RAEL LEVITT
Court as a teenager led him to his first auction – a method of sale that would ignite a fervent passion in the property business .
By 17 years old , he regularly attended property auctions mainly in the Cape Flats , using his bar mitzvah money to pay for deposits in the underserviced areas . By 20 , he ’ d bought and sold 20 bank-foreclosed houses .
Q & A WITH RAEL
What inspired you to enter the property industry ? My mother was a parttime estate agent , and my Dad was a conveyancer . The property market was always dinnertime conversation , and it inspired me to start selling houses the moment I left school .
Where did your journey to success start ? What were the key milestones or challenges you faced along the way ?
While studying at the University of Cape Town , I started selling houses and bought my first property at 19 years old in 1989 . I conducted my first auction on behalf of Absa Bank Ltd and founded my first auction company at the age of 21 , Levco Auctions .
Three years later , I sold Levco Auctions to Seeff Holdings Ltd and merged the two companies . At the age of 24 , I was appointed CEO of the merged company that was renamed Seeff Auctions . After delisting Seeff Holdings Ltd in 1998 , I completed a management buyout of Seeff Auctions , renamed the company Auction Alliance , and became its CEO . In 2006 Auction Alliance sold a 25.1 % stake to Amabubesi Investments , and in 2010 , a 31 % stake to Transaction Capital . By 2010 Auction Alliance ' s turnover was over R300 million , with sales of over R6 billion . In 2011 , after a well-publicised dispute arose at an auction , I resigned as CEO and voluntarily closed Auction Alliance .
In 2016 I completed two master ' s degrees , one at UCLA in the United States and another at the National University of Singapore .
SA Real Estate Investor Magazine APRIL / MAY 2023 22