It’s mid-2021, and South Africa’s office market is seeing unprecedented challenges. The only thing property funds can do is control their response to the situation. We unpack what action is being taken by great businesses.

“Evil prevails when good men stand by and do nothing”. Here is our attempt, for CRE industry outsiders in South Africa, at “pulling back the veil” on our industry. The more informed you as customer are, the easier it is to identify and work with ethical and honourable CRE professionals. Excellent service from skilled, passionate CRE professionals means better outcomes for you, and boosts your perception of our industry.

These are stressful times for South Africa – where we are seeing the very best and worst of human behaviour. A panel of some of SA’s top commercial real estate (CRE) industry professionals gathered on Wednesday 15 April 20 to collaborate and plot a way forward through the weeks and months ahead. This is a summary of the 75 minute session.

In this high risk article we try provide guidance on those industry advances expected in Africa in 2020. (We also “mark our homework” on our bets for 2019). We hope that you, as reader, gain strategic advantage in our attempts at commercial real estate industry “crystal balling”!

An efficient snapshot of South Africa’s office property market as at October 2019 – using, as a proxy for the larger industry, the performance of three blue chip nodes in Johannesburg. We also reveal two new-to-industry metrics: average space density, and performance by owner type.

This article focuses, for the first time, on ownership of South Africa’s blue chip offices (in late 2019). We define property owner categories, then drill down into fresh new stats, broken up by owner type, such as vacancy rates and owned GLA. This fresh approach hopefully helps you efficiently see the world through a slightly different lense.

Rosebank is featured in this popular research article format. In addition to the normal format we cover the performance of Africa’s first WeWork, and, for a first time, clarify definitions of vacant space. We then cover the standard nodal detail (nodal definition, snapshot, comparatives, vacancies by grade, asking gross rentals by grade and comparatives, timing of vacancies coming onstream, and deal flow!)

Using aerial images, we do a “before and after” on Bryanston – and explain the difference. We then lean on the expertise of a town planner to understand the current development rights available, what Bryanston will look like 10 years from now and the factors to influence it, and reference this to workers and property values. At the risk of the internet never forgetting, we even make a stab at a prediction!

Bryanston is featured in this popular research article format. As a first we we identify Bryanston’s top 5 property owners, then move to the standard detail (nodal definition, snapshot, comparatives, vacancies by grade, asking gross rentals by grade and comparatives, timing of vacancies coming onstream, and deal flow).

In this risk of “egg-on-face” article we try provide guidance on those industry advances we can expect to see in Africa in 2019. Hopefully we are accurate, and hopefully you, as reader, can gain some strategic advantage in seeing our CRE industry through this lense.