Realtors who rock

When former president Nelson Mandela and his wife, Graça Machel, needed a home, who did they turn to? Legendary property mogul Pam Golding, of course! Golding, who died at the age of 90 last year, was a fearless pioneer of the real estate business and launched her brand in 1976, when the sector was still very much male-dominated and something of a cottage industry (pun intended).

She was brave, determined, charming and tenacious, and the real estate game was never a “sales job” for her: it was about people, more specifically matching people with homes, and it proved to be a recipe for great success.

Being a woman in the property industry is an advantage, said Golding, because women have natural empathy, which is of great benefit when negotiating sales transactions. “I have always believed that women can do anything they set their hearts on,” she said. “I think women today have endless opportunities to take up the careers of their choice and advance themselves too. More and more women capably manage to juggle the demands and needs of business and family; it is part and parcel of being able multitaskers.” “My mom gave me the belief that I can be anything that I want to be. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy that has proven helpful in this highly competitive industry,” says Amanda Cuba, COO of RE/MAX Southern Africa.

No stranger to hard work and overcoming adversity, Cuba, who grew up in Gugulethu, completed a Bachelor of Business Science (Hons) at UCT and assumed various corporate roles as a business analyst before establishing an investment and management consultancy group in partnership with her sister Yolande. “We concluded a 45% BEE deal with RE/MAX Southern Africa at the end of 2014. Thereafter I assumed the role of COO for the region,” she says.

Her family moved around a lot while she was growing up – Cuba had attended eight schools by the time she matriculated. This taught her that change is a constant part of life, she says. “That lesson has been incredibly helpful in the ever-changing property market in which strategies need to be adapted and reworked constantly.”