[Test] - The Week in Property (6th September 2024)

Soul Paje, Zanzibar

For the third consecutive year, Property Wheel was awarded ‘Property News Website of the Year’ last night at SAPOA’s 2024 Annual Convention’s Journalism Awards for Excellence at Sun City.

Congratulations to the winners from the other categories:

Property News Website of the Year (Runner up): Property Flash
Property News Journalist of the Year: Joan Muller (BusinessLIVE)

Property News Journalist of the Year (Runner up): Melinda Chidau (Positive Impact Magazine)
Property Feature Journalist of the Year: Chanel Retief(Forbes Africa)

Property Feature Journalist of the Year (Runner up): Denise Mhlanga
Property Publication of the Year (Print/Digital): Asset Magazine

Property Publication of the Year (Print/Digital) (Runner up): Positive Impact Magazine

Congratulations to this year’s winners of SAPOA’s Property Development Awards for Innovative Excellence:

Corporate Office Development Award – Abland Property Developers for their AVBOB building in Pretoria.
Industrial Development Award – Attacq Limited for their Plumblink facility in the Waterfall Commercial District (Empowered Spaces Architects).
Innovative Award – Liberty Two Degrees’ Net Zero Waste initiative at Liberty Promenade with Solid Green Consulting.
Interiors Award – Attacq Limited for their H/O in Waterfall City.
International Development Award – Stanbic IBTC H/O in Lagos, Nigeria.
Mixed-use Development Award – GASS Architecture Studios for Barlow Park Phase 1.
‘Other Developments’ Award – Nelson Mandela University for their new science centre in Port Elizabeth (SVA International).
Refurbishment Award – MDS Architecture for the Bridge City Shopping Centre in Durban.
Retail Development Award – Abland Property Developers for their Eyethu Shopping Centre in Soweto.
Student Accommodation Award – Growthpoint Student Accommodation Holdings for their Thrive @ Horizon Heights in Joburg.
Rural & Small-Town Development Award – McCormick Property Developers for their Tshakhuma Mall in Limpopo (MDS Architecture).
Transformation Award: Balfour Clinic (Enza Construction & TJ Architects Nelspruit)
Heritage Award: Eyethu Shopping Centre (Abland Property Developers)
Overall Development Award: Nelson Mandela University for their new science centre in Port Elizabeth (SVA International)

In other news, the JSE All Property Index closed at 9 763 last night.

Trading densities at community and smaller shopping centres were a bright spot during Q2 2024, running counter to a further contraction in retail property performance according to the Clur Shopping Centre Index which forms part of the broader Clur Collective asset management support platform that assists listed/unlisted property funds to understand asset health and to optimize returns at more than 4.1m square metres of prime retail space and 140 merchandising categories across SA and Namibia. While community and smaller centres showed the lowest growth rate of 1.7% in Q2 2024, they were the only segment to show an expansion in growth relative to Q1 2024 of 0.1%. By contrast, super-regional centres showed the greatest contraction of -1.5% relative to the first quarter with the All Centres index contracting by -0.9% for the same period.

Shoprite Holdings have signed an agreement to dispose of its furniture business including OK Furniture and House & Home, excluding Angola and Mozambique, to Pepkor Holdings. The Group reported a 12% increase in its sales for the 50 weeks ended June 2024 equating to +R21.4bn spent by its customers at its core SA supermarkets. Checkers and Checkers Hyper’s sales increased by 12% with Shoprite’s increasing by 10%. Usave’s sales were ahead of the Group’s other top performing categories with an increase in sales of 13%.

Valor Hospitality Partners has expanded its East African presence through branded residences and urban city hospitality management in collaboration with developers CPS for Zanzibar’s pioneering mixed-use development, Fumba Town, as well as another branded lifestyle residences development, the Soul Paje, on the east coast of Zanzibar. Located approximately 20 minutes from Zanzibar’s International Airport, the bulk of Fumba Town’s facilities are made up of a mix of residences which will include + 5 000 units with over 650 apartments already built and occupied. With plans for retail, sports, office, and further lifestyle amenities, the urban city will also feature the world’s tallest timber tower The Burj which will boast Zanzibar’s first Canopy by Hilton scheduled to open at the end of 2027.

Leader in ticketless parking solutions, admyt, has partnered with Hyprop to improve parking spaces at the REIT’s dominant retail centres including CapeGate, Woodlands, Canal Walk, Rosebank Mall, Somerset Mall, and Clearwater Mall and catering to millions of shoppers with the installation and rollout covering over 30 000 parking bays and 175 lanes. The admyt parking app has over 280 000 vehicles active on its platform, processing over 4 million parking transactions annually.

Congratulations to Vukile Property Fund’s MD, Itumeleng Mothibeli, who was announced as SAPOA’s incoming President and Fortress Real Estate Investment Limited's CEO, Steven Brown, as SAPOA President Elect. Itumeleng will take the reins from outgoing President and CEO of Attacq Limited, Jackie van Niekerk.