SA Reit ready for growth

Listed property investment and development company SA Reit said on Friday that the first phase of redevelopment of the properties in its portfolio would begin next year.

The company, formerly Shops For Africa before relisting on the JSE as SA Reit on October 8, has acquired 13 properties.

CEO Arnold Maresky said when it relisted it “took transfer of the first tranche of properties that we’ve injected into the fund”. Since then it had been “bedding down the initial take on of the first tranche of properties”. It was now securing additional properties and unlocking development opportunities on the acquired properties.

One of the first priorities was the redevelopment of the Farber/Curry property in Cape Town’s financial district. It has existing properties on the site, which will be demolished to “cater for a new triple A-grade office building”.

Ten properties were initially injected into SA Reit but since listing another three properties, totalling about R70m, were acquired. The company’s property portfolio is now worth about R440m.

“Again these (additional) properties are strategically placed for further development opportunities. We’ll unveil plans for those properties in due course,” said Maresky. The first phase of redevelopment would total just less than R700m.

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