own bathrooms , access to Wi-Fi and a fridge was critical to being approved as a provider . When the pandemic hit , having these things in place helped our students a lot ."
Safety was also a possible concern when the pandemic began , as many rental properties were vacated and suffered vandalisation because they were empty . And as Steven remained hands-on , maintained his property well and has a caretaker onsite looking after the students ' wellbeing , his building was always occupied and protected from this kind of safety risk .
" One student actually stayed on the property the whole year , only going home when his exams were finished , because the facilities were better suited to studying than what he had access to at home . He helped keep an eye on things when everyone else was away just because he cared about the space . He ' s passing with distinction and is still living at Urban Lofts . That makes me feel really good about what we ' ve done with this building ." says Modise
This is Modise ' s first foray into property entrepreneurship on this scale . " I ' ve always wanted to get into it but never had the capital available , I believe in the power of refurbishing abandoned , vandalised buildings to uplift communities . The first property I ever bought was just such a property
26 MARCH 2022 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine and was being used for illegal activities . It was unsafe for the community , and I went to great lengths to acquire it and fix it up . It wasn ' t a big site , but it did give me an opportunity to build reliable contacts that do good quality work and that contributed to the success of Urban Lofts "
“ There ' s always going to be a new intake every year , and so you might have regular turnover but you ' re never going to run out of new tenants .”
Modise came across the property that would become Urban Lofts when he was helping a friend look for an opportunity in property . Modise says " My friend didn ' t go for it , but I decided I would . I wasn ' t sure I ' d qualify for financing , but then another friend put me in contact with TUHF . The moment I walked into their offices I was greeted with a huge smile and such a willingness to help me . I told them which property I was interested in , and it turned out that they had recently done a valuation and looked at the rental income potential of the same site . They shared that information with me , and between July when we started the discussion and December when transfer went through , they were extremely supportive ."
The configuration design of the property was all Modise ' s ideas . He