The JSE All Property Index closed at 8 569 last night.
While civil contractor confidence was slightly lower during Q2 2024 when compared to Q1 2024, activity growth remained well supported according to the latest FNB/BER Civil Confidence Index. Projects relating to renewable energy have continued to sustain civil construction activity with a possible shift from predominantly solar projects to wind projects.
Growthpoint has noted that sentiment in the office sector is improving, with investors showing increased interest in purchasing office assets. During the nine months to March 2024, the REIT let 148 220m2 of office space and renewed 100 046m2, reducing its office vacancies from 19.2% during FY23 to 15.6%. Rent reversions improved from -20.10% to -14.70% (HY24: -15.8%) with its renewal success rate decreasing from 60.40% to 56.60%. Its vacancies in KZN currently stand at 672m2 (0.7%), the Western Cape 7.7%, with an improvement in its Gauteng portfolio from 24.10% to 19.2%. Of the 284 office deals signed during the period, its biggest was a 9 800m2 call centre in Sandton.
Global real estate and investment manager, AEW, says it's a prime time for European CBD office assets, but not so much for non-CBDs with its more than twice higher vacancy rates (10%) compared to CBD locations (4%). It has also noticed an increase in landlords offering incentives to tenants on signature of leases in non-CBD locations.
Hyprop Investments has hinted at the potential disposal of its entire sub-Saharan African portfolio outside of SA. In its pre-close operational update for the five months ended May 2024, the REIT noted that the conditions precedent for the sale of 50% of its Ikeja City Mall in Nigeria have not been fulfilled by the longstop date but that it has signed a letter of intent with another party for the sale of its entire SSA portfolio which comprises Ikeja City Mall in Nigeria; Kumasi City Mall, West Hills Mall and Accra Mall in Ghana.
The City of Cape Town has secured R3.5bn in financing from Nedbank towards its infrastructure investment pipeline over the next three years. The municipality plans to spend R39.5bn between July 2024 and June 2027, SA’s largest ever three-year infrastructure spend by a metro municipality. Its ten-year infrastructure investment pipeline is valued at approximately R120bn.
The average age of SA’s first-time homebuyer has increased by three years, over the last decade, to 36 years old, according to the latest data from ooba Home Loans with the volume of home loan applications from first-time homebuyers having declined from a peak of 56% of all applications in June 2020 to 46% in May 2024.
PPC’s Zimbabwean operation primarily drove its 20.6% increase in revenue for FY2024 to R10 058m (FY2023: R8 339m). The Group’s trading profit increased by R502m to R619m. Of the R502m, R395m was attributable to Zimbabwe. Group cost of sales increased by 16.3% to R8 409m (FY2023: R7 231m) all of which is attributable to Zimbabwe with its SA and Botswana’s cost of sales declining marginally by 1.3% (R73 million).
WeWork Global has emerged from bankruptcy (Chapter 11) and appointed a new CEO – John Santora, former Tri-State Chairman at Cushman & Wakefield. While WeWork South Africa is 100% independently owned and operates separately from WeWork in the US and Canada, its strengthened capital structure and optimised real estate portfolio will benefit the entire ecosystem, says Stefano Migliore, CEO of WeWork South Africa. “Through this process, WeWork Global has achieved extraordinary outcomes by completing a historically large and complex restructuring.”
