Meet Richard Matengambiri of Rawson Properties Harare

1. Alright, thank you so much Richard for agreeing to share your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?

RM: Thank you for affording me this opportunity to be part of this interview. It’s a long story but to summarize it I must say since I was in primary and high school through to the University, I was a firm believer of financial independence through entrepreneurship. So I made sure that everything that I was doing must point or head towards establishing my own business that can impact the world especially through sustainable employment creation. So you would understand that with that kind of mindset you are not satisfied until you establish your own business entity. Late 2006 I just felt that I had worked enough and acquired enough experience and confidence, and ready to face whatever challenges that would come my way, so I incorporated RM-Africa Property Consultants together with my co-partner Elizabeth Matengambiri, which started trading and operations in 2007, with a big vision to list on the stock exchange and have impactful presence in Africa. Because of that vision in 2010 I acquired the international Rawson Franchise brand  from the Rawson Property Group so that I could easily expose myself to doing business at international level and that has proved to be one of my best decisions ever, as we are one of  top 5 property companies.

2. Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next can you provide an overview of Rawson Properties and its mission in the real estate industry in Zimbabwe?

RM: Rawson Properties is an international franchise headquartered in South Africa, and our mandate is to serve the Zimbabwean market. We are currently operating with 2 offices, our Head Office is in Eastlea and Branch office is in Borrowdale. In total we have 50 highly experienced and motivated team members. As a brand our mission is to help our chosen target market buy or sell their properties, at the highest possible market price within the shortest period of time, in a hassle free manner, and providing well researched and professional property valuation to help our clients make well informed decisions.

3. Tell us about your experience as a real estate agent and your areas of expertise. What sets Rawson Properties apart from other real estate agencies in Zimbabwe?

RM: I have over 20 years experience in the real estate industry practice specializing in Property Sales, Property Development , and Property Valuation & Advisory Services. As such I am a qualified and certified registered estate agent with The Estate Agents Council of Zimbabwe, and Registered Valuer with The Valuers Council of Zimbabwe, and  a member of The Estate Institute of Zimbabwe. 

Over my career I have helped multitudes of people to become homeowners and investors with distinction as evidenced  by a number of notable and prestigious awards that I have won for example National Business Hall of Fame Certificate of Recognition 2023. Zimbabwe Business Awards Business Man of the year 2020. CEO’s Network Outstanding Leader in Real Estate Property Management 2020. Zimbabwe Business Awards Business Man of the year 2018. National Business Awards CEO of the year 1st Runner Up 2018. Megafest Leadership Awards Leader in Real Estate of the year 2018. Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, Best entrepreneur award 2015. The Zimbabwe Institute of Management  Manager of the year and 2nd runner up 2012.

Coming to the second part of the question, I think what sets us apart from the rest of the other fellow agents in the industry is the unique focus in training and development of our most vulnerable asset i.e the human capital by intensively focusing on training on key issues that matters most to our chosen target market like the marketing capabilities selling and deal closing and superior customer service. So a huge investment in and training development in our team members through our Rawson Training Academy from our  International Property Group in SA has always given us a unique position in the market in how our team members pay attention when it comes to marketing customers properties, selling and closing deals and a great emphasis on superior customer service to our customers so that they are  always happy and want to continuously do business with us.

4.How would you describe the current state of the real estate market in Zimbabwe, and what challenges and opportunities do you see?

RM: My personal view is that generally the real estate sector is on an upward trend, and this cuts across all sectors. In the residential sector there is a lot of construction activities of houses across the country including some previously marginalised rural growth points. And that’s why the building material suppliers are busy. I have also witnessed a significant increase in the construction of more successful and notable commercial retail Neighbourhood Shopping Centres like the recent Highland Park Shopping Centre in Harare. Industrial and tourism sector has not been left behind, for example the New Pomona Industrial Park and Sunway Industrial Parks have proved to be success stories.

The real estate sector presents a lot of opportunities, and some of the exciting opportunities includes;

1. There is a sudden shift or increasing appetite in the residential market for modern secure gated cluster housing complexes, which incorporate modern smart technologies. Returns have been quite huge. For example Aspindale Park which models such development has seen vacant stands fetching a minimum of US$135/m2 for the average of 200 sqm, and if you compare it with un-gated developments which are struggling to go beyond US$50/m2 in most high density areas. This also extends to complete houses which are selling for over US$80 000 for a typical 3 bedroomed house in gated communities, with the same accommodation struggling to go past US$40 000 in un-gated scenarios in high density areas.
2. Local authorities like City of Harare have been moving with latest changes where review of local developments has been adopted with change in use for example from residential to commercial landing to sudden and immediate demand for properties within the New local development plans. A very good case is the ED Mnangagwa way (formally Enterprise Road) whose local development plan has been revised into a commercial corridor. This has seen a lot of changes or uptake and creation of New Neighbourhoods along the main road.
3. Demand for residential stock which accepts mortgage facilities across board continues to be strong for example most sellers have been achieving exceptionally good prices due to the recent government loan facility. 

Despite these opportunities, the sector continues to experience a fair share of its challenges chief among them are;

• Limited stock, yes there is an increase in the residential construction sector towards improving the stock but demand continues to be high versus supply and prices continues to be going up, and my view is this is likely to be a permanent phenomenon for a while given the population is growing, increasing small to medium successful enterprises or a financially successful informal sector and a growing list of diasporas eager to invest back home.
• Availability of land continues to be a challenge given a permanent position that land is a limited resource. Very few surrounding farms are being released for urban development. This therefore continues to present pressure on the remaining isolated parcels of land, which continues to see prices for vacant stands going up.
• Most urban places continue to face the challenge of poor social amenities for example poorly maintained roads, challenge of clean and reliable water supply and electricity supply and sewerage treatment facilities. These issues continue to be a challenge which to a certain extent poses serious health hazards and some property values are respectively affected.

5. Could you share any recent success stories or notable achievements of Rawson Properties?

RM: Thanks for the question. At international group level Rawson Property Group has recently received prestigious awards for example the 2022 Global Brands Awards winners has seen Rawson Property Group in 3 categories that is the Best Real Estate Marketing Brand (South Africa), Most Innovative Real Estate Brand (South Africa) and the all round Best  Real Estate Brand (South Africa) and coming back to Zimbabwe which is the local market in which we operate, we have exceptionally done well and recently were awarded with the following awards World Human Resources Development Congress 2018 (India) – CEO with HR Orientation Award. Megafest TOP 20 Awards – Zim’s Top 20 outstanding organisation of the year 2018 Winner. Megafest Leadership Awards - Leader in Real Estate Management of the year 2018 Overall Winner. Zimbabwe Business Awards – Brand of the year Real Estate Services 2018. Zimbabwe National Real Estate Awards -  Company of the year 2018. Zimbabwe Business Awards – Real Estate Company of the Year  2014. Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce Award 2013. Zimbabwe Institute of Management Award  2013. Zimbabwe Institute of Management Award  2012. Marketers Association of Zimbabwe SuperBrand 2012.

6. What are some of the current trends or developments in the real estate market that you may want to share with our readers?

RM: I think over the past 4 years we have witnessed some exciting developments or trends and some of them includes;

1. A very good number of landowners are promising densification, we have seen a lot of cluster housing development in the market, and most home buyers now value security, lockup and go, and gated communities setup.
2. Also there has been a shift in the quality of houses being built in rural areas. The quality has drastically improved. We now have real estate investors who are building very beautiful mansions which they combine with miners making horticultural projects, and it's proving to be quite cheap in terms of services like water, solar electricity, labour and even some of the building materials like timber, bricks, sands and concrete aggregates.
3. Most blue chip corporates have left the CBD, in preference for suburban offices or small and compact office parks to house their headquarters and operations. In addition to this we have seen a lot of houses on the periphery of CBD being turned into offices, and most co-operates are running away from the madness in the CBD.

7.What measures does Rawson Properties take to stay up-to-date with industry trends and adapt to changes in the market?

RM: We are very lucky that we are part of the Rawson International Property Group, with a strong research and development arm, including a training academy in the form of Rawson Training Academy. Rawson Properties Zimbabwe has easy and ready access to any new international real estate developments and trends, and we have an opportunity to be trained so that we keep up to date and in most cases ahead of the competition. So to make this happen one of our core values as an organisation is continuous training and development, and we make every effort to live it.

8. Can you speak to any community involvement or social responsibility initiatives that Rawson Properties is involved in?

RM: We totally believe in social impact to our community through some sustainable initiatives. We have done this by being a member of the Lions Rotary Club and we have been making contributions to uphold the social fabric of the areas we operate in. We are very sensitive to the education of the less privileged and currently we have a total of 7 Students that we send to school from Primary to University level. We also believe in training and development and at any given time we have students on attachment in various fields. At personal level I have been running for the past 3 years the Matengambiri Soccer Tournament in my rural area of Nyanga, and the community’s attitude towards sport participatory has changed for the better, and as a community we hope to have our own Peter Ndlovu from Nyatsanga Village in Nyanga.

9. What strategies does Rawson Properties employ to attract and retain top talent in the real estate industry?

RM: I think we have done fairly well to retain our staff members, and we have achieved by first believing to be a customer centric organisation where we believe that for us to be truly be customer centric we need to make sure that our internal customers (our staff members) are happy and motivated by the work environment. And this is achieved by some ways which are in place, but a few of strategies which has become our culture is an open door policy by every manager/leader, Training and development philosophy has really helped, as we help to empower our staff members with knowledge and skill of how best they can execute their assignments, and we have seen our team member’s confidence going up. Also something interesting and executing is the monthly, quarterly and annual awards we religiously give to our top achievers, and the encouragement we give to poor performers. I remember one of our best performers once went away with a motor vehicle as a reward.

10. From your experience, what are the most popular neighborhoods for buyers at the moment ?

RM: Let me remind you that we are the Neighbourhood Experts and we deliberately make sure that our sales agents get to understand the various Neighbourhoods in which we operate. We invest in knowing and understanding the developments in various Neighbourhoods, the social services in various Neighbourhoods, information pertaining to properties on sale, or sold in different Neighbourhoods and town planning data or information about certain neighbourhoods. Our Market Research Analyst, Francis Chinjekure,  makes things happen. As a result of this background, I can say the most popular neighbourhoods for the buyers are; Borrowdale Brooke, Harare which has been named the No.1 address because of its emphasis on quality and security features. Prices for pieces of land have always been on an upward trend with a minimum of US$250/m2 as compared to other places outside the Brooke that do around US$50/m2.

Aspindale Park, Harare is a very unique development in High density west of Harare, which has broken a record. It’s a gated community again and residents and investors enjoy the security and the convenient shopping facilities and maintenance of the social infrastructure. Vacant 200 sqm stands have been selling for not less than US$135/m2 and stands hardly last 2 weeks before it gets sold. But neighbouring suburbs' vacant stands struggle to go past US$60/m2.
Madokero Estates has been a hit and very popular with the market as well. My view is that the developer Exodus & Company has done really well especially in terms of solid infrastructure development like roads, drainage, street lighting, water and sewer reticulation. This has been boosted by the new and modern Madokero Mall within the estate which houses one of the biggest retail shops Pick n Pay and other shops. 4 bedroomed houses have been selling for around US$135 000 whilst other comparing suburbs struggle to pass US$140 000.

So these are some of the neighbourhoods that make some buyers crazy when they search for an opportunity to invest.

11. Looking to the future, what are Rawson Properties' goals and vision for the company in Zimbabwe? 

RM: Thank you for that interesting question. We are  a brand that believes in growth, and as such our vision is to be the No.1 most trusted property brand in Zimbabwe and to list on the Stock Exchange by 2030, through our parent holding company RM-Africa Property Group. We are so excited in choosing this vision and every team member is playing his/her role to accomplish this and become a part of this exciting history.

12. Any advice or parting words you would want to share with our readers?

RM: Thank you so much for giving me this great opportunity to talk to you and to our reader. Thank you so much for following our story. However before we part I want to invite them to come to Rawson Properties to be part of our exciting journey of listing Rawson Properties on the Stock Exchange.