From Growing Up in a Tin House to a 380 Unit Development by the Age of 27
In this week's podcast, we talk to Lebogang Lebepe, a 27-year-old real estate investor and developer. He holds 4 finance qualifications and is a business accountant by profession.
Lebogang has an inspirational story - he was born in a skwatta camp (informal settlement), or as he says - a tin house - and was the first in his family to graduate from high school and go to university and get a degree.
He started off his career as a business accountant where he met real estate and development clients as well as professionals. He soon noticed that most professionals, who had the funds, didn't have the time to invest in real estate so he started a property fund to help them get started as property investors.
He bought land in an affluent area and built 18 2-bedroom units. It took him 6 months to fill the units with tenants. After reviewing the company's real estate strategy, they realized the development didn't fit the strategy and they sold the units for R12 million (US$696,000) and made a 300% profit.
His company changed strategies and started focusing on developments in the township, renting to young professionals who are looking for affordable, secure and comfortable housing.
In the last 2 years, they've done several developments and are currently working on 6 developments, one of which is in Roodepoort and comprises of 380 units and will commence construction in November 2020.
This is another incredible and inspiring guest and this episode covers a lot of ground in a short space of time.
