When I was 26, I bought myself two properties for my 27th birthday.
I took uMa to see them, and while we were at one of them, she said uGogo (her mom and my maternal grandmother) had been a domestic worker in that area.
In that moment, it hit me that we millennials really are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.
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My property journey has not always been adventurous – quite the opposite.
In primary school, I think it was Grade 4 or 5, we had a class activity about our bedrooms and our bedding. The lesson ended just as the class was getting excited about answering the questions, and my friends and I continued the conversation during break.
My friends mentioned that they had Barbies or some other cartoon characters on their duvets. When my turn came, I froze. At that time, my big brother and I were sleeping on the floor; we didn’t have our own bedrooms, beds, or cartoon bedding.
This was completely normal to me, at least up until that point. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with how we lived, or our sleeping arrangements. So I lied, and said I also had a Barbie duvet. But that moment stuck with me.
When I got home, I asked uMa for my own bedroom, with my own bed and bedding, like the other kids at school. At that time, my mom, my aunt, my siblings and I were living in my late maternal grandmother’s house. My aunt’s bedroom was in the house, and our bedroom was converted into a lounge.
uMa and my aunt had built two rooms (one of which became the lounge) and a garage, and we then moved into the garage. Years later, my parents bought a plot on the West Rand. They took us to see it, and it was so novel for my siblings and me. They told us this was where our new home was going to be.
We went there regularly to check on the progress. The first time we went, it was just bare land with a few trees and lots of shrubs. A few weeks later, the builders had cut down all the shrubs and had started digging the foundation. I remember uMa saying, ‘This is where the kitchen will be, this is where the lounge will be, and this is where your bedrooms will be’.
I couldn’t wrap my head around how that was going to be my room eventually. A house looks very different when you’re walking around on the foundation.
Fast-forward a few weeks, the foundation was filled and dry, and we were standing on it and getting the latest updates on the house’s development. A few weeks later, they had started building the walls. That whole experience was my earliest exposure to property and building a house from scratch.
That’s probably where my love for property was planted and nurtured, coupled with uMa, who bought South African Home Owner magazine religiously and daydreamed about how she wanted to decorate her house.
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Those early experiences ultimately led to me buying my first two properties. The whole process was surreal, and a bit dramatic.
After weeks of viewing different properties and doubting myself more than I should have, I made the final decision to buy.
In my early twenties, I had spent more time than I should have in hospital due to stress (this is a topic for another day), and it was during yet another hospital stay that I made the bold and final move to buy.
I had been in touch with the agents weeks before, and had already viewed the properties. Like many millennials, I suddenly felt I wasn’t doing enough and achieving enough.
I got out my MacBook (yes, I had taken my MacBook tothe hospital despite being treated for stress) and started emailing estate agents and asking if the apartments I had viewed weeks earlier were still on the market.
It turned out that both apartments I liked were still for sale, and I got the ball rolling to purchase both. Buying those first two properties was not only scary, but also surreal and affirming.
It was scary because at that time there wasn’t as much information about the home-buying process as there is today. I had been looking at different properties from my early twenties, when I started working, and most of the information available was about America, England and Australia.
It was also affirming because I was doing something my mother and grandmother struggled to do. uMa was married in community of property, and even buying the land on which our family home was eventually built was a struggle.
Yet here I was, single and unmarried, buying two properties for my 27th birthday.
The following year I bought two more properties, this time for my 28th birthday, and resolved to get myself something property-related for subsequent birthdays.
Since then, I’ve continued to invest in property and started different property businesses, some alone and others with friends.
I’ve used social media to speak about my homeownership journey, and I’ve worked with different brands, such as Builders Warehouse and Private Property, in helping consumers to start their own property journey.
My hope is that this book, along with the work I do on different media platforms, will help you to make your property dreams come true.
This is an edited extract from Buy your First Home: South Africa's Ultimate Property Guide for Newbies by Zamantungwa Khumalo (published by Tafelberg, an imprint of NB Publishers). The recommended retail price is R260 and the book is available on takealot.com and all good bookstores nationwide.
