Jacques van Embden is a dynamic 37 year old architectural entrepreneur who was born and raised in Cape Town, and is focused on innovating the residential property industry by doing Business Unusual.
Jacques studied at UCT and graduated with his Masters in Architecture in 2007, right as the recession hit SA and the big agencies closed their doors to newly qualified job hunters. He was fortunate to gain important industry experience by freelancing on jobs for small businesses and family homes instead. This enabled him to work smartly in trying economic times and during this time he planned to launch a value-based, owner-managed property fund that would manage a portfolio of residential properties. He achieved this goal a few years later when he launched the Prime Residential Property Fund.
Prime Residential grew exponentially over the following years, adding a rental division, Prime Letting, and staking a decent claim in the Gauteng and Western Cape’s property market. Gradually the group started to develop sites for the rental portfolio, during which time a gap became apparent to Jacques in which to develop luxury urban apartments for people choosing to reside in and around Cape Town's urban centre, a movement that is becoming more prominent around the world. Enter Blok.
Blok is the luxury residential development company that Jacques launched in September 2014 to meet this need. Their intention is to not only provide incredible urban apartments for people with a passion for urban living, but also to become the industry leader in the category of city living through innovation, integrity and design.
The Blok team sees it as paramount that a property buyer should have a close relationship with their developer; not only meet occasionally when it is time to see a property or plans, sign papers and ultimately hand over an apartment. They are intent on this relationship being a mutually beneficial one in which buyer and developer experience the excitement of choosing an urban way of living together through homes that are practical, inspirational, spacious and wonderful to live in. The buyer is buying into the Blok team’s expertise in thoughtful design, building and finishes, and an overall Blok way of living.