Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa June 2013 | Page 11

J

an le Roux is a veteran in the residential
property game, with almost 30 years
of experience in the business. Jan is the
founder and CEO of Leapfrog Property Group,
which he built from scratch in 2007 with ex-RE/
MAX CEO, Bruce Swain, who is now the MD
of Leapfrog.
Jan is originally from Klerksdorp, where he
completed his schooling. He left Klerksdorp in
1971 after he obtained a law bursary to study at
Rand Afrikaans University (now the Univer sity
of Johannesburg).
After three years of studying law, Jan became
a prosecutor. He resigned at tea time on the first
day. Jan says that after two and a half hours on
the job, he realised that a career as a prosecutor
was not for him. Nevertheless, he had to work
for government for three years to pay back his

UPFRONT
The Leapfrog story
The result of a collaboration between Jan and
Bruce Swain, former CEO of RE/MAX South
Africa, Leapfrog has a truly unique value
proposition in the South African real estate
industry. It is South Africa’s first empowered
residential real estate group, 70% owned by
The New Deal trust (the object of which is the
empowerment of black estate agents in South
Africa), with former Scorpions head, Bulelani
Ngcuka, Nazeem Howa and Jan acting as
trustees.
Jan says they set out to shake-up the
predominantly family-owned real estate agency
industry in South Africa. Leapfrog offers it
agents a radically improved earning potential
over the current industry status quo, as well as
financial security in the long term, which has
been sorely lacking in the industry.

“Leapfrog focuses on enticing the best
agents in the country by offering
them an opportunity to build
their own wealth”
bursary, after which he worked for Santam for a
year in project finance.

The property bug bites

Always an entrepreneur at heart, Jan started
his own estate agency business in August 1983.
Megaland Properties operated in the Northcliff,
Weltevreden Park and Rand Park Ridge areas
in Johannesburg and presented Jan with a major
learning curve. In the same year he and 19 other
estate agents formed The Property Association,
which became known as the PA Group. In
1986, he became chairman of the PA Group and
converted it into the PA Group Limited.
In 2003 PA Group merged with BetterBond
and became known as the PA Betterbond
Group, since then the country’s biggest bond
originator. It owned and published magazines
and newspapers and had an interest in the
Property Guide (now Property) through The
Star newspaper. The company also launched
Homefinder, which is now published under
the name Property Junction, and acquired the
Property Professional. In 2006, Jan sold his shares
in the business.
www.reimag.co.za

Given Leapfrog’s aim to be one of the top
national agencies selling real estate in South
Africa within a few years, the company needed
a strong team. As a result, it focuses on enticing
the best agents in the country by offering them
an opportunity to build their own wealth
with a commission and incentive structure
that is unparalleled in the real estate industry.
Additiona lly, Leapfrog agents have the
opportunity to acquire shares in the company.
Jan says that much of the success Leapfrog
experienced stems from their ability to find
good people who can be trusted. “I believe in
partnerships,” he says.

Plying the property trade
Jan says all his personal assets are directly held
in real estate and he has always held property in
his investment portfolio.
He first started investing in property when
he was just 21 years old. After completing his
studies, he served as an officer in the army in
Pretoria for two years. It was during this time
that he teamed up with an auditor friend in the

JAN LE ROUX
Personal Statistics
Age: 59
Qualifications/Experience:
Law degree at Rand Afrikaans
University (now called University of
Johannesburg)
Marital status: Married with two
daughters. They both live in Cape Town
within 500 metres of Jan’s home.

Close-up
Mentors: Jan believes you can
learn from successful people, such
as Warren Buffett, whose unique
investment philosophy suggests that
buying a stake in a company can
be your best investment. When Jan
was Chairman of the PA Betterbond
Group, he worked closely with MD,
Rudi Botha, and learnt much from
Rudi’s business skills, despite Rudi
being younger.
Books: Jan is an avid reader of books
and enjoys biographies, novels and
political books. He is the proud owner of around 2 500 books, excluding
his library of iPad book downloads.
He has read countless stories of men
and women who had great purpose and high ideals, and reached
incredible goals, despite obstacles or
circumstances that would deter the
average person.
Motto: It always about people. If you
have the right people with the right
attitude, you can teach the skills.

June 2013 SA Real Estate Investor

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