How much South Africa’s busiest shopping mall makes each month

Mall of Africa is one of South Africa’s largest and busiest malls, boasting a trading density of R4,571 per square meter. This means the mall makes, on average, just under R600 million a month.

Mall of Africa was developed and co-owned by the Atterbury Property Group. It was a R5 billion development.

This mall opened its doors to the public on 28 April 2016 and is South Africa’s biggest single-phase mall development and the largest project and anchor development in Waterfall City.

It is South Africa’s largest shopping mall ever built in a single phase, and in just eight years, it has quickly become a leading lifestyle, entertainment and shopping destination. 

With over 131,038m² of retail space, it is home to 300 shops, many of which are flagship stores.

Today, it is 100% owned by real estate investment trust (REIT) Attacq, which owned only 80% of the property until June 2024, when it acquired the remaining stake.

Attacq released its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2024 on Tuesday, 11 March 2025.

These results revealed that Attacq had a strong start to its 2025 financial year, with distributable income per share up 29.1% to 55 cents per share.

The REIT reported an occupancy rate of 91.9%, down slightly from the 92.8% it boasted in June 2024.

However, its collections remained high at 99.6%, although this is also a drop from 100.2% earlier that year.

The REIT’s South African portfolio performed very well, with net operating income up 16.8% to R892 million.

This portfolio’s currency occupancy rate was 93.9%, with net sub-lets of 15,783 m².

The properties in Attacq’s South African portfolio recorded 2.3% growth in valuation on a like-for-like basis.

Its top-performing retailer was Woolworths, one of the mall’s anchor tenants, which traded R1.63 billion, up 7.6% from the previous year.

This is followed by Checkers, another anchor tenant that traded R1.48 billion in the period, a 6.1% improvement compared to 2023.

Interestingly, Atacq reported that it observed trading density increases where consumers spent additional disposal income in discretionary retail categories, including travel agencies, which increased between 21% and 67%, watches with an increase of 11%, and cosmetics and perfumery increasing by 38.0%.

Attacq was also able to contain property expenses in this portfolio over the six-month period and saw positive net growth in operating income.

Attacq’s interim results presentation also provided insight into Mall of Africa’s performance in the six-month period, which showed that the mall was in a strong financial position.

The property recorded a weighted average annual trading density growth of 4.1%.

In simple terms, trading density measures how much money a store makes per square meter of space in a mall. This measure helps assess how efficiently a retailer is using its space to generate sales.

In Mall of Africa’s case, its trading density grew by 2.9% to R4,571 per square meter.

Considering Mall of Africa has a gross lettable area of 131,038 m², it makes around R598.97 million per month.

The mall also boasts an impressive occupancy rate of 99.2% and a client retention rate of 84.5%.

The property’s reversions – rental increases or decreases when leases are renewed – showed 3.5% positive growth.

This impressive performance saw Mall of Africa’s valuation grow by 3.8% on a like-for-like basis, with the mall now valued at R34,700 per m².

According to Attacq’s website, Mall of Africa receives over 1.3 million visitors monthly.

A major milestone for Mall of Africa in the six-month period was becoming the largets retail mall globally to achieve EDGE Advanced Certification for sustainability.

Attacq said this certification positions Mall of Africa as a benchmark for environmentally responsible retail spaces.