Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2013 | Page 13

FEATURES

J

onathan Broll is the non-executive
chairman of Broll Property Group, one
of South Africa’s largest independent
proper t y ser v ices prov iders. Jonathan
prefers to keep the incredible success of his
company low key and attributes this success
to the people he is surrounded by, the sound
relationships he has established and calculated
risks taken along the way. He has seen five
booms and busts in the property cycle and
major political upheavals, yet he has always
remained optimistic about South Africa and
Africa’s prospects.
Jonathan built up his company through
steady growth. Today, Broll employs more
than 1 000 skilled property practitioners in
South Africa and more than 200 people in
West Africa, managing a R62 billion property
portfolio comprising of some 14 000 leases.
Broll has grown significantly from its humble
beginnings and has also expanded into a wide
spectrum of property services. Broll now offers
property and utilities management; shopping
centre management; retail, commercial and
industrial leasing; investment sales; corporate
real estate services and valuations.

But he took immediate action and in the
following month, January 1975, he opened
the doors of Broll Property Group, starting
out in residential property management as
a rent collection agency in the lower income
areas in Cape Town, such as Brook lyn,
Rugby, Ysterplaat and Woodstock, as well as
other areas established property management
companies avoided. He learnt the hard yards
of property management from door knocking
and collecting rent. He gradually advanced to
take on and manage Broll’s first commercial
building and expanded into office leasing. In
mid-1976, business came to a virtual standstill
for six months in the wake of the Soweto riots.
Fortunately, unlike most property companies
that focused on the transaction (broking) side
of the business, Broll’s focus was on property
management.
This focus provided a solid, stable foundation
and an annuity income. Jonathan believes it
was the right decision for the company to
follow that route at the time, as Broll grew
stronger and stronger month by month.

“Today, Broll employs more than 1 000
skilled property practitioners in South
Africa and more than 200 people in
West Africa”
Jonat ha n is a proud bor n-a nd-bred
Capetonian. During this time he studied
pa r t-time at UC T and qua l if ied as a
Chartered Accountant (CA). Discovering
that accounting did not suit his personality
and ambitions, Jonathan started working for
Camelot, a small property company in Sea
Point, which specialised in selling property
investments and sectional title blocks of
f lats. Soon afterwards he joined Herbert
Penny, another property company, for a short
stint before taking up his last job in June
1974 with Robert Katz, a large construction
company, where he managed their portfolio
of properties. When the company collapsed in
December of the same year, Jonathan - now
27 and married with one child - found himself
unemployed.
www.reimag.co.za

Jonathan recalls that when he started the
business 38 years ago, there were few systems
in place to support them - no computers,
no copiers, no fax machines - just an IBM
typewriter. Nevertheless, Broll built on a
strong base in Cape Town and gradually
grew the business into new areas of expertise.
In 1983, Alan Wallace joined Jonathan and
expanded the business into the transaction
business. They took on more institutional
clients and placed a strong emphasis on
systems, developing customised computer
systems which they have been improving
continuously for 27 years. Today, Broll’s
management systems are ISO certified and
four software developers continue to update
and fine-tune the systems.

JONATHAN BROLL
Personal Statistics
Age: 65
Qualifications/Experience: CA (SA)
FRICS
Marital status: Married to Idia
(for 41 years) with 4 children and 9
grandchildren

Close-up
Mentors: Jonathan’s early property
clients were experienced and very
demanding. Learning how to meet
their high standards and expectations helped him raise the bar. Yet
he remains grounded in terms of his
achievements. He has always valued
independence, including owning
his own business. He likes to interact
with strong people who have different opinions and are not scared to
voice them, and prides himself on his
flexibility and ability to change his
mind when presented with a valid
argument. Jonathan believes that he
has been fortunate in assembling a
quality team of people, who combined their efforts to create a strong
corporate culture based on integrity
and to deliver service excellence. This
has been the foundation for the success of the business.
Books: Jonathan enjoys reading
history and biographies, but the book
that had the biggest impact on him is
Dr Anton Rupert’s biography, which
taught him t