'Listing Jozi': Reality show highlights the thrills of high-end property deals
It also reveals that Johannesburg has the most underpriced real estate in the world, says one of its stars
Image: Alaister Russell
In a slick navy blue suit that matches the dark blue walls of his office, Grahame Diedericks reveals cheeky flashes of pink when he moves and his socks show.
"I call this my war uniform," he jokes, showing off his expensive threads.
Sealing a couple of multimillion-rand deals is all in a day's work for the fast-talking franchise owner of Lew Geffen Sotheby's International Realty in Midrand, Gauteng.
But it is Lara Nathan of Pam Golding Properties - who appears with Diedericks on Listing Jozi, SA's latest reality-TV offering - who nets the show's biggest fish by selling a property for R30m.
Image: Alaister Russel
They are among five Johannesburg realty brokers showing their hustle in the six-part show. Their clients include "business people, sporting figures, politicians and celebrities", and among the celebs they help to buy or sell homes are actress and fashion blogger Shashi Naidoo, reality-TV star Nompumelelo "Mpumi" Ranaka, and actresses Nolo Phiri and Nthabiseng Mphahlele Tau.
The show gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of the people who negotiate deals on some of the city's most lavish properties.
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And it seems the south of the city is giving the north a run for its money, with a house in the Meyersdal Eco Estate among the most expensive, listed at R35m. At R29m, a Dainfern property in the north hopes to get the full listing price, as does a R14.9m property in the south's Eye of Africa. A Sandhurst home in the north is listed for R21m.
Diedericks says he hopes the show will quash the misconception that real estate is an "easy, part-time job".
"Agents do a lot of work and their personal lives are almost nonexistent. This is their life. It is financially rewarding if you do all the right things, but you have got to love what you do," he says.
One of the show's producers, Trevor Kaplan, said that where once elderly ladies would be the faces plastered on real-estate flyers, the industry was becoming younger and diverse.
Another agent on the show, Edgar Nche from Law Real Estate, said his love for the magazine show Top Billing had steered him into the property business.
Nche, who started dabbling in real estate as a university student, said his time in the property game had proven that there was a gap for young and vibrant people.
His colleague, Jabulile Mazibuko, started off as a qualified IT technician. Battling to find a job in her field, she dabbled in stationery sales before she and her family opened a funeral parlour. But property sales brought her talents to life, she said.
"If someone has bought it before, someone will buy it again," she said with a chuckle about navigating through some of her less- attractive properties.
Ryan Kwan, a realty broker at Law Real Estate with 16 years' experience, mentors Mazibuko and Nche on the show.
Looking back at the last year, Kwan said that, ironically, Covid was the best thing to happen to real estate.
"It's brought everyone back to the reality that property is probably the most secure and best investment in the world."
Kwan said that Listing Jozi revealed how Johannesburg has the most underpriced real estate in the world.
• 'Listing Jozi' airs at 8.30pm on Wednesdays on BBC Lifestyle (DStv channel 174).