Mall

Two years ago, Uber was unheard of. Today it’s a buzzword. You could argue that Rudolf Makopole Malaka has been on the same fast track. From humble township beginnings to a property on an estate; with three Uber cars and three companies – he owes it all to the mobile app.
Uber gives drivers the opportunity to be the CEO of their own company – they own their own cars and set their hours. Connecting riders with drivers through a smartphone app, users submit a trip request, which is then routed to Uber drivers. Since 2013, the online ride-hailing service has taken off in South Africa.
“People lack jobs. We decided to join Uber – not just to make money but to create job opportunities for our fellow brothers who don’t have jobs because we know how hard it is not to have a job. We’ve been there,” he says.
“I spent weeks eating only Weet-Bix. You go to school on an empty stomach, you walk long distances. I don’t want my kids to go through that, I don’t want kids from the location to go through that,” he says.
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After getting his degree in IT, he was unemployed and disheartened.
“I’ve been jobless and I’m a qualified auditor and qualified in IT. You go to school, you get the qualification but you don’t get the job. You wait, you go to interviews, they say they’ll call you but they don’t call you. You can’t just sit around and wait,” he says.
He brainstormed new opportunities. He started his first company in property development which grew into construction and image consulting – styling people, homes and their businesses. Riding on the momentum of his success, he started an IT company and became an Uber partner. A far cry from scouring through the classifieds and being rejected at interviews, he now makes about R150,000 (around $11,000) a month. With a fleet of three cars and looking to expand to 15 by next year, business is booming.
“Uber is a platform to make a change. We will have five cars by the end of the month. That’s five families we’re feeding. We’re making a change,” he says.
It should be so simple but Uber has faced its fair share of challenges. In June, cab drivers in Paris locked down the city in protest; operations were banned in Germany after a court ruled that Uber violated transport laws; in South Korea employees linked to the company were charged with running an illegal taxi firm; and in South Africa, metered-taxis are demanding a clampdown on the new kid on the block. They claim it’s operating illegally, flouting regulations and putting passengers at risk.
“A meter taxi attacked me. I was protecting the client. I said ‘you can smash my car, you can do whatever you do, but not to my client’. He was trying to pull my client. The problem is that they don’t understand competition. They say they’re taking our customers but what about other public transport? It’s a client preference to use us. We don’t scout for clients, we’re requested.”
Malaka sets himself apart from the rest by putting his drivers through his image consulting business. Putting professionalism at the fore, his drivers are dressed to impress, paying attention to every detail from the cut of the suit to the color of the tie; the radio station and temperature are adjusted for the customer; and a charger and auxiliary cable are always made available. His drivers go through training every month to ensure that their Uber ratings stay high.
“We want to empower them – they work for us for only two years. We want our Uber drivers to buy their own cars. We give them advice, we make sure that they know how to save. Then we hire other people. It’s a chain – we’re empowering you, we want you to empower someone else.”
“I moved up. I go back to where I came from because I know I left people there who helped me to get where I am. You can’t forget where you come from. I employ people from the townships because I know the struggles,” he says.
He’s driven and he’s making it, one Uber ride at a time.

From Down  On His Luck  To Uber Bucks

Richard Maponya was trained as a teacher that never taught but he has enough students in business to fill a stadium. In the 1950s, a young Maponya did everything, from selling clothes door-to-door, meat to butchers, BMWs and property to the wise and wealthy. He endured oppressive apartheid laws and was shunned at every turn. Despite this, he has built an empire that is an inspiration to budding entrepreneurs.
In his retirement, Maponya, 88, still finds time to do business on his computer in the comfort of his home in Hyde Park, a suburb north of Johannesburg. In this winter’s afternoon, we met him settled in his study suited and booted. Around him, myriad photographs with prominent people, from Nelson Mandela to Richard Branson, tell his story. Amid these pictures are the Order of the Baobab, an honor from government for his contribution to entrepreneurship and the economy.
It is some minutes before Chichi walks in, for the father and daughter catch-up, from a meeting with a Nigerian delegation for Brand South Africa.
Together, they reminisce about their struggles from a small shop in Dube, Soweto, to what is today the Maponya Group.
“People often remarked that this girl Chichi, had she been a boy, she would be just like me. But I don’t see a difference… I am very happy with her personal development. It is so pleasing when a parent sees a child stepping into her father’s or mother’s field when one is still alive. I am witnessing what Chichi is doing, representing South Africa. She’s now an asset of a nation,” says Maponya.
Maponya’s remarks go down well with his devoted daughter.
“She was a very humble and loving child when she was growing up. I knew there was something in her because she would do things that reflected some intelligence in her. I knew then she was going to be somebody. Now the evidence is before us. We can see what she has become,” says Maponya.
Chichi beams, hearing this. She could have been 12 again.
“I thank the foundation my parents made not only for me but for every South African. So many black people looked at my dad and said, wow, if he could start from such humble beginnings and make such an impact in the economy and their communities under such harsh and difficult conditions. And here I am, I have better opportunities now and there’s access to capital. Why would I want to fail? So a black child looks at it in that perspective. And then you have a different narrative. There are white people who say he’s such an inspiration because against those odds, being a black person, having everything against you, and you succeed. What would stop me as a white South African with everything going for me, not to succeed? Either side sees this as our South African legacy. We dare not fail,” says Chichi.
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Maponya interjects to instruct Chichi to fetch a printout of an email on a mahogany desk.
“Absolutely, on that point, can you read this to prove what you just said?” he says.
“Dear Dr Maponya, I trust all is well. I am a big follower of you and respect you greatly. You are my role model and it would be a great honor to meet with you and help us and advise us in business. It would be a dream come true to meet with you in person and listen to how you started and where you are right now. Myself and my son have a fairly new business&#8230;,” reads the email.
Maponya says these frequent messages keep him going.
“For people to recognize what I have achieved during the difficult times in South Africa, I am humbled. During apartheid, black people were not meant to be businessmen. When I first came to Johannesburg, I wanted to be a businessman. But white government said no, you are here to sell your labor, if you want to be a businessman, you must go back to your homeland,” says Maponya.
Maponya acknowledged the influence of the Brazilians. He took Chichi with him to Brazil, in 2010, for business. Brazil once had an unemployment rate of 40%. Within 10 years, the country managed to reduce the number to 5%, he says.
Maponya sent Chichi to meetings when she was still at school.
“I was very fortunate to be mentored, the word mentoring didn’t exist at the time but when I reflect now I realize that was mentoring. Being taken under the wing, with my mom, we sat down and did books; going to meetings and negotiating business on behalf of family. That was mentoring,” says Chichi.
With Chichi in the driver’s seat, the Maponya legacy is guaranteed to live on. Like her father, Chichi has roped in her daughter Palesa Mabuse. Palesa is managing Chichi’s side business in outdoor media called Nalesa Media. Chichi also has Maponya Medical Solutions, which supplies medical equipment to hospitals.
“When you look at our history, there are not too many South African black businesses that succeeded the second generation. Most of them die with the founders. There’s that responsibility in me now that says I need to change the curve. I need to make sure that in my own little space, what was taught to me by my parents, I am able to pass on to my children. Hence when my daughter showed interest to work with me, I embraced it. I am nurturing her,” says Chichi.
“That was my teaching. When they went to school I would ask what other children carry at school. If they say it’s 20 cents, I would give her 20 cents. When she asked for more, I would say alright, when you come back you must come to the store and earn it. There was never money for nothing,” says the older Maponya.
After obtaining a BCom degree in economics management and marketing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Chichi worked in a project management company; Black Like Me; South African Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE) and Kwezi Asset Management, for more than a decade. She then returned to work with her father and their first project was Maponya Mall, her father’s holy grail, valued at R650 million ($52 million).
“When I finished my tenure at Kwezi, I went back to my dad and said I am back now. I had known they had always wanted to build a mall but they had not succeeded in doing it. I said let’s start now. You are the brains, you are the experience. Here is the fire now,” she says.
It took Maponya almost three decades and a string of lawsuits to carve out the first shopping mall in bustling Soweto, a township south of Johannesburg. In 2007, the former President Nelson Mandela launched the mall.
“I always knew that I will go back and work in the family business and take over and run it. I worked in the family business since I was in school. I would come from school and do my homework, go to the shop and the garage…
I left the comfort and the cocoon of the family business. Papa and Mama were very strict. I guess they were trying to protect us from being complacent,” says Chichi.
Maponya Mall has caught the attention of investors abroad.
“This last week I entertained a Venda chief. They say to me please, come and build a Maponya Mall in Venda. The same plea came from South Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria,”
says Maponya.
Beside family business, Chichi is leveraging her name with Brand South Africa on the continent. In 2012, she was appointed chairperson of Brand South Africa after she served as a trustee since 2009. The tenure will run until March. In 2008, she was voted ‘woman of the year’ by the Businesswomen’s Association of South Africa.
“In 2009, when we were appointed, Brand South Africa didn’t have a domestic mandate. So the domestic mandate was established that year. We changed the name from International Marketing Council to the current name. One of the attributes of a brand is its people, especially when it’s a national brand,” says Chichi.
They have a huge mandate, therefore, it calls for collaborations with other government departments and private sector to get the work done, she says.
Chichi is concerned that the attacks on foreign nationals in the country can taint relations with other nationalities. But she says these are isolated incidents that could be challenged by creating employment for the youth.
“In adversity, we rise stronger and more united. This has unified us as African people. It has brought us so close together. When you look at migration across the continent, people are looking for better opportunities and prospects… We don’t have Africa that’s in crisis. We don’t have Africa that is in war. Gone are those days. Africa is moving forward,” says Chichi.
Father and the fire – no one can ever put them out.

IMG_8876

Father & Fire

Stella Buthelezi has a confession to make.
“I don’t know how to write a CV, all my life, I have practically been self-employed,” she says. Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, to a family of business owners, Buthelezi had a privileged upbringing, and has never had to work for someone else. Moving to Johannesburg in 1998 post marriage, along with her husband, she has been a businesswoman, her prime areas of interest being the mining and commercial property industries.
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“They [the staff] call us Mr and Mrs B and we’ve got a few offices [in Johannesburg] , London, Australia, but whenever he walks [into an office] – which I always find funny – everyone gasps, and when I walk in, everyone is like ‘oh there she goes’, because I am always screaming from the door,” laughs Buthelezi.
At home too, she says she is the CEO. She professes a love for beautiful things, so evident in the aesthetics around her.
“This house was meant to be our house,” says Buthelezi when we meet her in her sprawling golf estate home in Dainfern, Johannesburg. Buthelezi’s six-bedroom, seven-bathroom abode is a striking, modern monolith featuring a glass façade.
The glass door at the entrance leads to a grand stairway with a gurgling waterfall under it that runs as a feature throughout the house. Besides the natural acoustics, each room in this high-tech home is fitted with speakers and a sound-system. On the walls of every room are pictures of the Buthelezi family. In the entertainment area is a framed photograph of American singer-songwriter Ne-Yo posing with Buthelezi’s son on one of their overseas trips.
Buthelezi’s idea of a warm, inviting home is the alluring aroma from the kitchen.
“Even if I am not here and we are dining out, I have trained my helpers that there [should] never be a time when you open the fridge and there is no food – it is a cold house then,” she says.
Buthelezi’s favorite room in the house is the private lounge, so private it does not boast any intrusive gadgetry – no television or electronics here, only beautiful Italian furniture, lots of reading material and a view of the garden and pool.
“I love the peace and quiet, we get to read, we get to talk.”
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The fancy gadgets are reserved for the private home cinema – cleverly concealed behind a door in the bar area – where the family gets together for movie nights.
There are luxe reclining couches – complete with cup holders and ‘B’ symbols on them for each member of the family – in this roomy private theatre fitted with a state-of-the-art screen and acoustics.
Buthelezi has it all but being a wife and a mother is what she says she is most proud of.
“It’s possible you can be a mother, you can be a wife and you can still be successful.”

IMG_4292

Sound Investment

From the heart of the Lower Zambezi National Park hundreds of miles from a town or on the streets of Lusaka, the name Mark O’Donnell is as common in Zambia as the Victoria Falls or Mosi Beer. On the streets they call him the Mall Man; the Zambian who made his fortune building places to stay and shop. In business, he is known as a ruthless strategist who wants to make money and cannot make it fast enough.
“Zambia is a small market but it’s a growing one, at six to seven percent a year, for the past 14 years. The economy of the country has grown much bigger. We’ve been fortunate to make investments when the time was appropriate… we just wanted to build a shopping mall,” says O’Donnell.
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O’Donnell is a born and bred Zambian and has walked a meandering path to riches.  At 18, O’Donnell was selling auto parts for someone else. But he dreamed of being an entrepreneur. Times were tough in the 1980s, when private money struggled in a socialist state run under tight regulations. Strangely, at a time when there was little to buy, he thought that malls could be just what Zambia needed.
“It was very difficult to do anything in Zambia. Ninety percent of the country was controlled by the state. You would drive around in Lusaka and all you would see were queues of people lining up to buy whatever commodities were in the stores. There were a lot of hardships,” he says.
This hardship led to riots and ushered out the 27 years of power for Zambia’s president Kenneth Kaunda and its policy of control. Frederick Chiluba led his Movement for Multiparty Democracy in the elections in 1991 on a ticket of free enterprise. Despite the freeing of the economy for private business, things got worse for O’Donnell. Private business was shrinking by the day.
“In the 1990s, business was pretty bleak. We were just plain contractors at that point, and we were just trying to find work. It was almost impossible to get regular types of work, so we had to be innovative. We had to figure out how we were going to make projects. So we went and designed our own projects,” he says.
O’Donnell decided to build a mall to keep his business running. Despite his fears, the Arcades Shopping Centre was built in 2003 and brought in a number of South African franchises, putting Zambia on the map for investment.
“Many people wondered why we were building a shopping mall when the market seemed like it was struggling,” he says.
It brought fame to the farthest reaches of the country, even to the far flung bush of the Lower Zambezi National Park. Hundreds of kilometers away, Joshua Chizuwa, who has been a game ranger for more than 40 years, has heard of him.
“I used to work as a construction worker for him during breaks from the bush a long time ago. O’Donnell was as a hard businessman, ruthless in his deals. I have seen his buildings rise and Lusaka has grown from his ventures. He’s changed the face of Lusaka,” says Chizuwa.
According to Trevor Simumba, a Zambian-born managing director of the Sub-Saharan Consulting Group, within Lusaka O’Donnell is regarded as a progressive businessman who saw the liberalization policies of the MMD in the nineties as an opportunity rather than a challenge.
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“He was very helpful to me when I was starting my career in the consulting field. At one point during a very difficult career transition, Mark said to me ‘Trevor it is always darkest before dawn’. This simple but profound statement helped me through and I always tell myself that whenever I face a challenge. Zambia is privileged to have Mark doing his business in Zambia. We need more role models like this in business in Zambia,” says Simumba.
O’Donnell also went into the hotel industry. It was a failed game lodge that saw O’Donnell go big. He negotiated a deal with Africa’s largest hotel group, Protea Hotels, a chain that has been targeted by Marriott International.
The first hotel O’Donnell built was in Chingola, in northern Zambia’s rich Copperbelt Province. He says it was a disaster.
“We opened it in the same week that Anglo American pulled out of Zambia. It wasn’t the best start to a hotel chain. There was zero occupancy for a couple of years,” he says.
It has taken 13 years of fighting back to expand seven more hotels. He is currently building his eighth in Lusaka, next door to his mall.
As the largest owner of hotels in Zambia it makes sense that O’Donnell wants tourism to boom. Until recently, he has been critical of the government’s efforts to encourage visitors. Tourism currently accounts for a mere 2% of Zambia’s gross domestic product. In August, the government announced a turnaround strategy to increase this to 7% in line with neighboring Zimbabwe. It has won over O’Donnell.
“You are talking about an industry that needs to double in size over the next five to 10 years. Our current arrivals are about 900,000 a year. If we take out non-tourist visits, we are probably looking at 300,000 tourists. I think what we would like to see that number grow to about 600,000 high spending visitors. We need to increase the visit to arrivals in Zambia. That’s our first priority. To raise Zambia’s profile in the key source markets and increase interest to come into Zambia either through leisure tourism or for business travel. Certainly both components have interest,” says O’Donnell.
Tourism in Zambia is difficult. O’Donnell says a ban on Zambian aircraft by the European Union (EU) has discouraged North Americans and Europeans.
“The agents won’t book internal flights due to insurance reasons. It’s purely to do with some technicalities that the EU won’t deal with, with our civil aviation authorities,” he says.
But his greatest challenge lies with Zambia’s marketing. According to O’Donnell, 60% of wealthy foreigners in North America, Asia and Europe have never heard of Zambia.
“Our customers demand a high quality sort of product. Just because this is Africa it doesn’t mean you can’t offer top class products to the market. Zambia is generally unspoilt, an environment untouched by commercialization. In some places in Africa you would find 20 minibuses around a lion, this doesn’t happen in Zambia. You can’t compare what we have with London and New York, but you have something different,” he says.
In a city that was little more than dirt roads, O’Donnell had a dream that many struggled to envision. Where people queued for hours to get their hands on commodities he saw malls with refrigerators. Today, O’Donnell’s buildings run alongside tarred roads and Zambians are eager to see what his next dream will be.

The Mall King And His New Toys

The exponential growth of Africa’s middle class has been heralded as a key driver of economic prosperity by many analysts. Their spending capacity and disposable funds are cause for optimism among investors keen to cash in on Africa’s economic momentum. But while the super-rich can splash out on palatial homes and properties, the underbelly of Africa’s middle class (many of them state employees such as teachers, police officers and health care workers), struggle to become homeowners. Their dilemma: they earn too little for banks to risk providing them with credit, but too much to qualify for state assistance.
This applies to countries such as South Africa, where the government provides assistance that enables people to enter the mortgage market. But one company, International Housing Solutions (IHS), has turned this cris-is into an investment opportunity. A member of the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association, IHS is the only private equity company that focuses on affordable housing in Africa. It partners with financial institutions, real estate developers and local government authorities to provide equity finance for housing projects.
“I have always believed that one can do good business while also doing good,” says IHS managing partner Soula Proxenos.
A self-styled ambassador for Africa, Proxenos has been in the affordable housing industry and development sector for 18 years. She believes that if you want the “big dollars” to roll in, you need to find a profitable business. Although she hails from South Africa, Proxenos is based in Washington DC, close to her investors.
As a woman in the mortgage and development sector, she is candid about prevailing attitudes towards her gender. She says the sector is “pretty male-dominated”.
“One is not invited into the room, while at the same time one is not exc-luded from the room,” she explains.
While many women are involved in the non-governmental sector in housing, Proxenos believes they are selling themselves short if they only work for non-profit institutions. “Women still say: ‘we didn’t do this for the money’.” They need to get over this, she urges, arguing that charity, while noble, is not always sustainable.
Her company is a pioneer in recognizing the potential of affordable housing (so-called gap housing) in developing markets. It has opened up a valuable new sector for investors. Simulta-neously, IHS helps thousands of families afford a home and start the journey to wealth creation through property ownership, the bedrock of sustainable middle classes the world over.
IHS’s first fund, the South African Workforce Housing Fund, has committed more than $230 million to providing affordable housing in emerging markets, while also generating superior risk-adjusted returns. Buoyed by the success of her South African venture, Proxenos is now venturing into the rest of Africa.
The International Finance Corp-oration (IFC) and South Africa’s National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) have also recently announced investments of more than $63 million in IHS’s second fund. IHS Fund II will support the development of affordable housing in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. The financial commitments are timely, and come as IHS prepares to expand its footprint.
“With our second fund, our thesis remains the same&#8230; Because of urbanization and the growth of the middle class in Africa, the need for housing across the continent vastly outstrips supply, especially in the category of affordable housing.
“In countries with a functioning mortgage market, that need translates into market demand. This offers investors the opportunity to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns.”
She says the second fund will consist of two sleeves. One will invest in South Africa and the other will invest in Ghana while also targeting other sub-Saharan countries.
“Demand outstrips supply in many markets in Africa, and where the right conditions exist, the sub-Saharan sleeve of Fund II will invest in some of these markets. Our main focus will remain South Africa, but the sub-
Saharan sleeve will start to proactively source deals in Ghana, Botswana,  Namibia and Mauritius,” she says.
“There are many great opportunities for affordable housing investments across Africa, and we’re optimistic that Fund II will deliver excellent returns for investors, as our first fund is showing.”
However, operating in Africa is never hassle free. Nigeria, the second-largest economy on the continent, presents particular challenges for the mortgage market. These include sec-urity of tenure and ambiguity around title deeds, which makes investors risk-averse, Proxenos points out.
Prior to the removal of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, that country had to spend millions building out its systems, trying to rationalize land and property that had to be titled.
“In Egypt there is a 12 percent tax to have your property re-titled!” she exclaims. And in Nigeria, under former president Olusegun Obasanjo, some measures were introduced but they did not yield the required dividends, she says.
However, the opportunities in Ghana leave her optimistic. While much of the land is traditionally owned, it is also clearly titled. Ghana is stable and the rule of law is entrenched and respected, which makes it an ideal growth opportunity.
“We are excited about Ghana. In Ghana, 5.7 million rooms need to be added to existing homes. There is a robust mortgage market in many countries on the continent. Namibia, Botswana and Mauritius are all examples and Ghana is taking the same direction,” Proxenos says.
Quality housing is a key deliverable for many African governments, which are tying their infrastructure rollout programs to economic growth. But without private sector buy-in, governments cannot deliver on their promises.
Saleem Karimjee, the IFC’s senior manager for Southern Africa, says: “Providing affordable basic services, such as access to quality housing, is a priority for IFC in Africa. IHS Fund II offers an attractive opportunity for private investors to gain access to a fast-growing market with significant positive social impact. IFC’s commitment will stimulate investment growth and job creation in sub-
Saharan Africa, demonstrating that our support can help catalyze additional fundraising.”
So far IFC has committed $25 million to the fund.
On the South African front, where housing remains a challenge almost 20 years into democracy, the IHS Fund II could not have come at a more opportune time. The general elections are just around the corner and the country’s public and private sectors have come to the housing party, enabling thousands to share in the joys of homeownership.
Samson Moraba, who heads up the NHFC, says the corporation is committed to ensuring that all South African households within the affordable housing market have greater access to appropriate homes, in terms of both size and location.
“Our goal is to enhance the well-being and quality of life of the low- to middle-income households with the security of a home, as well as an opportunity to create wealth. We firmly believe that our deliberate strategic partnership with IHS will unlock the delivery of housing at scale, and ultimately lead to the creation of sustainable and attractive communities, where people can live, play and pray.
“We are delighted with this investment because not only will it accelerate delivery of housing, but it will also contribute toward foreign direct and private sector investment, as well as job creation,” he says.
Among global investors, the narrative about Africa’s middle class is one of optimism. Proxenos says there is a buzz about the continent in the world’s capitals, including London, where many investors are based. She is adamant that countries such as South Africa, where the market is “huge”, need to get the fundamentals right.
“Don’t score own goals! We need to put a united foot forward that includes the government and the priv-ate sector. The trust deficit needs to be overcome.”
Proxenos singles out South African ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, praising his efforts to get investors excited about Africa. Because, ultimately, she says, “you can’t close the deal without an investor”.

Filling the gap in the housing market

For many years, property has been a safe haven. It is an asset that guarantees appreciation over time. However, due to the investment amount required, many middle-class buyers are able to own only one property at a time – at most. More affluent people have the privilege of investing in more than one property, sometimes in several cities.
But thanks to the stock market, individuals are licensed to buy real estate shares, which are far more reasonable. However, there is a certain amount of risk attached, depending on the cycle of the property market.
Before I go into the real estate sector of the stock market, I want to look at property in Africa in general. Property can range from a house to an office, from retail to commercial space.
As African countries develop at a phenomenal rate, due to resource exploration, the need for property infrastructure has escalated. Africa, which was once a continent that investors shied away from, has become a rough diamond. More and more investors are attracted to the sub-Saharan reg-ion’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of more than 5%.
According to real estate agency RE/MAX: “There has been a massive shift towards encouraging foreign investment in Africa and the continent is on the move. Large businesses are seeing the potential that the continent is currently yielding and are eager to expand into the region and take full advantage of the opportunities.”
Furthermore, a McKinsey report states that the continent’s consumer-facing industries are expected to grow to $400 billion by 2020‚ representing Africa’s largest business opportunity. The rapid urbanization and the blossoming middle class in Africa are contributing to the success factors for retail. Modern shopping malls and office complexes are being built across sub-Saharan Africa.
Property investment is growing rapidly, particularly in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Uganda and Zambia. It is attracting a lot of property developers, private equity funds and high-profile global investors. As a result, shopping malls are mushrooming in Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia.
South African retailers are also exploring the potential in the rest of Africa, with MTN, Shoprite, Woolworths, Game, Standard Bank and Pick n Pay moving north to expand their businesses.
Shoprite, which aims to have bet-ween 600 and 800 stores in Nigeria, partnered with the Resilient Property Income Fund to build 10 shopping malls in the West African nation in 2010. The deal was worth more than R1 billion ($100 million) and also involved Standard Bank and construction giant Group Five Holdings. Shoprite has also opened stores in Maputo, Matola, Chimoio and Beira in Mozambique.
Other retailers like Walmart-backed Massmart‚ Pick n Pay‚ Woolworths‚ Mr. Price‚ Foschini Group and Famous Brands are also expanding into Africa. Pick n Pay set the ball rolling after opening stores in Mozambique in 2011, and another five in Zambia.
Woolworths has a mixture of franchise, joint-venture and wholly owned stores in Africa. The company is negotiating to buy its franchise business in Botswana, which comprises 22 stores. Currently, Woolworths has a presence in 12 African countries, including South Africa.
As the hospitality sector reaches maturity in South Africa, many hotel groups are eyeing the rest of the continent, which seems to have a lack of quality hotels. Protea Hotels recently signed a deal that will see it moving into Rwanda. It is also building new hotels in Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda at a total cost of more than $100 million. Protea is planning to expand into at least three more countries within the next couple of years.
Research conducted in 2013 by the W Hospitality Group consultancy has reported that the companies leading the way are Hilton Worldwide, with 6,230 rooms in its African pipeline; Carlson Rezidor with 5,947 rooms; Accor with 5,165, and Marriott with 3,900.
Housing in Africa is a necessity, but nowadays the type of house takes precedence. Property owners are becoming more lavish and certain areas in the continent’s cities are appreciating exponentially.
Some of the properties in Lagos, Nig-
eria, which has a population of about 20 million people, are among the most expensive in the world. Two-bedroom flats cost more than $1 million in upmarket areas.
The most popular units fall within a price bracket of N20 million – N35 million ($124,000 – $218,000). Nigeria’s middle class, which makes up about 23% of the population, earns about N80,000 – N100,000 ($500 –$620) a month, according to a report by investment bank Renaissance Capital.
In addition, Nigeria’s construction and real estate sectors are growing at more than 10% and 12%, respectively, which is a big winner for local companies.
In Kenya, the economic recovery that started in 2003 influenced a
revival of real estate prices. At first, only the luxury market capital values were rising, but recent indicators show a resurgence in the lower middle-income segment.
After five years of stability, house prices are increasing significantly. According to real estate company Knight Frank, the Nairobi sales market can be divided into two. The first consists of the owner-occupier buyers, which dominate the KSh10 million – KSh20 million ($115,000 – $230,000) market, which is where most of the transactions occur. The second is the investors and speculators that operate above KSh20 million ($230,000), and are mostly wealthy individuals and institutions. Foreigners in Kenya can freely buy ‘commercial class’ land, which is land for income or revenue-making purposes.
JHI Real Estate has had to open several branches in Mozambique as the country experienced a strong demand for retail that reached the masses. It has other projects on the cards, including plans to transform downtown Maputo. The 380,000m² FACIM (Maputo International Trade Fair) development is located on prime land and will include retail stores, hotels, offices and a residential component.
With its picturesque islands, private investors are looking at buying residential properties in Mozambique as second homes. Prices range from $275,000 to $1 million, depending on the ocean view.
Now that I have given a brief outline on how development in Africa is becoming opulent, let us look at the property real estate shares on the stock market. Not forgetting the construction companies, for without them, there would be no property development.
When applying my technical analysis expertise and looking at property in the longer term, the construction sector, as I said recently on CNBC Africa, is my “new black”.
The Construction Index lost almost 60% of its value in the 2008 crash and has been struggling to replicate the same bullish momentum it had before. Instead, it has traded sideways over a five-year period. How-ever, recently, the index has breached the major resistance trend line that has kept the bear trend at bay for the past five years.
This is a significant move, which seems to have warmed the hearts of many investors who were reluctant at first to dabble in an industry marred by negativity and recurring bad earnings.
With the construction sector showing some green shoots, we expect the index to recover its previous losses and possibly repeat the bullish years of 2003 to 2008. In other words, current levels are very attractive, and this bullish call is a one- to five-year forecast – a buy-and-hold investment.
This call applies to the Real Estate Index as well. I have analyzed a few construction shares listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) below, which I find to be good long-term investments.
Group Five Holdings broke out of a five-year bear trend. I expect upside above 4,650cps to add further gains to the 6,200cps highs of 2008. However, a short-term retracement may be on the cards, thus presenting another buying/reloading opportunity.
Murray &amp; Roberts Holdings has recently broken out of a four-year bearish base, with potential upside to the prior high of 6,000cps.
Basil Read is gradually clawing back its previous losses. A move above 1,035cps looks attractive, with potential gains to 1,370cps. Upside beyond that level would end the five-year bear channel, with the target set at 1,830cps.
Besides the property and construction shares listed on the JSE, this industry is rebounding in Africa in general, driven by demand locally and internationally.
Property prices all over the world are bouncing back from lows and are likely to retest previous 2008 highs. It seems as if the burst of the real estate and construction bubble in 2008 is patching up and reflating, but hopefully in a more gradual and practical manner. Investors have hopefully learned from their previous mistakes.

Property industry shows some green shoots

People often say “life is short” as a justification to do or buy something immediately rather than waiting. But the truth is, life is not short. Life is long. The average life expectancy for an American male is 76.2 years, and 81 years for a female. A thirty-year-old discussing a short life may actually be looking at another 50 long years.
This is good news! And, financially speaking, a long outlook on life is important, because the decisions we make early on have a significant impact on the remainder of our lives. Specifically, these decisions can make or break our retirement plans.
Here are seven important financial decisions 30-year-olds make that could come back to haunt them in their 50s:
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<h4>The company you work for</h4>
There are many things to consider when choosing a job, but the retirement benefits offered are vital to wealth-building in the long term. A 30-year-old who doesn’t carefully research his or her benefits and chooses to work for a company with no company match or retirement contribution could  be way behind someone who works for a company with robust benefits. For example, a 30-year-old making $75,000 a year who saves 10% of his or her income in a 401(k) and earns an 8% average return would have a balance of just under $600,000 at age 55.  Compare that to a 30-year-old who saves 10% at a company that matches 5% and adds a profit sharing contribution that averages 5% a year. He or she would have almost $1.2 million in their retirement account – double our first example’s amount – at age 55.
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<h4>Your starting salary</h4>
Even a slightly higher starting salary can jump start your earning potential. A study by George Mason University and Temple University showed that employees who negotiated their starting salaries averaged a $5,000 increase compared to those who didn’t negotiate. Due to the effects of compounding, the researchers estimate that an employee who starts his or her career with a salary of $55,000 instead of $50,000 (with 5% increases each year) would earn over $600,000 more in income over a 40-year career.
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<h4>Your choice of a partner</h4>
Who you marry is one of the most important financial decisions you can make. I’m not advocating you marry for money – quite the contrary. Marrying for love and staying together is a smart financial move. Whether the 50% divorce rate is an accurate statistic or not, we can all agree that when it happens to you, it is devastating both emotionally and financially. The divorce itself can be expensive and dividing financial assets unravels your financial planning. Just ask Robin Williams, who is returning to television after two expensive divorces!
Your choice of a mate isn’t only about love and commitment; it’s also about financial compatibility. If you and your partner are compatible money-wise and commit to setting up a financial plan to save, invest and build your future, you can enjoy life and create financial security at the same time.
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<h4>When you have children</h4>
Americans are delaying having children. In fact, according to National Health Statistics Report, more than one in three college-educated women will have children after the age of 30. In the past few decades, the average age of American first-time mothers has increased by four years, and first-time fathers are aging at the same rate. Since the recession in 2008, the only age group that has continued to have more babies than in years past is the “over 40” group.
In Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In, she encourages women not to pass up promotions because of plans to have children. If you have plenty of support at home, this can be a great idea. Another way to look at it is, if you plan on having children, don’t wait because you are focusing on your career or waiting for financial security. There are advantages to having children earlier.
One reason has to do with timing of kids’ expenses. Consider a couple that has children when they are 25 years old. Before they hit their 50s, their kids are past the very expensive college years. These parents, still young themselves, have 15 years to focus on their own retirement savings if they plan to retire at 65. Couples that have children when they are 35 years old may not see the light at the end of the “empty nest” tunnel until they are 60 – much closer to retirement age.
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<h4>How you invest</h4>
Investing in high-cost managed accounts can take a heavy toll on investment returns over time. According to Forbes contributor Rick Ferri, founder of Portfolio Solutions, those fees can add up to 40% of your return each year. Rick shares an example of how, with annual mutual fund management fees of 1.1% and an additional advisor fee of 1% (on the first $1 million of your assets), an investor trying to squeak out a return of 5.3% (the expected return) of a portfolio of 60% global stocks/40% U.S. bonds could actually pay 40% of that return in fees. Make sure you weigh the long-term impact of fees when investing; consider choosing low-cost mutual funds or index funds for retirement savings.
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<h4>Whether you rent or buy a house</h4>
There are instances when it is better to rent than to buy a house. If you need mobility, don’t plan on staying in your area for long or aren’t interested in potentially being a long-distance landlord, you may be better off renting. However, in the long term, owning your home can be a coup for pre-retirees. Without even taking home equity into account, a homeowner with a fixed-rate mortgage won’t have to worry about a rent increase. Having a fixed housing cost is increasingly important as you get older, since rents can increase with inflation and you are attempting to estimate future expenses. As a homeowner, the mortgage will eventually be paid off and your housing budget will only have to cover taxes and repairs, so there may be more money to enjoy during your retirement.
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<h4>How you pay attention to your dollars</h4>
If I could take back what I spent in the past twenty years on coffee, clothes I bought on sale but rarely wore and my “guilty pleasure” books, I’d be a wealthy woman. Tracking expenses to see where your money is going which you can do with your bank, Quicken, or in the LearnVest Money Center (*disclosure – I work for LearnVest Planning Services) and identifying blind spots can help you save more and spend less. First of all, when you are tracking expenses, you have a heightened awareness of your money and subsequently are more reluctant to part with your dollars.
I hear clients exclaim all the time, “I had no idea I spend $600 a month on restaurants (or $800 a month on shopping). I am shocked!” When tracking, you can more easily identify areas for cost savings and put those savings toward your financial goals.
Mickey Mantle said, “If I knew I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” I suggest that if 30-year-olds knew just how young they’d feel in their 50s and how much life is left to live, they’d take much better care of their finances.
Life is long. Make decisions accordingly.

7 financial decisions made in your 30s that may haunt you in your 50s

Jonathan Liebmann is 29, owns 25 buildings and has lived on five of the seven continents. Now, he has made his nest in a small corner on the east side of the most vibrant city in Africa—Johannesburg.
Johannesburg city was established in 1886, as a farm where gold miners from all over the globe came to make their money. That is where it got the name Egoli—meaning place of gold. In decades to follow, it became the shopping mecca of Gauteng’s elite. Today, all the big banks and businesses have relocated to the northern suburbs and the new tenants are mostly African immigrants looking for a place to make a living; the streets are busy, there are shops at every turn and a multitude of languages in the CBD.
There is a sign that hangs between two buildings on his street, it reads Maboneng— meaning place of lights in Sesotho. It’s a fitting description for a beacon in the middle of a city plagued by crime, dilapidated buildings and grim life. Just down the road, there’s a men’s hostel where even the police are afraid to go.
Liebmann is rejuvenating the east’s run down image one building at a time. The corner coffee shops, restaurants, independent movie house and boutique hotel are abuzz as you walk the streets of Maboneng Precinct.
He has just bought his 25th building, which he will convert into apartments. We stand on the roof of the new building looking down onto another flat roof. Two recycling vendors are having lunch on a two plate stove, they are surrounded by recycled bags containing plastic bottles. This is one of the many facets of Johannesburg hustle.
You could say the streets behind Liebmann are a playground for his entrepreneurial mind.
<div id="attachment_1283" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1283" class="size-medium wp-image-1283" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/380-380_1-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />Property developer Jonathan Liebmann, Johannesburg; 19 July 2012 &#8211; Photo by Brett Eloff.</div>
Liebmann’s entrepreneurial spirit is as young as many of the buildings are old. He made his first profit at 18, at a time when most people hadn’t even thought about buying their first car, let alone buy one. He had bought, renovated and resold an apartment and at 21 he turned an old factory into an office for rent.
“When I was 18, I realized I wanted to be involved in property. I went to university but while I was [there] I started investing in property on a small level. I bought my first apartment that I renovated, with the bank’s money, and then I just worked my way up from there… I enjoy being the pioneer and taking the first steps, so for me that risk was an attraction. And at the same time I was completing my accounting degree so I was working and studying as well,” says Liebmann.
Liebmann bought his own apartment at 20, after a year of nomadic life across the world, traveling and doing odd jobs from construction to telesales consulting. Traveling is something he learnt from a young age, as a child Liebmann moved almost ten times with his divorced single mother and older brother.
“I started thinking about how I could do my own large developments of [loft culture] and started looking for old factory spaces that would have the right type of aesthetic to do that and that’s when I found my first buildings in Maboneng.”
“I traveled all around the world after school and that exposed me to a lot to urban culture,” he says.
And since his return to Johannesburg—the city of his birth—he wants to inject new life into the city; artists, business and residents are following him.
While on his travels, Liebmann went from being a construction worker to a telesales person, skills he would later use in his chosen career.
You can tell from the moment you meet Liebmann that he’s driven. He’s sharp and has an air of confidence that could be interpreted as arrogance when he speaks about his work. He’s got that ‘I know what I want and I know how I’m going to get it’ tone as he tucks his brown hair beneath his ears throughout the interview.
Earlier this year, Liebmann was invited to the World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“I was selected as a global shaper along with 30 other young people from Africa. I learnt about the common objectives of African countries to collaborate with one another in an attempt for Africa to become the next frontier,” says Liebmann.
While we sit at a corner coffee shop, a number of people greet him as they pass by. Liebmann and his vision are growing in stature in this area of decaying factories and empty buildings, which is a living manifestation of the saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.
Not only has it managed to attract people and money back into the city but it has also put his family back together.
His mother owns a coffee shop, his father owns a gallery and his step-brother works here too.
It’s a risky investment.
One minute one area could be the trendy spot where the masses flock and in a number of years may degenerate and experience flight.
His architect, Enrico Daffonchio says property goes in cycles in every city of the globe.
“There is a spectrum of different perspective [on its potential], however the spectrum of opinion from the cynics is reducing… Cities get renewed throughout history, it’s not a new thing. There are tax incentives to refurbish those areas. [So] there’s tax incentives and governments copy each other ,” says Daffonchio.
How did Liebmann get people to Maboneng and does he think they will stay?
“I think initially the challenge was changing people’s perceptions of the city. Yes, it’s a continuing struggle but it’s far easier as we grow block by block… I think Johannesburg is at the beginning of its curve of regeneration. There’s a long way to go [but] it’s certainly showing promise… You’ve got to build spaces that attract people back…”
Property economist and University of Capet Town lecturer, François Viruly says it’s not the government’s duty to upkeep the city.
“The role of government is primarily to ensure that an environment is created that encourages private sector investment in the CBD&#8230; I don’t think that there is anything wrong with the private sector owning buildings in the CBD. Urban decay is a problem that local governments have faced across the world. In South Africa, the decentralization of commercial space has invariably left CBDs with high vacancy rates.”
These are vacancy rates which Liebmann is grabbing with both hands—a dream he is creating one building at a time.

One Man’s Trash  Another Man’s Treasure

When Ruth Obih completed her legal studies she could see law and nothing else.
“I wanted to be a lawyer so badly, I was bent on it! That was my passion,” she recalls with a smile.
It didn’t work out that way for Obih. After practicing for a year, her first legal firm decided not to retain her. It was a blow to her dreams, to say the least. Few knew then, including her, that this set back was to put her on the path to a fortune.
Obih forgot law and made a 180 degree turn into fashion. She enrolled at the London College of Fashion and returned to Nigeria with her newly acquired skills.
“People always admired what I wore. So, when you tell me you like what I’m wearing, I’d tell you I sell it,” she says.
Fashion whiled away the time, but Obih yearned for more.
“I get bored really easily and always set new tasks for myself. On achieving them, I move on to my next task,” she says.
So it was back to London, where Obih enrolled for her Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test (QLTT) in the hope of practicing law again. While studying, she interned at a property law firm and became intrigued by the business of real estate. With no formal training in property, thoughts of using her legal skills in the real estate business flooded through her mind.
In 2006, Obih started 3Invest Limited UK, in London—a company focused on providing legal advice and property for those wanting to invest in real estate. A good response in London, led to thoughts of how this kind of service would fare in Nigeria.
Obih moved back to Nigeria later that year. She registered 3Invest Homes in Lagos and began hunting for properties to market with her legal advice.
In January 2007, Obih made her first big sale—a property worth millions of naira. She moved money from her thriving fashion label—Ruru Tunics—to secure the deal.
“I never went to the banks to ask for a loan. I almost have a phobia for that,” says Obih.
Sale after sale, 3Invest grew in leaps and bounds, as did Obih’s ambition.
“Yet again, it was time for me to do something different, I had toyed with the idea of starting a real estate advocacy platform using radio,” she says.
It took a number of approaches to radio stations and months of uncertainty. In the end, Obih’s proposal was accepted leading to the launch of Nigeria’s first real estate radio show, in March 2011, called Real Estate on Air.
“This show, is geared at empowering the Nigerian populace and helping them make better informed decisions when investing in real estate, the program is a one-stop shop, for real estate in Nigeria,” says Obih.
She also runs a real estate blog, driving traffic to the radio show.
With a fashion brand; a growing real estate business and a radio show under her belt, Obih is not done yet.
As a business woman, Obih describes herself as shrewd and dynamic.

Tag: Property

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