Gary Barker off to South Africa for spell at BetterHome Group

Gary Barker (pictured) is joining South Africa’s BetterHome Group (BHG) as chief executive Real Estate Proptech next month.

He will continue in his role as a non-executive director of Nurtur but will move to Johannesburg, South Africa to focus on developing technology across the business and the group as well as exploring the wider South African market.

Barker met Rudi Botha, BHG chief executive, and Charl Bruyns, deputy chief executive while working with a Nutur client whose South African business is owned by BHG.

Barker, (pictured) tells Iain McKenzie, chief executive of The Guild of Property Professionals, in its latest podcast The Home Stretch, that he was immediately drawn to the vision that both leaders have for the South African proptech industry.

“My new role will be to drive the development of valuable solutions designed to help real estate professionals serve their customers better and enable them to help more South Africans realise their dreams of homeownership,” Barker tells McKenzie.

NEW START

Speaking about his decision to jump continents Barker says: “I’m excited about the opportunity to grow this sector with the backing of a group that is comparable to Connells or Countrywide in the UK. There are clear similarities between the South African market and those in the UK and Australia, with the market in South Africa being on par with, and in some respects ahead of, the others.”

Barker initially started working as an accountant with Countywide Financial Services before moving into the financial centre of Taylors on the estate agency side, moving through the ranks to become an IT director within Countrywide.

When the firm eventually settled on ReapIt as a CRM system it was deployed through the network, with Barker himself joining ReapIt as COO in 2005 and going on to become chief executive some seven years later. In 2017 the Reapit management team completed a management backed buyout backed by Accel-KKR.