Jawitz Properties has become one of South Africa’s leading real estate groups, with branches and estate agents all across the country.
The family company, founded by Eskel Jawitz 55 years ago, emerged from a frustrating experience he had with real estate agents while wanting to buy a home in the 1960s.
Shocked by their disrespect, Jawitz decided there was an opportunity to create a business that prioritised client respect and understanding.
While many know of the family business’ success, its journey to where it is today has been far from smooth sailing, but the result of grit and determination.
Jawitz was born in Cape Town in the 1930s and moved to Johannesburg at the age of 8. He grew up in Yeoville, and went to Yeoville Boys School and then Athlone High.
He decided to go into pharmacy, doing his required three years apprenticeship, and then went on to his first year of pharmacy studying.
“I must have been the only person who wrote those four subjects three times, and failed all four of them three times – that told me Eskel, academia is not for you,” Jawitz recalled in an interview with BusinessTech.
Jawitz went for a test to give him guidance for his future, and the results suggested that he go into sales. Having already worked in the pharmaceutical world, he became a medical sales rep, which he did for around five years.
During this time, he learned the importance of asking questions. “I learnt the fundamental importance of, whatever you do, asking questions, querying everything, and getting clarification—never making assumptions.”
“To this day, when people ask me how I know how good an agent will be when I take them on – it’s based on the amount of questions they ask me. There is no such thing as stupid questions, only people too stupid to ask questions because they assume they know the answer,” said Jawitz.
Having gained a knack for sales, Jawitz was approached by a biscuit manufacturing company, where he became its sales manager.
In the late 1960s, the then 34-year-old biscuit factory manager was looking to buy his first home in Johannesburg, and his experience with estate agents changed the trajectory of his life forever.
He met with two of the top estate agents and told them his budget of R18,000. The first house they showed him far exceeded this amount.
When he asked them why, their response was a haughty, “Is that all you want to spend? Or all you can afford?”
“They were downright rude,” said Jawitz.
From that experience, he thought that if agents who disrespected the dignity of their clients could be making the money that they were making in Johannesburg, “the market must wide open for somebody who treats people with respect, tries to understand their clients, and provides good service.”
Several months later, on 1 May 1969, Jawitz left the biscuit factory and became a partner of a small company that mainly did property evaluations.
The company, which was renamed Eskel Jawitz Properties, began expanding and became a go-to when selling and buying property in Johannesburg.
“When I came into the business, I knew that I would centre the company around people,” said Jawitz.
“After all, for most people, property is the biggest single investment of their lives,” he said.
Despite heading the company, like many successful businesspeople, he ensured that he was as hands-on as possible to ensure its success and growth.
“Every single Sunday, I would attend show days (while being an executive). Colleagues would ask me why, and I would always tell them that my business is not about sitting in an ivory tower. How would I ever know what is going on in my business if I am not out in the field?” said Jawitz.
At one stage, 50% of the business was sold to one of the largest commercial real estate companies in the country, who were looking to dip their toes in the residential property business, which exacerbated the rollout of the company.
When his sons, David and Herschel, entered the business in the 1990s, Eskel bought back that 50%, and it became a family business.
Speaking to BusinessTech, Herschel recalls growing up in a property family, consistently seeing his father going out to show days and helping him in the office on weekends and holidays – “so all roads led to property for me.”
Herschel jokes that when he came into the business, his father gave him and his brother “a slightly harder time because there was great expectation but no favouritism.”
Herschel, who holds a Business Science degree in Finance from UCT, was given his first task to weather the storm of incredibly high interest rates, which threatened to cripple many in the industry.
He took over as CEO in the early 2000s – with his goal to expand the business quite rapidly.
When this happened, the company rebranded Jawitz Properties and became “corporate by definition, but family run with family values.” They began franchising the brand and aggressively expanding to different parts of the country.
“You have to understand that whatever you have done to build a business, there comes a time where somebody else comes in with new ideas and better understandings,” said Eskel.
He commended how Herschel was able to expand the business and steady the ship in tumultuous times for property like the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.
With the property company empire now a second-generation family business with 43 branches countrywide and over 500 property practitioners, the Jawitz family attributes its over half-century longevity to the engrained morals that led Eskel to start the business in the first place.
Jawitz said for any business to succeed, the “thing you can never take away from people is their dignity,” adding that many people in business have the mindset that winning is everything – however he believes it is how you play the game.
Eskel said that Herchel has improved business operations by playing the game the right way while still trying to win.
Above all, he said that it is the culture of the business that ensures longevity.
“We believe that people don’t work for you; they work with you. You don’t talk to clients; you talk with them. You treat every last person how you want to be treated,” said Eskel.
Approaching his 90th birthday, Eskel still serves as the company’s chairman, saying he is just as passionate as he was on day one.
He shared various pieces of advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and businesspeople.
“Firstly, nobody owes you a living – there is no such thing as a free lunch.”
“Secondly is to remember the two rules in life: rule number one, never give up, and rule number two, always remember rule number one,” he said, adding not to ever try to fill anyone else’s shoes but your own.
Above all, “have respect for everyone because that is where success stems from,” concluded Jawitz.
Read: The man who built South Africa’s biggest retail empire
