SCOTT PICKEN
PROPERTY GOING GLOBAL
At the age of 21, I left South Africa for the UK and also to travel and
see the world. I had done well at the University of Cape Town (B.Sc.
Construction Management cum laude), and had expected to be a CEO
of a top development firm in London within a few months. The reality,
however, was that I found myself sweeping a construction site for my first
job. I was lucky though, and worked my way up quickly, including doing
a full-time Master’s programme at Greenwich University in London
(M.Sc. Construction IT, cum laude), on top of a full time job. At the
age of 22, after reading Real Estate Riches by Dr Dolf de Roos, my friend
Warren Pearce and I bought our first property back in South Africa. It was
in Cape Town, a five-bedroom house near UCT with great zoning. It was
my first true experience of buying an international property: a property
in South Africa, from London