With its roots in residential property, the Pam Golding Property Group has pursued growth aggressively in recent years and is now involved in virtually every sector of the property market.

Emerging as the largest residential real estate group in SA, the group sells everything from hotels to farms and mostly recently moved into the competitive property auction market.

The group, which started off in 1976 with a single residential real estate office in Kenilworth, Cape Town, now has 225 residential real estate offices in major metropolitan areas. Pam Golding Property Group also achieved R13bn worth of residential sales for the year to February this year.

Group CE Andrew Golding cautiously estimates that the group has secured 5% of the South African residential property market. "Optimistically we would say we are heading towards 10%," says Golding.

That is no mean feat considering the total new mortgage book in SA is of the order of R140bn a year.

In the past two years the group has also concluded significant deals in the residential and commercial divisions of its business.

On the commercial side, Pam Golding Properties announced a joint venture with agricultural services company Afgri in March last year.

The venture entails marketing commercial farms using Afgri's specialist technical expertise to evaluate the commercial potential of farms. In August this year Afgri Pam Golding Commercial Farms said it had 900 farms listed on its website.

Pam Golding Property Group, together with an empowerment group, also bought a significant interest in property services company Gensec Property Services. Pam Golding's interest is 20% and the new entity, Gensec Property Services, has about R13bn worth of property under management.

Earlier this month Pam Golding Commercial launched Pam Golding Commercial Auctions in a bid to cash in on the lucrative commercial auction market.

Pam Golding Commercial, the commercial property division of Pam Golding Property Group, says the current trend, which emanates from Australia, is for multiple auctions, in which a number of properties are auctioned at a central venue.

Golding says that half of Pam Golding's residential property offices are company owned, and half are franchises.

The residential business also houses an empowerment division, which is responsible for the opening of empowerment offices around SA.

Then there is the game farm division, which sells game farms as leisure properties.

A further component of the residential arm is the Pam Golding Signature Collection, which sells properties worth more than R20m.

Although Golding says it is difficult to establish what the group's market share is in the various metropolitan areas, it has more than 50% of the market in certain residential areas.

One of these suburbs is Bishop's Court in Cape Town.

"The top end of the market is our stronghold.

"That is our core business and that's where we've been successful," says Golding.

He says that if there is a variation and they operate in a suburb that is not necessarily the top end of the market they will aim to sell the "best properties in that suburb".

Pam Golding's special projects division focuses on the sale and marketing of golf estates, while its international division markets properties in Mauritius, the Seychelles, Africa, Europe and the UK.

On the commercial side, the group operates a hotels division, which is involved in broking and management consultancy to the major hotel groups.

A new business under the group's commercial arm is the Vacation in Property (VIP) division, which is a "mix of residential and hotels". VIP offers fractional ownership opportunities to property investors.

Golding says the VIP division offers people an asset which gives them the amount of usage that suits their holiday needs with all the benefits of a five-star hotel.

The group also has a partnership with mortgage originator Mortgage SA, a sectional title administration section and a broking division.

Golding says there is ?huge potential? for growth within each of the group's divisions.

Golding says they would like to grow market share in every region they operate in.

"We believe it is possible to double our market share.

"The property market, both commercial and residential, is constantly evolving and changing. For us the job is far from done and that is just in SA.

"From an international perspective we are ambitious and see significant opportunity to grow the brand."

Business Day
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge