DURBAN - Andrew Walker is the founder and Chief Executive of the SA Property Investors Network who has invested in more than 50 properties in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
According to Walker he has always been entrepreneurial, from delivering newspapers in the local area at the age of 12 to starting his first business – a Sound Engineering Company – at the age of 15. He said that he knew that property was the way forward when he purchased his first investment property in Durban at the age of 21 and sold it for 3 times the amount that he bought it for 3 years later.
Walker tried working as an estate agent and started trying to connect with people in the property industry where he realised a massive need for connecting investors with other professionals in the property industry. That was when he started the SA Property Investors Network.
There were around 20 people at the first event which was confirmation enough that their seed would eventually grow. Today all SA Property Investors Network events are sold out due to the rise and interest in legacy preservation through property investment by South Africans young and old. So far they have connected just over 50 000 stakeholders within the property industry.
The success of the network gave birth to the Investor of the Year Award which is an annual award ceremony that celebrates property investors big and small. The awards for 2019 are sponsored by South Africa's banking giant, ABSA.
Walker said that they aim to have 1000000 Free SA Property Investors Network members as well as empower South Africans to better their lives through investing and entrepreneurship. "We would love to have an Entrepreneurship school/academy to help young people achieve this. Ultimately, we are working on making the Investor of the Year Award the ultimate measure of greatness and success within the property industry," said Walker.
The property entrepreneur said that being able to be based in South Africa full time but have a Property Letting Agency in Grimsby, United Kingdom that operates without him has been his proudest moment.