The SA CEO of JSE-listed Vukile Property Fund shares insight on why the group purchased the Eastern Cape mall in an R800m deal together with Flanagan & Gerard from Sisa Ngebulana’s Billion Group, expanding its presence in the thriving rural and township retail property market.

Bryce O'Donnell, managing director of Abcon Developments, speaks about the next phase of the new 70 000m2 mixed-use precinct that’s rising at one of the ‘gateway’ entry points into Sandton – SA’s financial hub that is seeing a ‘big return to the office’.

Wayne Krambeck, vice president of operations at Zimbali Lakes, speaks about the ‘Big Easy’ becoming involved in developing an Ernie Els Signature Golf Course within the landmark new KZN North Coast development, which is being led by Kuwait Stock Exchange-listed IFA Hotels and Resorts.

‘Edge certification is effectively green building certification, and banks traditionally do not provide a role like this. The Nexus 1 building – Attacq’s first net-zero carbon Level 1 development – now also meets a global benchmark set by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation’: Genevieve Naidoo of Nedbank CIB.

Steven Brown, CEO of JSE-listed property fund Fortress, talks about the significance of the group securing shareholder approval for a single share structure, which saw it resume paying dividends, but Reit status is not on the radar just yet.

Commercial property professional Kura Chihota from eXp South Africa is the guest on Moneyweb’s milestone 100th episode of The Property Pod, which goes regional this week, as we look at what’s bubbling in the Zimbabwe and broader SADC real estate markets.

The head of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in South Africa discusses the organisation’s drive for greater professionalism, accountability and ethics in the broader property sector. He also weighs in on the ‘sad’ fortunes of Tongaat Hulett.

Khosi Sibiya, joint-licensee of Seeff Soweto, says South Africa's biggest township saw over 2 000 property transactions worth over R1.1bn last year, and talks about being a role model for aspirant estate agents.

Rob Kelso, CEO of SA Home Loans, says while it has almost been ‘the perfect storm’ for property – where transactions have fallen ‘quite precipitously’ – with interest rates expected to be cut later this year, 2025 is likely to see a pick-up in the residential market.

Conformity is required by May this year to help get South Africa off the grey list: Rawson compliance manager Charmaine Truter.

South African Real Estate Investment Trust Association chair Estienne de Klerk shares his latest insights on the listed property sector following the industry’s 2024 conference, noting: ‘If you were an investor last year in Reits, you would've been rewarded with the best performance of all investment classes … So, albeit marginal, number one is number one’.

Kobus Lamprecht, head of research at Rode & Associates, says besides the return of workers back to the office, the Mother City is benefiting from companies expanding or opening offices due to the city’s better power-supply situation, in addition to growth in tourism and semigration on the back of good governance in the metro.

Myles Kritzinger, CEO of the newly established South African Multifamily Residential Rental Association (Samrra) shares his insights on why this specialist sub-sector of real estate is booming in the US and Australia, and Samrra’s aim to “further institutionalise” multifamily as a property investment class locally.

Mikayla Benkenstein talks about the group’s growth locally and elsewhere in Africa, and shares insights on property construction activity in SA, considering the country’s lingering poor economic conditions.

André Gouws, managing director of Intaprop, which is leading the Oxford Parks mega mixed-used development in the trendy Johannesburg precinct, says there’s still big interest in the area, even for new office space.

With expectations of interest rate cuts this year, will 2024, an election year, see a flat market? Siphamandla Mkhwanazi – property economist at FNB, shares his insights and expectations.

Mohamed Kalla, Executive Director and Portfolio Manager at Sesfikile Capital, shares insights on the sector’s performance and outlook for 2024.

Mohammed Amra of Pam Golding Properties, who is the area principal for Port Shepstone and Margate, shares his local market insights and says this part of the KwaZulu-Natal coast should not be overshadowed by the North Coast.

Following the launch of its first R300m residential property project in the Mother City, Divercity Urban Property Fund CEO Carel Kleynhans says that with the city seeing a significant influx of new people and “good-quality affordable accommodation being quite hard to come by” – he hopes to be announcing more developments in Cape Town over the next few years.

‘For me, the immediate challenge now that we've built a good base, is to make sure that trajectory actually begins in terms of how we are maintaining our properties; that speaks to facilities. How we manage the costs, speaks to our capex. Are we doing what we're supposed to do at the time that we're supposed to do it? Are we reactive or proactive in how we treat our tenants?’ she says.

Andrew Dewey, managing director of Swindon Property, shares his insights on the country's retail property industry.

You will still see us and you will still experience what we do in our assets and some of the good thingsthat we bring to market’: CEO Amelia Beattie

Chris Tyson, founder and chairperson of fast-growing real estate agency group Tyson Properties, shares his insights on the market, noting that while ‘conditions will improve based on supply and demand’, with 2024 being an election year, ‘historically nothing much happens in the property market in an election year’.

‘That's what we need to bring enough new tenants into our market to create that demand, to mop up that space over time, because the quantum of space is really, really big at the moment – we are looking at a million square metres of [vacant] office space in Sandton alone’: Eileen Andrew, vice-president of MSCI South Africa.