Celebrating its 20th year in the South African real estate industry, RE/MAX of Southern Africa announced in January that Z Capital Properties, a prominent black-empowerment firm, has purchased a 45% ownership interest in the company. This decision was made in order to position RE/MAX for continued growth in all markets in the next 10 years.
“We have taken this important step to show the industry and our local clients that we are serious about leading the industry into the next decade of real estate,” said Peter Gilmour, chairman of RE/MAX of Southern Africa.
As the largest real estate company in South Africa, with more than 2 200 agents and sales exceeding R22-billion, RE/MAX of Southern Africa operates in 10 African countries.
“The Department of Human Settlements and the EAAB have in recent statements and in proposed legislation to be implemented in 2015 shown that transformation is very high on their agenda, and RE/MAX wanted to be the first real estate group out of the top six groups in the country to introduce black ownership at the highest level,” said Gilmour.
Yolanda Cuba, chairman of Z Capital, said, “We are very excited to pioneer black ownership in the largest real estate group in the country and plan to be closely involved with the growth and developments of our entrepreneurial estate agents going forward.” Amanda Jivhuho, CEO of Z Capital, said she was looking forward to taking the leadership role in the real estate industry and to working closely with the EAAB and the government to unlock the huge potential there is for home ownership in the country.
The BetterLife Group facilitated the financing of the deal and intends to offer increasing opportunities to RE/MAX offices and agents to increase their income in the future. “Our vision is to continue growing our market share in our traditional markets with experienced, producing sales associates who provide an ethical, professional service to their customers,” said Gilmour. “We will, in addition, provide a system for entrepreneurs who have the ability to be the next real estate stars to become producing sale associates who can build a sustainable career in the real estate industry.” He notes that nearly 30% of the current RE/MAX membership in southern Africa consists of agents of colour, many from disadvantaged communities around the country, compared with the industry number of about 5%. “We plan to grow in 2015 with the many entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds who presently have no employment and who would like to build a business in the real estate arena.”
RE/MAX has also entered the affordable-housing market with the establishment of RE/MAX Kairos in Soweto, and it plans to grow this market rapidly in 2015 to assist first-time homebuyers in investing in their first home.
RE/MAX of Southern Africa CEO Adrian Goslett said, “In the next five years our goal is to double our agent count by moving into areas we do not serve at present and to continue to improve our professionalism and service to our real estate customers.”
In 2015, RE/MAX intends launching exclusive, innovative technology for its agents and will also open an in-house training and licensing school for entrepreneurial estate agents. Personal development programmes will be introduced for experienced agents and a number of prominent overseas trainers will be in South Africa to train RE/MAX agents. “RE/MAX will fully support the EAAB’s One Learner One Office programme and will use the training and licensing school to facilitate this,” said Gilmour.
