News
Posted on 2023-03-10
The JSE All Property Index closed at 7 762 last night.
Commercial property rate hikes
matter far more now than they did a few years ago with some of SA’s
major listed property funds recently highlighting the challenge of
municipal rates and utilities tariffs that continue to rise in excess of
general price inflation. FNB Commercial Property Finance believes that
in the near term above-inflation municipal rates and utilities tariffs
will likely continue resulting in further downward pressure on real
property net operating income and capital values. The bank also anticipates the search for ‘better rates, tariffs, and services’ deals to increase.
SAPOA has published its recent survey on the impact of load shedding on the commercial property industry.
44.7% of participants, from the office, industrial, retail,
hospitality, and residential sectors, said that load shedding is
‘seriously impacting’ their businesses with 16.07% estimating their
associated monthly, direct costs to be between R500k – R1m. When asking
the industry what action it has taken to mitigate load shedding, 75%
said it had installed generators with 53.85% mentioning an office
contingency plan i.e., flexible work hours and/or working-from-home.
55.7% of participants said their organisations were not generating their
own electricity with 78.95% citing ‘cost’ as a factor inhibiting them
from doing so.
McCormick Property Development has obtained the rights for its largest rural retail development to date, the R3bn Dan City mixed-use development situated
on the R36 in Nkowankowa, 15kms outside of Tzaneen in Limpopo
(pictured). Anchored by the 36 000m2 Dan City Mall, a total of 146 000m2
of development is planned for the site which will include a motor city,
hospital, and a school. The rights have been approved by the Greater
Tzaneen Municipal Planning Tribunal and construction is planned to start
in late 2023 with an anticipated mall opening in 2025.
The property development and construction industry in the Western Cape
is calling for policy implementation across all spheres of government
that will ensure all development projects incorporate pro-active
community engagement from the time projects are deemed viable and hit
the planning/design stage. This comes in the wake of violent disruptions
seen across the country on construction sites often attributed to the
construction mafia. The call for reforms around community engagement and
public participation in all tender and procurement policy related to
the built environment is the main theme of a position paper prepared
by the Western Cape Property Development Forum (WCPDF) which was
released last night at an event hosted by Concor Construction.
Octodec Investments Limited and Fortress Real Estate Investments Limited have announced their secondary listings on A2X this week with effect from the 14th of March and 16th of
March 2023 respectively. Both property funds join the likes of Attacq,
Balwin, Equites, Fairvest, Growthpoint, Hyprop, MAS, NEPI Rockcastle, SA
Corporate Real Estate and Stor-Age REIT.
Growthpoint has
acquired its first investment asset in Hammarsdale, KZN – a 13 870m2
prime logistics property in the 152ha Keystone Park for R136m. The
building is let to specialised food packaging provider, Malda Pack, and
butchery supplier, Exim International. The property transferred to the
REIT in late December 2022.
