PROFILE: Marcél du Toit, CEO of Leadhome
Five years ago, the former investment banker took a leap into property, a sector he saw as ripe for reinvention
When Leadhome was launched, many thought the company created by investment banker-turned-proptech entrepreneur Marcél du Toit and his co-founder wouldn’t last long. After all, other fixed-fee startups had over the years tried to shake up the industry’s old boys’ club with little success.But five years on, Leadhome has sold over 5,000 properties with a cumulative value of R8.3bn. And it has about 2,000 property listings on its site, mostly in Johannesburg and Pretoria, making it one of Gauteng’s biggest real estate players. It also has a growing presence in Durban and Cape Town.Initially, when lawyer friend and co-founder of the company Harry Hattingh approached Du Toit in 2014 to start a residential real estate business, Du Toit wasn’t interested. Back then, as vice-president of mergers and acquisitions at Deutsche Bank in Johannesburg, he was involved in a number of high-profile deals, including the Walmart-Massmart merger."I knew it was time to build my own business instead of adv...
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