Other names for a property fund are property owner, landlord or lessor.
This player in CRE is the owner of commercial property. This is their core business.
The primary customer of a property fund is a tenant. Tenants pay rent, which is where a property fund’s revenues come from.
A property fund is the party responsible for making a) leasing and b) buy or sell decisions on properties.
Avoiding confusion around the term property fund
While property funds can choose to manage the properties they own (manage property inhouse), not all property owners are also property managers. (Some property owners outsource the role of property management).
Property owners are also not property brokers. Most brokers bring tenants to property owners or their property managers, but they are not employed by the property funds.
More on property funds
There are various types of property funds in SA
- Vanilla
- Listed property funds (REITs such as Growthpoint, Redefine, Fortress, Emira, Attacq, Fairvest, Dipula et al.)
- Private property funds (e.g. Moolman Group, Flanagan & Gerard, Zenprop, Atterbury et al.)
- Non-vanilla
- Life houses (such as Old Mutual, MMI, Liberty, Sanlam)
- Owner-occupiers (generally a legal entity or entities inside of the group (or a holding company) that acts as landlord to businesses in the group)
Workers in property funds, who interact with tenants, can have the following titles
- Asset manager
- Leasing consultant
- Broker liaison
