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