Real Estate Investor February 2022 | Page 11

PAUL JACKSON
Jackson believes that if you are going to be serious about urban densification then you must start getting serious about many smaller projects and not only on big developments such as Cosmo City , Sky City , etc as you can rather get that scale through many smaller interventions . Many smaller projects are a huge opportunity for TUHF and their market niche is the R50 million investment space and below . Urban densification , repurposing and conversions of office and light industrial properties into residential units , fits in with what TUHF does .
Investment Trends Affordable housing in the city is where the sky ' s the limit for them and are very optimistic about the future . Johannesburg inner-city has seen a massive increase in supply . With the pandemic , three of the major sectors including financial services , sector and government and students are all working from home . Very little new development has occurred during the last two years . This decrease in supply , together with demand as organisations return to office-based work , points to recovery . Their pipeline is looking healthy in Johannesburg from being a laggard over the past three years . It is looking at being one of the most promising markets . Cape Town residents spend a greater proportion of income on housing than other markets and rentals are at least R1500 more than other markets such as Johannesburg . The rental returns in Cape Town makes new-build a good option there . eThekwini has demand for nano units with many weekly commuters . There is also a strong student focus .
Career Highlights Jackson sees the formulation and successful launch of TUHF as one of his first major highlights and achievements . His second major highlight was in 2009 when TUHF ’ s book reached R1 billion which was achieved in only 6-years which he says they actually outgrew themselves . His goal is to take TUHF to R5 billion in the next few years . His third major highlight was coaching the South African rowing team to a gold medal victory at the London Olympics in 2012 .
Biggest Challenges In 2018 one of Paul ’ s biggest challenges was keeping the company on a growth trajectory in difficult market conditions . TUHF grew faster than they expected and when it came to funding this growthliquidity was their biggest constraint . They pulled back on growth expectations as a result of insufficient liquidity . Much work on our Treasury function has largely resolved this constraint , increasing disbursements toR900m per annum , poised to do a R1 billion per year . Closing Credit during the hard lockdown and the effects of a preexisting weak economy has resulted in decreased profitability . It was matching operating capacity from a carthorse to racehorse which exceeded growth expectations .
His second biggest challenge was in 1999 when learning about the construction industry and the procurement of construction services . The first deal he did was the old Landrost hotel which was once a five-star hotel in the inner-city of Johannesburg that previously hosted the rich and famous . The conversion of
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