How TUHF enables the ongoing journey to property ownership success
INSPIRATION
Every journey begins with a single step
How TUHF enables the ongoing journey to property ownership success
It has been said that every journey begins with a single step. For Thomas Chauke, the owner of Gardenia at 149 Johnson Street, his journey towards becoming a successful property owner began by walking 10km to, and 10km from, school every day.
After moving to Pretoria upon matriculating, he started another kind of journey, one that took him into property development. His first acquisition came about through a chance opportunity to buy a property from a friend. Chauke had some experience already in being a business owner, with his entrepreneurship beginning by buying and running a driving school.
After obtaining his degree in Electrical Engineering, Chauke worked for Eskom and then Telkom as a technician. With the money he earned from the driving school and his career, he made his first investment – a single unit in a building – and quickly saw the value of having a predictable rental income every month.
22 DEC / JAN 2022 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
Enthused, he set himself a goal of obtaining five buildings. However, he soon realised that the capital outlay to purchase buildings was considerably more than required to purchase single unit apartments. That is when he turned to TUHF for help.
“ The first building I wanted to purchase was valued at about R20 million. The requirements from other banks were very difficult, but I found TUHF to be much more user friendly,” he explains.
His purchase of Gardenia in Pretoria was unique in that it is part of a bouquet of other properties. Gardenia consists of ten 1-bedroom units and ten 2-bedroom