The JSE All Property Index closed at 8 831 last night.
SA’s office vacancy rate at the end of Q2 2024 was 14.2%, down 50-bps on Q1 2024 with Prime, A-, and B-grade office space recording an eighth consecutive quarter of improvement according to SAPOA’s latest Office Vacancy Report. However, this improvement came at a cost to rental growth which has declined year-over-year since 2019. The overall office asking rental rebounded back to positive territory (+0.8%).
Improved demand-supply for retail assets questions whether the industrial property market will remain the strongest. According to property brokers surveyed by FNB Commercial Property Finance during Q2 2024, retail property demand is exceeding supply in Cape Town, eThekwini, and Tshwane with Greater Johannesburg and Mandela Bay ‘oversupplied’, Square meterage of retail building plans passed for the twelve months to April 2024 were -32.5% lower than the multi-year high for the twelve months to April 2018.
Vukile Property Fund’s BEE investor, Encha Properties, has sold its entire shareholding in Vukile in a secondary placement transaction valued at R819.6m. The placement shares were placed at a price of R15.50 per share, representing a 0.8% discount to the pre-launch Vukile 30-day volume weighted average price as at market close on 10 July. Investec acted as sole bookrunner on the placement.
Rebosis Property Fund has appointed its business rescue practitioners, Jacques Du Toit and Phahlani Mkhombo, to their board as non-executive directors with immediate effect. Both admitted attorneys, Mkhombo and Du Toit share a collective fifty years plus experience in restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, business rescue, corporate finance, project finance, PPP, deal structuring, corporate governance, and in the legal and insolvency arena in the private and public sectors.
Estate agents have signalled a property market weighed down by election anxiety and persistent affordability constraints with 75% recently surveyed by FNB pessimistic about an improvement in the level of market activity. However, the affordable housing market emerged as a resilient bright spot during Q2 2024, recording a higher activity rating compared to the traditional market.
TUHF’s founding CEO, Paul Jackson, has announced his retirement with effect from December 2025. Paul has led TUHF for over two decades since its launch in 2003 with the Group expanding its brand and branch network across eleven South African metros. TUHF’s Board, with the assistance of Macdonald & Company, has commenced the process of appointing a new CEO with an eighteen-month succession plan to manage a smooth handover.
The Dube TradePort Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has announced its long-term leasehold ownership model to assist emerging commercial property developers in unlocking new opportunities. According to Dube TradePort SEZ’s Property Investment Head, Andile Mnguni, Dube TradePort has noted a growing awareness and interest in the benefits of a long-term leasehold ownership model as the sector begins to adapt to a changing economic landscape. The leasehold model can facilitate access to land, launching numerous commercially viable industrial projects, whilst still meeting the criteria required by commercial banks for funding.
According to website Rugby365, the sale of Newlands Rugby Stadium - to an undisclosed buyer - was voted on, and approved, at a recent Western Province Rugby Football Union council meeting. Following the move of Western Province Rugby’s professional teams to DHL Stadium in early 2022, Newlands Rugby has ceased to be a rugby venue. When Western Province Rugby was placed under administration by SARU in October 2021, one of the major tasks assigned to the administrator was to finalise the sale of the stadium. One obstacle included a proposal to have the stadium declared a heritage site however, an independent report by a heritage specialist suggested otherwise.
