The 9th of May marked a significant day for various women in and around Gaborone, Botswana – as young women from all industries gathered in Sky Lounge to discuss the lucrative opportunities found within real estate investment.
For women of in the youth spectrum, it is usually unlikely for one to think of property investment – because of the great sums of money it requires, we usually limit our options to short term assets such as that well known trip to the stock market.
However, realizing true investment lies within the property sector, a sector that does have risks, but the long term fruits one can bear from it seize to rot. Speakers Mpho Moremong-Gobe (Managing director of NG properties) and Sethebe Manake (Vice President of Real Estate Institute of Botswana) shed highly important information one needed to equip themselves before tapping into the industry.
Moremong Gobe shed light on the real estate industry, giving us litigative and key information some of us within the audience had no idea of, while giving sound advice to youth. She noted that home ownership and real estate investment are two different entities – investment in real estate expands to direct multi-residential ownership, office and retail properties. One of the key factors a property investor must have is patience – due to its relatively low risk factor in comparison to other assets , property investment bears fruitful rewards that come in time. It’s not a quick get rich scheme, unlike what has been told about the industry. However, successful investors turn to real estate investment for realized wealth.
Manake on the other hand, gave us a seven step guide on what we need to know before business investment, ranging from understanding economic and political climates before investment, to building your own team of professionals who will be able to guide you through property investment. Intriguingly, Manake compared real estate investment to business formation – in the aspect of creating your own real estate plan and setting your own targets. Usually, new investors tend to build their own version of ‘dream estates’ only to realize later that the market that would reside in such an area cannot afford uneccessary luxuries that were fitted into the property.
In a nutshell, depending on your risk appetite, young people do have the opportunity to invest in real estate, even with the low balance in your account today. It starts primarily with making a contingency plan, and building investment capital through other avenues of capital building, outside of banks.
