Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa March 2013 | Page 14

MASTER INVESTOR
National footprint
About 26 years ago, one of Broll’s biggest
institutional clients, Allan Gray, bought a
building in Johannesburg. This motivated
Broll to open their first office in Johannesburg,
which is now the head office of Broll. Serving
some of South Africa’s largest listed property
portfolios, Broll now has nine regional offices
in South Africa.
Broll and CB Richard Ellis entered into
an affiliation agreement in 2004 and Broll
continues to represent this global giant across
sub-Saharan Africa. This association with the
world’s largest property services company has
enabled unequalled international connections
and access to best practice and cutting edge
systems in line with global benchmarks.
Broll is committed to BEE on the ownership
front. A k hona Na lapha Investments, a
black women-owned property company, is a
significant shareholder of the company, along
with Catalyst.

The introduction of Catalyst
Broll itself does not invest in property, but
established Catalyst as a group company to
provide property investment and property
development services. Catalyst has built up a
significant private property portfolio over the
last 14 years. Catalyst Fund Managers, which
invests in the listed property sector on behalf of
institutional clients. They currently have R9.5
billion in funds under management, as well
as a global real estate fund in Guernsey. This
global real estate fund has been Morning Star
rating agency as the best overall worldwide
performance in this sector for the past 3 years.

African growth
Today, Broll Property Group’s strategy is to
become pan-African. Broll Property Group
has fully fledged operations in Ghana, Malawi,
Namibia and Nigeria and provides services in a
number of other countries, including Angola,
Botswana, Kenya and Zambia. Services across
Africa include property management, broking
and leasing. Broll´s portfolio of property under
management outside of South Africa is valued
in excess of R6 billion. Future plans include
opening offices in Zimbabwe, Rwanda and
Mauritius.
Jonathan’s experience in Africa has been
very positive. He says that Broll has worked
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March 2013 SA Real Estate Investor

closely with its clients, growing with them
into Africa, and also leading the way for a
number of retailers to expand into the rest of
the continent. He believes this is in part due to
the fact that they don’t staff the business with
expats, but rather employ local people who
are well-educated and have an excellent work
ethic.
Broll aims to remain the market leader into
Africa and believes that in the future, more
than half of its business will be derived from
Africa beyond South Africa’s borders.

It’s about the people
The company’s growth, according to Jonathan,
was achieved through commitment to their
clients, service excellence and maximising
the property potential – abiding by an ethos
of managing properties as though it belonged
to Broll and its highly trained and experienced
team of property specialists.
In 2002, with the aim of improving the skills
of Broll staff members, the Broll Academy
was established - the first of its kind providing
in-house training for employees in the
commercial, retail and industrial property
sectors. Most employees who have completed
Academy cou rses a re f rom prev iously
disadvantaged backgrounds. The training
has helped them improve performance and
advance their careers within the Group.
Broll has also introduced two new training
programmes – internships and learnerships to
develop skills within the company and within
the industry.

“Jonathan
believes that if you
train people well
and delegate
properly, team
members often
exceed
expectations”
Jonathan believes that if you train people well
and delegate properly, team members often
exceed expectations. For this reason, the Broll
team consists of specialists who are authorised
to run the business and who are trusted by
management to make the right decisions,
which they invariably do.
Now, at age 65, Jonathan believes he can
add value by sharing his knowledge and
experiences in the business, providing strategic
guidance and contributing to new goals and
objectives. Looking back at his life, Jonathan is
certain that he has no regrets about any of the
things that he has done. And he is courageous
and bold in his quest to ensure he will never
regret things he had not done.

RESOURCES
www.broll.co.za
www.catalyst.co.za

JONATHAN’S ADVICE FOR PROPERTY INVESTORS

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Property investment is one of the best wealth creation strategies.
Rent is the best form of income.
Gear Other People’s Money (OPM) to enhance return, but gear prudently, not recklessly.
Know the local market and understand value.
Be persistent.
Buy well and sell well.
Choose an area of specialisation, whether residential, office, industrial or retail.
Understand the past, know the present, but realise the future is always unknown.

www.reimag.co.za